I am glad to find out that some franchises don’t have
remakes and are instead choosing to do their reboots with sequels instead of a
remake that retcons the other films out of existence.
There are some of the sequels that take the franchise to a
new direction and then the reboot is used to make the films frightening again.
Curse of Chucky is a rare example of a franchise that
manages to give it’s self a reboot and return to it’s original scares without
the use of a remake.
Now first off Let us go into details on the exploits of
Charles Lee Ray.
Child’s Play was released by United Artists in 1988 with
much fanfare. At first the marketing of the film focused on the frightened
patrons and not on the villain of the film. Much of the marketing consisted of
moviegoers standing outside of the theatre talking about how frightened while
watching the movie.
The plot of Child’s Play followed Karen Barclay (Catherine
Hicks) who gives her son Andy (Alex Vincent) a Good Guy Doll which is the toy
that is all the rage at the time. What Karen does not know is that the doll is
possessed by the spirit of Serial Killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) who was
killed by detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) before his demise transferred
his soul into the body of the Doll.
After Chucky begins to murder people that
don’t suspect the truth about him he learns that he has to transfer his soul
into Andy’s Body so that he does not have to stay in the body of the doll which
is beginning to become human and bleeding and such.
With Norris’ help Karen manages to defeat Chucky by burning
him to a crisp and saving her son.
Childs Play was written by Don Mancini and directed by Genre
Veteran Tom Holland.
Special Effects by Kevin Yagher who not only married Hicks
after meeting on the set has also gone on to be one of the designers of the
Crypt Keeper as well as Freddy Kruger and Directed Hellraiser: Bloodline.
Chucky was also created utilizing giant sets with a midget
dressed as Chucky for the scenes where Chucky was running alone in the shot but
Chucky was mostly animatronic.
I feel that one of the reasons for the appeal of this film
is many people’s fear of Dolls. This fear goes along well with the fear of
Clowns that go back to many people’s childhoods.
I liked the fact that the film combined this fear with the Mass Consumerism of the 1980s.
A year after the release of Child’s Play the franchise
rights as well as the characters were sold to Universal Studios. This was
brought on because UA was recently sold and the new owner did not want to
release Horror films.
Universal was fast to utilize their newest asset by
producing Child’s Play 2 and 3 simultaneously to be released Back to Back.
Unlike its predecessor when Child’s Play 2 was released in
1990 the Add Campaign featured Chucky front and center and even featured
commercials with Chucky destroying a Jack in the Box with the line “Sorry Jack,
Chucky’s Back”
While Mancini remained on as a writer Tom Holland did not
direct any more films in the franchise.
The only character to return from the original besides
Chucky is young Andy Barklay who is again played by Alex Vincent.
Taking place two years after the events of the first film
the company that owns the Good Guy Dolls has had much bad publicity and are
trying to re-launch the line to recoup their losses. This has included
rebuilding Chucky from head to toe and after the death of a technician Chucky
kidnaps a young executive and after successfully locating Andy Chucky begins to
stalk his former pal.
Since the end of the first film Karen has been institutionalized
and Andy is sent by home to live with a foster family and their other foster
child Kyle the cynical product of CPS.
After a series of events with Chucky and the death of the
foster parents Andy is taken back to the home and eventually Kyle learns the
truth behind Chucky, who soon kidnaps her to take him to Andy where they face
off against Chucky in the Good Guy Doll Factory.
Childs Play 2 and 3 were basically filmed simultaneously and
as a result the decision was made for the franchise to skip ahead eight years
and Andy is now 16 years and has made the decision to attend Kent Military
Academy where after the Good Guy Corporation has once again rebuilt Chucky
after his blood enters a vat of plastic and Chucky is once again on the killing
path tracking Andy to the Academy where he decides instead of taking Andy’s
body he chooses the young Tyler as his next host.
Andy who is in the process of
trying to adapt to life on the Academy where he is the subhect to bullying and
Hazing by the upper classmen eventually faces off against Chucky in a carnival
Dark ride where Andy succeeds in throwing Chucky into a giant fan and chopping
him to ribbons. The last that we see of Andy is him being placed into the back
of a police car
Since Andy is now 16 the role had been recast to and future
Jimmy Olsen player Justin Whalin took on the role. Like many of the Child’s Play films part 3
also features a great supporting cast including Perry Reeves who would go on to
the role of Mrs. Ari on Entourage.
Genre veteran Andrew Robinson has a small role as Sergeant
Botnick. Robinson is known to fans as Scorpio in the original Dirty Harry and
had the memorable role of Larry/Frank Cotton in the original Hellraiser.
Child’s Play 3 was met with issues in the UK where after the
brutal murder of young James Bulger at the hands of two 10 year olds and the
investigation revelaed that one of their fathers had in fact rented Child’s
Play 3 and since the killers tortured Bulger with Blue Paint and there is a
scene where Chucky is shot with a Blue paintball gun the authorities in the UK
decided that the murder and the movie were connected. Child’s Play 3 was added
to the list of films that were banned in England, which was eventually lifted.
The franchise was also blamed for the murder 16 year old
Suzanne Capper in 1992.
I think that due to these incidents and the lowered appeal
of genre films in the mid-1990s the franchise was viewed as all but dead in the
time and eventually with the popularity of the film Scream many Genre films
began appearing back in theatres.
In October of 1998 Chucky returned to theatres and while the
Child’s Play title was dropped, Chucky had a new look and he was not alone this
time.
Jennifer Tilly joins the franchise at this point in the
title role in Bride of Chucky.
Like many Horror franchises when the franchise at that point
where they are in their forth film and begins to turn more towards comedy
rather than horror. Now I have to point out that Chucky since the beginning did
in fact have some comedy elements.
The first film features a scene where Chuck is in an
elevator with an elderly couple that remarks on how ugly Chucky is to which he
responds with a “FUCK YOU”. One of the better scenes in Part 3 is the scene where Chucky
jumps out at a the Colonel screaming and
brandishing a knife.
The film begins with a evidence storage in a unnamed police
station which also featured Many
infamous horror props from other franchises such as Michael Myers and Jason’s
Masks Leatherface’s Chainsaw and Freddy’s Glove. After a cop is steels a
package he is promply murdered by Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) and it is revealed
that the package contained the remains of Chucky which Tiffany promptly sews
back together and using the book Voodoo for Dummies resurrects Chucky and…
Well
the reunion dosen’t go so well and Chucky after killing Tiffany then transfers
her soul into the body of a doll creating the Bride of Chucky.
The rest of the film follows the exploits of Chucky and
Tiffany as they kidnap a young couple in order to take their bodies
There
are some scenes that I felt were not needed and one of the scenes that was
where I felt that the film Nuked the Fridge or put nipples on the suit as many
complain about is the scene where Chucky and Tiffany decide to consummate their
relationship. I honestly felt that it was way too over the top which was the
direction that they were taking the franchise at the time.
If it wasn’t for this scene we would not have our sequel
Seed of Chucky.
After Chucky and Tiffany are destroyed at the end of Bride it
is revealed that Tiffany was in fact with child and the born.
Seed picks up soon afterward with the kind doll who searches
for his parents and soon finds that a film is being produced about the Childs
Play films and he goes to their reassembled bodies and manages to reanimate
them with an amulet that he found on him when he was born.
Directed by Don Mancini himself Seed of Chucky was a comedic
take more than any other film in the franchise and was filled with jokes such
as the subplot where Chucky and Tiffany decide that now they are parents they
should stop the killing to set an example for their son. This was Tiffany’s
idea and Chucky just pretended to go along with the idea. This is where the
best of the comedy comes from in the film.
Honorable mention has to go to a scene where Chucky runs a
Brittany Spears lookalike off the road to her death and the best death goes to
Cult director John Waters in the film.
In the end Tiffany manages to transfer her soul into the
body of Jennifer Tilly herself and Chucky decides that he would rather remain
in the doll relishing in his Boogey Man Status.
There is a funny Special Feature featuring the Killer Doll Family looking at their family vacaton photos.
After Seed of Chucky was released the franchise once again
went into Hiatus as talks of a remake began to take place and nearly a decade
after Seed of Chucky Terrorized the box offices across the nation the killer
Doll then took the route of Direct to Home Media bringing us Curse of Chucky.
Again directed by Don Mancini Curse of Chucky successfully returns
the franchise to it’s frightening roots with this dark entry to the franchise
which is also a treat for longtime fans of the franchise.
Joining the series is Chucky’s new nemesis Nica who is
played by Fiona Dourif who is the daughter of the voice of Chucky himself Brad
Dourif.
The film takes the series back to it’s origins where Nica
and her mother receive a package in the mail which as you can guess has Chucky.
After tragedy leads to a family reunion of Nica’s sister her husband and their
daughter Alice as well as Alice’s nanny Jill and trust me this family has some
issues.
There are some twists such as the fact that this family has
a connection to Charles Lee Ray before he became the plastic psychopath and
there are some great flashback sequences featuring Brad Dourif reprising the
role.
I like the fact that the film originally has Chucky in his
original form before revealing that this is just a cover for his scarred face.
After the film stay tuned for a post credit sequence
featuring Alex Vincent reprising his role of Andy which is a nice treat for
fans of the first film.
I really like the fact that this is a sequel and not a
remake which is what we are all seeing with these 80s Horror Icons.
Curse of CHucky also manages to maintain continuity which is a rarity in long term horror franchises of this sort.
The use of lighting definetly gives the film it’s errie feel
that the series has lacked since Childs Play 3 and I really liked that the film
returned to the true Roots of Horror and like the first film no expence was
sparred to bring life to the killer doll.
You can definitely tell that there are multiple Chucky’s in
the film with the use of the regular doll to a midget actress used for long
shots and to walk down the stairs.
The house was a nice touch and you can tell that it added creativity
to the filming process.
As I said this is a welcome treat for Chucky fans.
8 Dead Bodies
0 Breasts
1 Killer Doll
Eye Stabbing
Skull Crushing
Electrocution
Throat Slashing
Bones Breaking
Heads Roll
Wheelchair Fu
Doll Fu
4 Stars
Check it out and definetly look at the new Chucky Box set featuring all of the films in the series for the first time.
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