Ready to fall in love with a cuddly little Chupacabra? Because you will if you watch Netflix’s new film “Chupa.”
“Chupa” stars Evan Whitten as Alex, a kid living in the United States whose mom sends him to visit his grandfather (Demián Bichir) in Mexico for spring break. (This is in the early 1990s.) While in Mexico, he befriends a Chupacabra – an ancient creature from Mexican folklore, who he dubs Chupa. Together, he and his cousins hide Chupa and outwit a nefarious operative trying to capture the creature for use in the biomedical field (played, with scenery-chewing aplomb, by Christian Slater) and attempt to return Chupa to his family.
It’s a terrific little movie, clearly indebted to the Amblin movies of the 1980s and early 1990s, with some fun performances and an absolutely adorable creature in Chupa.
TheWrap spoke to director Jonás Cuarón, who talked about those reference points, figuring out how to film the creature and what drew him to his next directorial project – the “Spider-Man”-adjacent Sony movie “El Muerto,” starring Bad Bunny.
What movies were you looking at when putting “Chupa” together?
Well, look, this is a movie I did for my kids. And it was inspired by them. I’ve spent the last five years watching so many movies with them that I wanted to do a movie like that for them. I think the main movie that I was so impressed rewatching of how much I still love it, and how much they loved it was “E.T.” – there is “E.T.,” “Jurassic Park,” “Gremlins,” but “E.T.” particularly. I think it’s such a magical movie, that it was impossible in this movie not to make a constant homage to it, both in the way it was filmed and in the storytelling. I even left a couple Easter eggs throughout it.
A lot of movies are inspired by “Gremlins” but you actually had “Gremlins” writer Chris Columbus as a producer on this project. What was that experience like?
When the project came together, as I said, I was already looking for a movie that I could do for kids, and I think when the project came two things really interested me about the project. One was that I think what a lot of those movies were missing for me growing up is that they didn’t portray my context. I grew up in Mexico. And the opportunity with this movie to do a movie that was with magical creatures, but that was set in Mexico and the Mexican of the ‘90s was very exciting for me, because that was where I grew up and the time period where I grew up. But then the other part that I was immediately excited about was that I saw Chris Columbus was producing because yeah, as you said, amongst many of those movies that I’ve been rewatching with my kids were “Gremlins,” “Home Alone,” “The Goonies” so I was very excited to have him as a partner and as a mentor, because he really knows how to create that magic.
Did you ever think of making the creature a practical effect?
We explored it. And honestly, because Chris and I, we love that generation of cinema. We talked about animatronics and stuff. The thing was, to me, the thing that’s so magical about this type of movies is the relationship between the boy and the creature. And I immediately realized that having an animatronics creature was going to make the kid feel like he was acting with a puppet. And instead, we decided to bring this dog Harper, who was incredibly cute and super well-trained. Every scene Evan, who portrays Alex, is acting with Chupa, he was actually acting with Harper. And that immediately allowed me to get so much more emotion out of that their connection.
Can you talk about designing the Chupa creature?
I was very intrigued always by the fact that a lot of the descriptions of the sightings of the Chupacabra, when I was a kid, described him as a quadruped, like a dog, but also there were descriptions that described him as having wings. I always thought the idea of a quadruped-type mammal with wings was very interesting and in that design I didn’t want the wings to feel separate to the quadruped. It was always important that the fur was going to be interspersed with feathers. But beyond that, I think a lot of the design came from seeing kids interacting with animals. And obviously, a lot of the animals that you constantly see kids interacting with are dogs, so I did draw a lot of inspiration from one of my dogs, he has a floppy ear. And I saw how that immediately gave him the vulnerability that I was searching in Chupa. I think it’s important in Chupa, that the creature we see on screen is a cub, so he can be cute and relatable. But we know when the parents show up that they can be threatening and big, a little bit like bears. In that sense, I did draw inspiration from a lot of different animals to build the creature.
You have these amazing long shots where you follow Chupa as he’s scampering around the house. Did you ask your dad (“Roma” director Alfonso Cuarón) about pulling these off and did he try to talk you out of it?
I’ve always learned a lot from my dad, especially collaborating with him on “Gravity.” What I’ve learned the most from him is his love of watching movies. In that sense, a lot of the shots in “Chupa” are really inspired from watching Spielberg and many of his films from the Amblin era. The way he films and he can hold a shot so long silver, but you’d many times don’t notice it. It’s very magical. I kind a list of shots by Spielberg that I wanted to recreate. I hope we did all of them, but I’m sure we didn’t.
Your next movie is a Marvel project for Sony called “El Muerto.” If “Chupa” has Spielberg vibes what is the feeling you’re looking to achieve for your next film?
I more want to keep it a surprise because I think it’s a very exciting project. I’m very excited. So that one I prefer just keeping it a surprise.
Have you always been a fan of “Spider-Man?”
Well, for me, like the same way that “Chupa” comes from wanting to make a movie for my kids, that they really connect with, and seeing how Amblin movies really connected with them. It’s impossible to not come to terms with how my kids’ generation are really connected with those types of movies. When the possibility came up, that was definitely one factor that really excited me – being able to connect with my kids.
“Chupa” is streaming on Netflix.
