It might be a furry, family-friendly visitor in Netflix’s latest fantasy flick, but the origins of chupacabra span decades of myth, fear and blood
For some viewers, Netflix’s Chupa probably looks like an enchanting fantasy adventure film akin to Steven Spielberg’s ET – The Extra-Terrestrial or animated classics Lilo & Stitch and The Iron Giant. However, its origins have a much more sinister backstory than one would expect in a family movie.
In Chupa, while visiting his family in Mexico, Alex (Evan Whitten) discovers that a chupacabra is living inside his grandfather Chava’s (Demian
Bichir) shed. This is rather a big deal since the chupacabra is a mythical creature that Chava said doesn’t exist.
Chava is incredibly protective of the chupacabra, who Alex and his cousins name Chupa, for good reason.
American hunter Quinn (Christian Slater) wants to capture Chupa, which forces Alex to protect him. Along the way, the pair bond and Alex looks to teach Chupa how to fly and protect himself before Quinn can get his hands on him. But while Jonas Cuaron – who previously wrote the Oscar-winning Gravity alongside his father Alfonso – directs an original script from Marcus Rinehart, Sean Kennedy Moore and Joe Barnathan, Chupa’s real beginnings date back to the mid-1970s.
There were decades-old rumours from Puerto Rican farmers about unseen creatures killing hoards of their livestock. In 1975, in the tiny town of Moca, a number of animal deaths were blamed on this unknown and unnamed creature. Over the next 20 years, the legend of the chupacabra began to spread.
People insisted that these monster-like creatures would hide in the forests and then attack goats. They would then allegedly drain the blood of their victims and leave their deflated carcasses uneaten.
Then, in 1995, the death of about 150 animals over the course of a few months in Canovanas was specifically attributed to the chupacabras
and the myth exploded. But the chupacabras didn’t just come in one size. As well as reports of larger creatures that, when they stood up on their hind legs, resembled and even moved around like a kangaroo, there were also rumoured to have been sightings of much smaller versions that looked more like a dog.
Then there are some people who say the chupacabra is covered in hair, while others believe that its skin is much more like that of a lizard.
There are even differing reports of the creature’s spine. According to one group, they have sharp spikes that look a little like a dicraeosaurus.
Others believe that their bones visibly protrude from their backs. In all circumstances, the chupacabras have razor-sharp teeth – after all, they’re basically the animal version of a vampire.
The chupacabra rumours haven’t been localised to Central America though. There have been reported sightings of them all the way up in the north-east of America in Maine, while people have supposedly spotted them as far south as Chile. Even inhabitants of Russia and the Philippines have insisted that they’ve come across the chupacabra, too.
Naturally, there are a wide variety of rumours regarding how chupacabras came to be. The most sensationalised stories range from them being escaped animal experiments to the pets of aliens.
Wherever they came from, chupacabras have become popular in Mexico over the past 30 years. The chupacabras’ explosion in popularity hasn’t diminished by reports the deaths allegedly have been explained by veterinarians. Not only have most of the deceased not actually bled to death, but the most probable explanation is that people are seeing dogs suffering from a severe case of mange, a skin disease caused by parasites.
Plus, the original eyewitness to the mass animal deaths in Puerto Rico in 1995 had seen Species shortly before describing the creature. Her detailed breakdown of what the chupacabra looked like matched the aliens from the sci-fi horror film.
It’s rather fitting then that another movie is set to help take the legend of the chupacabra to new heights.
Thanks to the global availability of Netflix and Cuaron’s family-friendly approach to the story, you can fully expect there to be new sightings of chupacabras the world over as Chupa is out now.