In “Chupa,” young Alex (Evan Whitten) visits his grandfather (Demián Bichir) in Mexico – and discovers a chupacabra, a Mexican mythical creature, in his barn. And that is not such a bloodsucking vampire as in the stories, but a very sweet creature that just wants to go home. But like ET, evil adults (led by Christian Slater) are out to get the visitor. So Alex has to protect the little creature with his cousin and his cousin.
“Chupa” is the new film from Jonás Cuarón (“Desierto”), the son of multiple Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity”, “Roma”). After his father directed a popular family movie with “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, he is recreating it – with the best possible support for it. Because “Chupa” is produced by family film specialist Chris Columbus – responsible for a classic like “Kevin – Home Alone” and also director of the first two “Harry Potter” films (“…and the Philosopher’s Stone”, ” .. . and the Chamber of Secrets”).
We haven’t seen “Chupa” yet, so we can’t say if it lives up to the promise of a fun family movie made in the trailer at the end of this article. But what absolutely does not fit in a nice family film is the title.
“Chupa” – anything but an adult title in Spain.
At first glance, it makes sense to simply abbreviate a movie about a chupacabra to “Chupa.” However, this short term in the Spanish language has long since taken on a meaning of its own that probably no one in the marketing team and Netflix had in mind. The writer Vanessa Angélica Villarreal drew attention to this on Twitter – her message has long since gone viral and caused much hilarity on the internet.
Yes, “Chupa” is a term in Spanish that even has its own and probably very popular category on every porn portal. Let’s put it this way: when you’re in the mood for certain male-indulgent oral sex videos, you search for “chupa” in Spain. When we asked ChatGPT what “Chupa” means, the main answer we got, besides the meaning of the word in some African languages, was that it was “a vulgar term for fellatio”. Villarreal also points out that small children should not google the word.
After all: if you use the most famous search engine in the world, which is used in this note as a synonym for the verb “search”, fortunately the hits should not spit out porn sites in Spain and South America either, thanks to Safe Search settings – but instead, alongside results for the Netflix movie in particular, a well-known Spanish lollipop maker (and no, it’s no coincidence that the Spanish term for blowjob is similar to that of a popular lollipop).
The somewhat unfortunate choice of title does not pose a major risk to the well-being of children, even in Spanish-speaking countries – at least not in the rest of the world such as Germany. It’s damn funnywhich is why Villarreal’s tweet and similar comments are making waves on social media.
You can watch “Chupa” on Netflix from April 7, 2023.