Chucky Movies

[Lucian]

After writing the kick-ass "The Beast Within" and directing the awesome "Fright Night," Holland made a masterpiece. "Child's Play" is one of the scariest movies ever. It also launched one of the best horror film franchises the world has ever seen, spawning three sequels that ranged from decent to great.

Brad Dourif plays a serial killer who is gunned down by police officer Sarandon. Before he dies, he uses black magic to transport his soul into a toy store doll. As a result of the transfer, the toy store blows up. The doll happens to be the most popular brand on the market, as big as the Cabbage Patch Kids were in their time. A guilt-ridden, over-worked single mother (Hicks) buys it from a homeless person who stole it from the burned-up toy store. Her son (played by the young Alex Vincent) immediately grows attached to the talking doll, naming him "Chucky."

When one of Hicks' friends is murdered while babysitting, Sarandon shows up to arrest the boy, who keeps telling the police and his mom that Chucky was the killer. When the mother realizes the doll has been talking without batteries, the shit really hits the fan. Dourif supplies the voice of Chucky, who toward the end of the film has become a wise-cracking killer who sounds a lot like Jack Nicholson. His character became so popular that dolls and other trinkets were sold, creating kind of a mini-craze.

The best part of this film is the first half, when the doll's possession is still subtle and mysterious. The ending is a bit contrived. Still, this is one of the best modern horror films ever made and one of the finest to come out of the 1980s, with great performances all around. Like many excellent horror films, the picture serves as a powerful commentary on the breakdown of the family and the negative influence of TV and consumer culture on our children.

Vincent was able to make it back for the enjoyable sequel, "Child's Play 2," cranked out two years after this one was a big box-office hit.

[Lucian]

Entertaining follow-up to "Child's Play" has the toy company that made the doll from the first film (which was possessed by the spirit of a serial killer) rebuilding the same doll to prove it wasn't responsible for a series of murders, as had been suggested by the news media. Of course, the killer (voice provided by Brad Dourif) still inhabits the doll and he's quickly on the loose again, looking for the boy from Part 1 (Vincent) to inhabit his body.

Vincent is now in a foster home run by Agutter. The actress who played his mother in the first film obviously wasn't available for the follow up. Although the plot isn't as good, there are some very entertaining moments, including the killing of a hard-ass school teacher. The climax, pitting Vincent against Chucky in a toy factory, is classic.

Followed by the worst in the series, "Child's Play 3," which is nonetheless a worthwhile watch.

[Lucian]

A lot of people diss this movie, but it's O.K.

Andy Barclay (Whalen), the boy from the first two movies, is now a teenager who's been sent to military academy.

Naturally, the possessed doll that wants to possess his body, Chucky (the voice of Brad Dourif) comes looking for him. It survived its massacre at the Good Guys toy factory when some of its blood spilled into a vat of plastic. The company decides to turn on production of the Good Guy doll line. The first one they produce, naturally, is possessed by the spirit of Charles Lee Ray. The first victim, and subject of the best scene in the film, is the ritzy CEO of the toy company.

Unfortunately, the Chucky formula doesn't work as well when things move to the military academy. The film is kind of a cross between "The Lords of Discipline" and the original "Child's Play." Andy finds himself the victim of abusive academy superiors, while he's trying to stop Chucky, who now wants to posses the body of another boy at the school. Chucky gets some good lines in ("I'm gonna be a bro!" he says, after learning the new boy he's going to possess is black), but this movie pales in comparison with the first two. Still, it's better than a lot of the fear flicks that came out in the early 1990s, a pretty dead time for the genre. It also has a pretty big budget -- for a Chucky film, that is. Worth watching.

It was a bit of a flop. It would take a long seven years later for the absolutely outstanding follow up, "Bride of Chucky," to be made, after the success of "Scream" resurrected the genre.

[Lucian]

Kick-ass fourth entry in the "Child's Play" series came out a long seven years after the third film. Universal Studios decided to resurrect the franchise after watching other studios' success of films like "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" in the late '90s. This is one of the slickest, funniest horror films ever made. Dourif is in rare form as Chucky.

Tilly plays the girlfriend of the serial killer who became the possessed doll Chucky, after transferring his soul into the toy just before dying. Using a "Voodoo For Dummies" book, she resurrects the dead doll, which has been stitched together following its "death by fan" at the end of Part 3, giving it this monstrous Frankenstein look.

To make a long story short, she eventually winds up possessing her own doll. The duo quickly hijack a couple of teenagers for a road trip and go on a killing spree, a la "Bonnie and Clyde." Tilly is marvelous and very babetitious as the girlfriend. Her marriage to Chucky and the love scene that follows are particularly hilarious. Ronny Yu was a Hong Kong art film maker who was brought over to the U.S. to direct this. He did a tremendous job.

A sequel entitled "Seed of Chucky" was announced for 1999, and in 2003 it seemed possible it would actually finally get made.

[Lucian]

A long six years after the success of "Bride of Chucky," the fourth "Child's Play" sequel finally made its way to cinemas. The reason it took such a bloody long time was Columbine, which scared Hollywood away from the genre during the tail end of the Clinton administration. "Seed of Chucky" was actually written in '99 or so.

Then, the awesome success of "Freddy vs. Jason" rekindled interest in the Chucky franchise. The sequel was back on track in '04, with Don Mancini (who penned every single "Child's Play" movie) brought on to direct as well as write.

"Seed" picks up some years after "Bride," with the monster infant born at the end of that film now being exploited by a sideshow traveler in Britain. A puppet who actually walks and talks, he's used to win ventriloquist contests. Unsure of where he came from, he finally spots the image of Chucky and Tiffany (in case you didn't remember, his puppet killer parents from the last movie) on TV. It seems they're shooting a movie based on the urban legend of Chucky and Tiffany, and are using the same dolls recovered from the murder scene. Jennifer Tilly (playing herself) is starring in the movie.

Inevitably, the dolls are resurrected, and the "seed" is reunited with his mother and father. Jennifer Tilly is kidnapped by the dolls who hope to use her in a scheme to take over human bodies, even making a demon baby for their child to inhabit. Redman plays himself as well -- he's the director of a "Virgin Mary" movie Tilly hopes to land the lead in.

Cult movie references abound. Chucky and Tiffany's child is named Glenn or Glenda, because they can't decide what sex he is. He's not anatomically correct, unlike his parents. John Waters (who has long identified himself as a fan of the Chucky franchise) has a small role as a paparazzi. There are some routine homages to "Psycho," "The Shining" and of course "Rosemary's Baby."

The main weakness of "Seed" is that it's one of those sequels that really needed to be seen almost immediately after its predecessor. General viewers probably showed up to theaters not knowing what the hell was going on -- who were these characters? A little too postmodern and self-aware, it lacks the bite and the similar, more arty "Wes Craven's New Nightmare." Killer dolls are normally pretty scary, but in "Seed" only the funnier antics of Chucky seem to get any screen time.

Still, any horror franchise that manages to stick around as long and as consistently as the "Child's Play" series deserves praise. Of the five films, this is better than the third, worse than the fourth, second and first. Not bad.

Mancini has promised to take the series back to its late 1980s, suspenseful roots in the next entry.

[Jason]

I thought part 3 was a worthwhile watch! Seed of Chucky is the worst. Followed by Bride of Chucky.

[mtc1998]

screw you, seed of chuky and bride of chuky were awsome

[Jason]

Bride was okay, Seed was sucky!

[mtc1998]

okay, i admit, seed of chuky was bad

[Jason]