Overrated

Better than most people think

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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 a Navy Seals command 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 is quite entertaining. There is also a lots 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 veterans as John Rhys Davies in an inferior role despite his previous hits(Lord of the rings) and Giancarlo Esposito who long time ago left to Spike Lee(Do the right thing,Mo'better blues, Malcolm X). Another movies about legend of Chupacabra are mostly Mexican films and is also starring one episode of X files(Chris Carter), these are the following : 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.

Despite the bad acting, the horrible monster makeup, the fake blood, and some over rated death scenes I liked this movie. Why? Because there are very few stupid people in this movie or at least among the main characters, the insane scientist not included. Point one - the Captain, He is calmly in command at all times. Instead of doing the classic freak out he calmly a] calls for good back up (bad acting aside Navy SEALs are damn good backup in real life) b] manages to not only get the back up there and prepared but also c] has proof when they get there. This is my favorite part. He didn't radio saying that's a monster on board no he said something he knew they'd respond to. That's great. Point two - Jenny, on one hand she didn't stay in her room, listen to her father, or evacuate when she was told. On the other hand she knew how and more importantly when to use the gun and literally kicked monster ass. You can't deny her suddenly punching and kicking the monster efficiently wasn't damn amusing and effective (short-term anyway). The rest can be flamed all you want but the Captain and his daughter kicked serious ass for not being complete idiots of the normal standard you find in monster movies.

The characters in this flick where way more mature than the cast of "Sabertooth" (I had watched that earlier the same day on the Sci-Fi Channel); I found myself more able to believe that they were a crew and passengers in danger. John Rhys-Davies was the bomb in this and I even liked the daughter (who could come second to Fay Wray in terms of piercing screams). The villain Pena was somewhat more humane until the last few minutes he was around. The crook was slick and his last moments and the viciousness of the beast (not his looks) were the real shock of this movie. Another shock was poor Jeffrey--felt pity for the little guy; however, I saw his whiny mistress's fate a mile off. She was the only element I thoroughly disliked in the whole film along with the blood looking like chili.

In general, I prefer horror movies that creep me out so much I'm afraid of everything for the next day or so, not the ones where people act stupid and get killed by an indestructible monster. This is one of those movies. The chupacabra of legend is a dog-faced lizard-skin greenish-gray monster that hops like a kangaroo, has fangs and claws, has a row of sharp spines sticking out from its back, and sucks the blood of livestock. As in many horror movies, good and bad, this movie takes liberty with the legend. It not only attacks humans, but it eats their intestines and has a bulletproof, nearly indestructible constitution. So tell me, how can a hypodermic needle penetrate its skin when bullets can't? And why, when the marines figure out that armor-piercing bullets can hurt it, do they split up so the chupacabra can pick them off one by one? John Rhys-Davies gives a performance that rises above the bad movie, and Chelan Simmons and Dylan Neal deserve credit for their performances, too. Otherwise, the rest of the acting was poor to bad, just like the rest of the movie. My rating is based on Rhys-Davies, Simmons and Neal.