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)!

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....

Cryptozoologist Dr. Pena (Giancarlo Esposito) finally captures his long-sought-after chupacabra specimen on a Caribbean island. He has plans to transport it back to civilization, and tries to smuggle it as cargo on a luxury cruise ship with disastrous results.

While there's little ingenuity to the plot--just by hearing the premise and seeing a cast list, most genre fans could fill in the blanks, Chupacabra: Dark Seas is a fairly enjoyable film that obviously does not take itself too seriously and has little pretension to being a masterpiece. While it's nowhere near as funny as it maybe should be given that kind of self-awareness (think Lake Placid (1999) or any number of Troma films), it still earned a 7 out of 10 from me.

7 out of 10s, in my way of looking at scores, are equivalent to the grade of "C", or in other words, they're just average. Basically, they're doing as many things wrong as they're doing right. Let's look at the flaws first: The strangest flaw, especially given the Sci-Fi Channel's other recent original films (like the very good Larva (2005)) is that director John Shepphird never manages to rise above a "made for television" feel. Add that the film is set on a cruise ship, and it's suddenly just a monster on "The Love Boat" (1977).

While the dialogue doesn't take itself very seriously, at times it is a bit too hokey for its own good. Also, in that context, most of the clichés (and there are a lot of them) would be better spoofed than played seriously, as they are.

Like far too many post-Predator films, the Chupacabra has fluorescent green blood.

There is a bit of a Starship Troopers-angle, but again it's not taken far enough. It would have been better as a spoof.

Captain Randolpp (John Rhys-Davies, in an incredible casting coup) has an incongruous daughter--a kind of "Bimbo Buffy" who is too ridiculous in context to take seriously, but not quite ridiculous enough to be really funny. She is a pleasure to look at, of course, and that was probably the point.

Speaking of ridiculous, the plot is occasionally so. For example, a "Starship Trooper" throws a grenade in a small room full of explosive materials, and right at people he is trying to save. Or, a guy at the Navy station is able to spot three survivors from the ship in his binoculars, even though it was stated that the ship was 10 miles out to sea from the station.

There are some funny low-budget moves, such as milking the fire suit for all it's worth. It's one those things where you can hear them saying, "We paid for the suit and this stuntman; we're damn well going to show every frame of footage".

However, the film did just as many things right: Even though the plot is predictable, full of clichés and so on, it usually works. There aren't too many illogical moves, and it is entertaining if not suspenseful.

Surprisingly, there were a lot of accuracies about cruise ships. I worked on cruise ships as a musician for a few years a while ago, and Chupacabra: Dark Seas captures the feel of a real ship enough that it uncovered some long-buried memories for me. There were also many subtle, spot-on jokes about cruise ship culture.

I was actually impressed with the creature. I liked the costume a lot. Although it's becoming a bit clichéd and doesn't exactly make sense in this context, I also thought the jerky cgi-movement was cool.

There was a nice amount of well-done gore, especially considering that this is a film made for the Sci-Fi Channel, and one fantastic body-cut-in-half scene.

I thought the ship effects were done well (it seemed to be a combination of cgi and miniatures). I loved a couple of the cgi sky effects, and occasionally, we were treated to great cinematography.

The performances were better than they needed to be for a film of this caliber. Some had just the right balance of campiness and seriousness. It's just too bad that I can't say that about the film overall.

The bottom line: Chupacabra: Dark Seas is definitely worth watching as long as you lower your expectations and just expect to have fun with a predictable, slightly tongue-in-cheek, goofy creature flick.

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.

Dr. Pena (Giancarlo Esposito), a "crypto-zoologist" (fancy term for one of those self-deluded losers who likes to study extremely rare - read: nonexistent - animals) and his crew of hunters manage to trap a Chupacabra, a big, scaly, elusive fast-moving beast. To get it to the mainland, they smuggle it on a Grecian cruise ship and some idiots open up the crate containing it despite being told specifically not to. I guess the strange growling noises coming from inside weren't a good enough deterrent either. The monster then does the monster thang; running around biting chunks out of various passengers until the ship's captain (John Rhys-Davies), a square-jawed special agent pretending to be an insurance salesman for some reason (Dylan Neal), a squeaky-voiced blonde Tai Bo instructor (Chelan Simmons), a bunch of guys with machine guns and others try to stop it. The main victims (who I think are supposed to be the comic relief but it's hard to tell) are an old rich bitch (Paula Shaw) with a yippy terrier and a snobby effete gold-digger (David Millbern). Apparently the monster can be knocked out with a single tranquilizer dart, but can live through dozens of bullet hits. The Chupacabra design is acceptable (though unoriginal) but the rest of the movie is devoid of suspense, surprise or interest. A boring Sci-Fi Channel "original" movie; they've made dozens of movies just like this with nearly interchangeable characters and plots, but with slight alterations on the creature. Enough already!