Check out 10 facts from 'Chupa' that you can sink your teeth into

Apr. 5—Jonás Cuarón is at the helm of "Chupa," which begins to stream on Netflix on Friday, April 7.

Production on "Chupa" began in Aug. 2021 in New Mexico.

Crews filmed for months on location around the state — including Estancia, Zia Pueblo, Mesilla, Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

According to the New Mexico Film Office, the production is employing about 300 crew members and 650 background and extras from the state.

Here are 10 behind-the-scenes facts from the making of "Chupa:"

1. Talk about a first impression: When Nickolas Verdugo auditioned for the role of Memo, the first thing he did was a backflip.

2. Blue punch buggy: The blue Volkswagen Beetle that Chava crashes in the opening of the movie was based on the same blue Beetle director Jonás Cuarón grew up with in Mexico.

3. Dressing young actors in '90s-era clothes wasn't without its challenges. Says Cuarón, "I think the thing that Evan (Whitten) hated the most about the '90s was how baggy the pants were."

4. The Game Boy Alex is glued to early on in the movie was real and fully functioning, and Evan Whitten became hooked on playing it in between takes.

5. Maldita Vecindad, the band that plays "Pachuco," was one of Cuarón's favorite bands as a kid. Having grown up singing along to the song, hearing the cousins sing it in the car was extra fun.

6. True grit: Cuarón always knew the scene where the adult chupacabras attack Quinn, flapping their wings, would be very sandy and would likely require VFX. But in a strange coincidence, a sandstorm touched down as they arrived on location, giving the shots extra realism.

7. Demián Bichir's personal connection to lucha libre paid dividends in his performance as Chava — the actor spent a lot of his childhood in Mexico hanging around a wrestling arena.

8. "Chupa" was scored in Mexico, which allowed composer Carlos Rafael Rivera to use specific instrumentation like mariachi-style trumpets, as well as professional Zapateado dancers who lent their unique percussive talents to the film's score.

9. Animating Chupa was key to creating his personality, and Cuarón told animators to match what Alex was doing in the frame. "Chupa's personality comes a lot from mimicking Alex," he adds.

10. The animal wranglers had 30 goats on set. Six were specially trained to lie down and look like the victim of a chupacabra attack, do downward dog, and safely headbutt plexiglass windows.