Chupacabra: Dark Seas

Well, the Sci-Fi channel keeps churning these turkeys out... and they seem to get worse every time. When normally good actors like John Rhys-Davies and Giancarlo Espositto come off as rank amateurs, you can imagine how abysmal the REST of the cast in this waste-of-your-time effort is. The only halfway decent thing is the rubber outfit of the creature(which is glimpsed in such quick flashes that you don't really have time to see how phony it really is). The dialogue...the plot...if this "movie"(and I use the term loosely) was food, Jack-In-The-Box would be a gourmet meal compared to this. Watch a re-run of "The Munsters" for the 372nd viewing- your time would be better spent(and a lot scarier as well)!

This crackerjack horror movie concerns about the Cryptzoologist Doctor Peña(Giancarlo Esposito) traps a vicious monster inhabiting the Caribbean area, he's called the Chupacabra , Spanish for 'goat sucker' . Then , he smuggles it aboard the cruise ship . While being transported the monster is awakened and breaks out from the cargo hold . The monster is biped with humanoid shape, has reptilian skin, spines or quills on the back , muscular arms , large eyes, several sharp teeth and long extractor or tongue . The cruise ship is commanded by captain Randolph (John Rhys Davies) and aboard his daughter Jenny (Chelan Simmons), along with a Federal agent named Lance (Dylan Neal) and the Navy Seals commando intent on killing the weirdo thing . When Chupacabra begins a criminal spree and running rampant around the ship , they are forced to fight for their lives . The bulk of action surrounds their attempts to chase and escape from this bizarre creature , some weirdo in a latex suit.

The film packs bone-chilling action packed , thrill ride , suspense , terror and being quite entertaining. There is also a lot of gun play , several soldiers firing guns repeatedly for a long time . Contains lots of guts and blood , but it seems pretty mild compared to today cinema's gore feasts. The movie displays atmospheric blending of chills and scary thrills combined with a terrific ending . Lively cast includes illustrious veterans as John Rhys Davies at an inferior role despite his previous hits (Lord of the rings) and Giancarlo Esposito who long time ago left Spike Lee (Do the right thing , Mo'better blues , Malcolm X). Other movies about the creepy legend of Chupacabra are mostly Mexican films and is also starring one episode of X-files(Chris Carter), these are the following ones : Adventures of beyond : Chupacabra (1997) ; Guns of Chupacabra (1997, Donald Jackson) ; Bloodthirst , the legend of Chupacabra (2003) ; Bloodthirst 2 : Revenge of Chupacabra (2005) , among them.

I didn't know what to expect when I began watching Chupacabra on the Sci-Fi Channel, I've heard of the mythical creature through folklore, however after only a few moments I just couldn't pull myself away. Sure it was a Saturday night cheesy monster movie, but I wasn't really looking for it to be any more than that. As far as some of the special effects go, the design of the creature was definitely unique and different, I just wish the CG enhancement would have been better. I have seen a couple other versions of Chupacabra movies before and this one certainly had the best looking creature of them all. Kudos to the FX guys and Mr. Sheppard. Hope Sci-Fi replays this movie again so I can set my VCR and add this to my collection or maybe hope for a DVD release. All in all I enjoyed the movie very much and hope to see more creature movies come out of Regent Entertainment and Sci-Fi....

Without John Rhys-Davies, I have to admit that this would never even register on my movie-meter. But in spite of that single fact, this is not a bad little thriller, considering the low budget, the low quality effects, the stiff acting and the Sci Fi Channel aspects. The blood effects are very convincing, and the Chupacabra actually looks realistic... regardless of what you think a Chupacabra looks like this is one good-looking Chupacabra.

Aside from the positives, this runs kind of like Kolchak: The Night Stalker (Darren McGavin, remember?) meets the Love Boat, but in spite of the ultimate cheese of this work, it still holds something resembling a plot, and actually attempts to gain your respect while making you laugh and roll your eyes.

As conflicted as this work is, I still managed to find some enjoyment herein. Maybe you will, too.

It rates a 5.2/10 on the Made 4 TV Scale.

It rates a 4.1/10 on the Movie Scale from...

the Fiend :.

A Cryptozoologist captures a mythical chupacabra on a Caribbean island.To get it back to civilization he bribes his way onto the cargo bay of a large luxury cruise ship with funny and I think the script intended disastrous results.

Lets start with the one thing I really did not like about this movie.... The monster really just looked like a guy in a rubber suit.The CGI scenes looked like a different movie. OK thats off my chest now onto all the enjoyable bits about this B movie.

The best thing was John Rhys-Davies(his daughter the eye candy a close second.)John was intermittently funny and suave and no matter what the writers made him say, he said it well.Good job given what he had to work with.The Cyptozoologist was over the top and fun to watch too,he had some funny bits.The marines all were OK and make good cannon fodder for the monster as did some of the crew and guests.There are a few pretty funny lines in this movie,and a pretty amusing sub plot involving a thief.

The special effects are generally med to low and I swear they reused the same blood spray on the wall scene in about four different parts of the movie. I did like the gore of the legless man.Really since this movie was not scary at all I feel a bit more gore would have gone along way in improving the watch ability of this movie.

All in all if you like B monsters this one is worth a visit.