In Chupacabra Territory, a young documentary crew
goes into the woods to document a local legend and then is never heard from
again. Their footage, however, is recovered. Sound familiar? Yes, because it’s
exactly the same stupid shit that all of these films give us. It opens with
title cards telling us, “In 2013, the FBI released footage by four campers
who went missing in the North Pinewood territory” and, of course, “Police
recovered several video cameras, their bodies remain undiscovered.” Then
Joe, before their trip into the woods, talks about how four experienced campers
hiked into the area and three days later were reported missing. Those aren’t
the four this movie is about, however. Joe and three friends go into the area,
hoping to document the presence of the chupacabra, and they are the four that
are the subject of this film. Joe has a strange book that is supposedly made of
chupacabra skin and contains spells for contacting the creature. No word on how
he obtained such a book. He is accompanied by Amber, who is completely gung-ho
about the project and is clearly a little nuts; Dave, who mans the camera and
is almost never seen; and Morgan, who introduces himself by saying he hates
camping, dirt, cameras and chupacabras. He claims to be there because of his
good looks “and of course my giant dong.”
A gas station attendant gives them information about the
local legends and relates how he happened to personally see the chupacabra. He
also draws a map for them, showing them the site where the other four people
had camped. The map is like a child’s sketch, and it’s completely unbelievable
that anyone could follow it, but that really doesn’t matter. They next
encounter a park ranger, who tells them the trail is closed and that they have
to go back. He says, “Trees are dying, falling all over, coyotes have been
found dead, pieces of them found spread everywhere.” Great dialogue. Amber
and Joe see this as evidence of a conspiracy. Amber says: “I feel like
there’s a lot of mystery in this forest. I feel like people really want to help
us, but they’re just too afraid to really talk.” What? They’ve met a total
of two people, one of whom not only talked, but drew them a map. Not a good
map, granted, but a map nonetheless.
Each of the four friends straps a camera to his or her
head, ensuring plenty of shaky camera work. And they – against the warnings of
the park ranger – head up the trail. I do appreciate that they point out a
misspelling on a trail sign: “TRALHEAD.” I wonder if that was in the script, or
if someone in the art department made a mistake and the actors decided to play
with it. By the way, even though they all have cameras now, we still mainly get
Dave’s perspective for some reason. (The reason is that he is the director of
photography, and not really an actor.) On the trail, they meet three hikers who
are looking for their friend Bobby. (So in this land, apparently people can
only camp in groups of four.) They go their separate ways, promising to meet up
later. And then suddenly we get footage from those three hikers, because one of
them has a camera. It’s ridiculous that they are suddenly filming everything too,
but they have to because this is a “found footage” film. However, there is a
fun moment when they play a prank on the park ranger. There are actually some
good moments in this movie. I like when a camera catches something that their
eyes did not – a cool touch.
Suddenly Amber declares that the other campers are in
trouble. Apparently, Amber has psychic abilities. And then the film cuts back
and forth between their campsite and the campsite of those three hikers (four,
once Bobby returns). So who is responsible for that sort of editing in the
story of this film? The FBI? Well, those hikers have only one camera, so they’d
better place it in just exactly the right spot to catch everything. Of course,
I don’t believe for a second that they would leave the camera running, set at
the perimeter of their camp and aimed into the camp. It’s completely
ridiculous. But how else can the filmmakers show us what’s happening at that
other camp? Oh, I’ve got a solution: don’t make found footage films. But hey,
it’s a good thing that girl landed right in front of that one camera – not
once, not twice, but three times. Another problem with these movies is that
people inexplicably continue to film once things have gone really wrong, which
is never believable. And yet another problem is that you know from the
beginning how these movies will end. After all, no one ever comes back to tell
the tale. But this movie does provide a few jolts, a few scares. The creature
is pretty cool, and is used sparingly. And, rare as it is for this type of
film, the cast actually isn’t bad. The film stars Sarah Nicklin as Amber,
Michael Reed as Joe, and Alex Hayek as Morgan.
Special Features
The DVD includes two behind-the-scenes featurettes. The
first includes interviews with cast members Michael Reed, Sarah Nicklin, Elliot
Book, Alex Hayek and Megan Hensley, as well as production footage. The second
features interviews with some key crew members, including director Matthew
McWilliams, executive producer Christopher D. Maltauro and editor Carlos
Ramirez. Interestingly, the story for this movie came about from a camping trip
that Matthew McWilliams took with some friends, where he shot footage of them
pretending they were looking for the chupacabra.
The special features also include a photo gallery and the
film’s trailer.
Chupacabra Territory was directed by Matthew
McWilliams, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD on April 11, 2017.
(Note: I also posted a slightly different review of this
movie on my Good Things About Bad Movies blog.)
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