One of these days, Netflix will get a solid handle on the fantasy genre, but Chupa indicates that we’re a long way away from reaching the point where the streaming service fully embraces and understands adventures rooted in myth and legend.
On one side of the coin, there are literally dozens of original TV shows that gathered passionate fandoms, only for the company to pull the plug and infuriate them countless times over. On the other, though, there are eminently forgettable blockbusters that aren’t much more than a flash in the pan, with The School for Good and Evil, Project Power, and Night Shift merely three expensive recent examples.
Director Jonás Cuarón’s family-friendly romp doesn’t give off the impression that it broke the bank, but when you consider that Noah Baumbach’s White Noise and Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye reportedly cost roughly $75 million apiece, there’s no way to guess just how much cash was funneled into Netflix’s newest instant success story.
Per FlixPatrol, Chupa has failed to dislodge Adam Sandler’s two Murder Mystery outings at the summit, but it has at least secured third spot on the worldwide watch-list after debuting on the Top 10 in an impressive 85 countries around the world. The story finds 13 year-old Alex meeting his extended family in Mexico for the very first time, where he stumbles upon a chupacabra.
Essentially a boy and his dog story with a monster of myth and legend swapped in, Chupa doesn’t bring anything new to the table, but that’s what we’ve come to expect from Netflix’s Hollywood originals at this stage.
