“Chupa” is quite the title, isn’t it?
When Netflix announced the upcoming film, internet users had a field day, reacting with cheeky comments about the title.
The fantasy family movie tells the tale of a mythical creature, the Chupacabra—that’s what the title is short for. The folklore monster, a bloodsucking creature, is a popular figure in Latin American legends.
Netflix is making the chupacabra friendlier and more adorable in the new flick, as it makes pals with Alex, a kid from Kansas City visiting family in Mexico. Together with his cousins, Alex keeps the creature safe from an evil scientist.
The chupacabra derives its name from the Spanish words “chupar” which means “to suck” and “cabra” meaning “goat.” Since the movie title takes away the end part of the name, it leaves the mythical beast with a name translating to “suck.”
Filipinos, as well as Latin Americans, began to laugh at the title because of the sexual innuendos surrounding the word.
“A film by Viva Max,” one netizen wrote in the comments.
“As a Filipino citizen, I laughed [for real],” said another.
did they know that “chupa” means blowjob in tagalog 😭😭😭 https://t.co/LJCwxAxcrz
— lex (@f4ggotism) March 14, 2023
Latin Americans have also raised their concerns about the title because kids might end up googling the word and see NSFW results.
Imagine the sheer amount of people this title went through at @netflix all the way to “release promo movie poster” for no one to tell them that you can’t shorten the word “chupacabra” with “chupa” because it literally means “to suck off” … like kids should not google this word https://t.co/A3vSEOG5cJ
— El Norte Recuerda (@Vanessid) March 14, 2023
Making a chupacabra movie and calling it just "Chupa" apparently not knowing that if you take away the "cabra" context it's just a sexual word it's the most gringo thing I've seen today https://t.co/Er8ZLjs5bL
— ren nolasco 🗡️ (@ren_nolasco) March 14, 2023
Chupa, directed by Jonás Cuarón (Gravity), is coming to Netflix on April 7.
