I’ve said before that I’m a sucker for creature features and the like. But is it weird that when I heard that Alastair Orr’s Indigenous involved a Chupacabra, I could only think back to that episode of Futurama where Bender comes face to face with the mutant known as El Chupanibre? Odd way to start a review for Indigenous, I know. The creature known as “goat sucker” deserves better, dammit! Perhaps with this review, and with the film hitting VOD on December 8th, it’ll make up for it?

Before beginning the reality that is life, five friends — couple Scott (Zachary Soetenga) and Steph (Lindsey McKeon), Elena (Sofia Pernas), Charlie (Jamie Anderson) and Trevor (Pierson Fode) — meet in Panama for a vacation. While spending the time partying and checking out the country, the group hears about a particular waterfall from a local girl named Carmen (Laura Penuela) deep in the jungle that’s quite the sight. However, the group also hears from Carmen’s friend Julio (Juanxo Villaverde) about how said waterfall is off-limits due to the legend of the blood-sucking creature known as the Chupacabra. Ignoring these warnings, the group sets off to find this landmark. However, upon finding the waterfall, the group realizes that they should’ve heeded those warnings.

I have heard the comparisons made my many people about how Indigenous shares many similarities with Neil Marshall’s The Descent, and I can definitely see them. Both films involve a group of naïve young people poking around a cave where they find bones and a bogeyman that has a taste for human flesh. Like The Descent, Indigenous also evokes a great sense of isolation. However, instead of the claustrophobia of a cave, this time it’s the never-ending sea of green foliage in the jungle at night. True, there are a handful of scenes where members of the group are stuck in a cave with only a lighter or a flashlight, but the film is predominantly jungle-based. That, coupled with the quick cuts of the attacks where the only light source is a flashlight, really sets the scares up nicely. Orr also decided to throw in a bit of subtext involving the morality of media in the face of a tragedy when Soetenga’s character uploads a video of their predicament to the internet. It’s an interesting touch, but felt oddly out of place.

As for the Chupacabra itself, the comparisons to the Crawlers in The Descent also pop up. Really, the Chupacabra in this film shares a very similar design: skinny, pale, hairless with dagger-like teeth. It doesn’t totally look exactly like the creatures from The Descent (it looks closer to CHUD, actually), but I couldn’t help but make the comparison, myself. It still looks pretty good from the glimpses that we do get of the baddie, as Orr again uses that tried-and-true method of giving the audience only quick glimpses of the creature when it attacks to keep our interest and heighten the tension. However, things start to fall down when you realize that many of these quick cuts involve the much-loved and totally-not-overdone technique of shaking the camera.

That’s a minor problem when you look at the most glaring of issues facing Indigenous. I’ve said that many people have compared this to The Descent. I’ve explained shared similarities between these two films. Starting to get a pattern here? There’s more. Remember the famous night-vision shot from The Descent? We get one here, too. In fact, we get two of them, although the second one is without night vision, but the setup of showing the monster lurking right behind one of the hapless individuals for the most of brief of seconds is there. There’s also a scene where a character is stuck in the cave and has to bandage a grievous wound to their leg, not unlike the compound fracture scene from The Descent. If you haven’t figured it out, Indigenous looks and feels very much like The Descent to the point that there’s very little in the way of difference between the films. Aggravating things even more are the characters in Indigenous, who are very much one-note. No attachment, no defining characteristics to differentiate them from one another, no cares to give what happens to them. It also doesn’t help that they make the typical stupid decisions because plot happens.

So yes, Indigenous, despite having some slight differences, really feels like nothing more than a giant copy of The Descent, with the added annoyance of characters who you couldn’t care less whether they lived or died. The creature design likewise feels uninspired, and the use of shakycam when it attacks is downright frustrating. If you enjoyed Neil Marshall’s 2005 hit, you’re likely to get some enjoyment out of Indigenous, even though you’ve already seen all there is to see. If you’re not a fan of The Descent, or are looking for a creature feature that’s isn’t so derivative as this, you’d best look elsewhere.