‘Chupa’ Review: A Family Adventure with Mexican Flavor

The terror of making a family film is to end up with a story that feels incomplete. Most movies in the genre do the bare minimum when it comes to exploring their worlds and their characters. This is why there are just so few great family films being made. Yes, most of them are watchable, but how many of them will really stay in people’s minds long after the credits roll? Not many. Finding that one amazing family film is quite a hard task, and streaming services like Netflix have not made it any easier. Chupa is the latest attempt at making a great family film.

Chupa is a film directed by Jonas Cuaron and starring Damián Bichir, Evan Whitten, Christian Slater, Ashley Ciarra, and Nickolas Verdugo. The film tells the story of Alex, a young kid living in the USA after his mother moved there from Mexico. Alex lives in the middle of it all by not being considered American enough by his peers but also not being very interested in his Mexican heritage. When Alex travels to Mexico to meet his family, he encounters a fantastical creature known as the chupacabra that will change his life forever.

Chupa is a very strange movie, and at the same time, it is also extremely convenient, to the point that it might become quite boring as you are watching. It is a strange movie because it takes this urban legend from the 1990s and turns it into a How to Train Your Dragon type of situation while also dealing with serious subjects such as immigration, death, and identity. It all sounds very good on paper, but when it comes to the execution, Chupa becomes a very tame and predictable film. One that has been done many times before.

You have seen this movie before. A kid finds a dog with special abilities; it is good at sports, it can speak, or it is the resurrection of a loved one, you name it. Then the kid learns to love the dog and needs to let it go to grow emotionally. This is the same thing you will find in Chupa. Jonas Cuaron is very much not near his father’s level when it comes to being a director. He tries, but there is something that just feels quite generic, unlike his father, who pretty much has his own identifiable style.

So, with a story that feels just so generic, what is there in Chupa that stands out from all the rest? There isn’t much, sadly. The characters are all quite thin, and the motivations are always there on a surface level. This genre is often seen as shallow for a reason, and Chupa is an example of why. There are several emotional cruxes throughout the movie, but none of them hit very hard because they feel forced and incomplete. You have to do more than just tell a sad story to make people feel. You have to show them and connect with them on their level.

Chupa has had enough of staying on the surface and never diving deep into anyone’s feelings. No more than they have to. There are some cool moments as the movie moves to Mexico, and we can explore a bit of the culture on that side of the country. Still, it all feels quite stereotypical, and we know that going deeper inside a culture lets us see so much more than just what is being represented in these stereotypes. Chupa doesn’t really care to reflect a more realistic vision of Mexico, so we get stereotypical Mexico throughout the entire film.

The performances are fine. Bichir does what he does best and delivers an endearing character trying to connect with his grandson. The character might be a bit too over the top, though, and at times, you can see why Alex is not interested in connecting with the man. The rest of the cast is mostly composed of kids who are passable at best as actors. Evan Whitten is our main protagonist, but he is definitely not the best actor of the bunch. He has zero presence on screen, unlike his peers, Ciarra and Verdugo, who steal the show.

When it comes to visuals, the movie feels very much like many other high-budget Netflix affairs. There is no identity when it comes to the visual language of the film. It is all very TV-like and has no passion. This might be a bit harsh to say, as I’m sure everyone who worked on the movie did it with passion and the intention of making the best possible film. However, that passion gets lost in translation, and the result feels like a production done by a committee. The movie is watchable, but it is completely forgettable.

In terms of visual effects, you can see that this is where most of the budget went to. The creature is quite cute, and the visual effects are quite solid. Sometimes there is definitely the feeling that the creature was just copied and pasted onto a scene, as the level of interaction with the creature and its surroundings is minimal. However, these moments don’t detract from the creature and its overall presence. It might not be the most original-looking creature ever, but it does the job.

In the end, Chupa feels like another failed attempt at making a family film that can transcend the conventions and perceptions of the genre. We end up with a movie that can be seen from miles away regarding its plot and characters. Kids might enjoy it for the creature, but there might be nothing else for them here. As the movie progresses, it seems like it is aimed more and more at the parents and their feelings of nostalgia, but parents could have a hard time getting to that point or even caring about it. There are better things to watch out there.

SCORE: 6/10