The fear of things that don't exist.

I used to work with a guy who thought that supernatural forces, be they ghost or demons, would try to attack while he slept. He'd wake up, and "see" this shadowy presence lurking over him, pinning him to his bed. But he could only lie there in horror, unable to move. For centuries, people have had similar tales, and they often believed that an incubus or succubus hovered over them, trying to violate their souls. 

We now know that they most likely suffered from sleep paralysis, and what they saw were not demons, but hallucinations. But before modern science had an diagnosis for the horror they had to ordeal night after night, they came up with a tale to try to explain what they thought was unexplainable. They created a myth. 

Much like the legends of the succubus, or those of the Greco-Roman gods, El Chupacabra is  a myth. So I guess in a rather roundabout fashion, that takes us back to the quote I mentioned previously, "El Chupacabra symbolizes the fear of things that don't exist." Or put another way, the tale of El Chupacabra is an attempt to explain that which we can logically not. So I got to thinking again, how this title that I had fallen in love with quite randomly could lead to a story...

Well, what if there was a person who decided, consciously or otherwise, to turn himself, figuratively speaking, into a Chupacabra? What if someone created their own myth to explain things that they otherwise couldn't understand? There was the connection I was looking for. And with that, a story was born. 

Now, I feel like I'd be a bit of a chump if I rambled on about what this story's about in any specific terms...so I won't. I'll drop hints, talk about some of the inspirations and influences behind the story and maybe even post a couple script pages here and there. We'll see what happens. 

But I will talk about one specific influence right now because it deals very much with the idea of myth. Around the time I was brainstorming much of this stuff, I was totally enamored with Andrew Dominick's "The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford." And to those you haven't seen it, run and get a copy immediately. You won't be disappointed. Hell, I'll embed the trailer below if you'd like a taste. The film deals extensively with the themes of hero worship and the construction and destruction of myth...but enough of my rambling. Just do yourself a favor and watch it.