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Rob Marby and I discuss filmmaking and his bucket list project, The Legend of El Chupacabra.

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Rob Mabry was born on November 22, 1966, in San Antonio, Texas.  He spent the better part of his youth in Bavaria (Germany), where his parents both worked for the US government.  He developed a love of movies at an early age through countless hours spent at Sunday matinees on the tiny Air Force base in Bad Aibling, Germany where he lived.  His father owned an 8mm movie camera and often enlisted his son in home movie projects.  The spark was lit.  

Mabry spent his formative years indulging his passion for storytelling.  He developed his own comic books, wrote plays for his friend’s to perform and when his dad was feeling generous; he borrowed the 8mm movie camera and experimented making movies.

In the eighties, Mabry enlisted in the US Army and joined a public affairs unit as a military journalist.  While highly regarded as a writer, he found the life of a soldier to be rigid and ill-suited to his non-conformist attitude.  Eventually, he and the Army would part ways.  

In his twenties, Mabry pursued a career as a screenwriter.  He wrote a number of spec scripts that garnered limited attention.  Living in Atlanta and outside the Hollywood system, prospects were dim and he resolved to focus on a career that would support his family.

 In 2017, Mabry signed up for the 48-Hour Film Project in San Antonio, a film race to write, shoot, edit and deliver a 4-7 minute short film in just two days.  He would go on to compete in a dozen more “48s” and complete over twenty short films ranging in length from three to thirty minutes, but the job wasn't finished.

Although his short films were recognized in multiple film festivals, earning laurels and awards along the way, the dream of making a feature-length film still burned.  Emerging from the fog of COVID, Mabry resolved to make the dream a reality and spent the next six months developing the script for his first feature film, “The Legend of El Chupacabra.”   (The Movie is now available on Tubi.)

The horror-comedy was financed through crowdfunding, personal funds and support from friends and family.  Filming was done mostly on the weekends in the fall of 2022 and a heavy load of post-production work and visual effects took up most of 2023.  The film had its local premiere in October of 2023 and debuted on DVD/Blu-ray on May 10, 2024.  The Legend of El Chupacabra will hit streaming platforms in the Summer of 2024.  

Mabry believes that there is a lesson in his journey to become a feature film writer/director.  He frequently shares his adage that “It is never too late to make your first movie.  It is never too late to live out your dream.”

Website: https://www.chupacabramovie.com/

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