We're watching the first movie in the series - "Child's Play" - and the last movie in the series - "Curse of Chucky". I wish we had "Child's Play 2", but we don't. The other three are kinda disposable. These two, however, are pretty great movies. One, the debut of a terrific character in horror. The other, a very ingenious way of bringing the character back to his roots and giving him the chance of carrying on. We only actually own "Curse". We were able to watch "Child's Play" on Starz (which we somehow keep getting for free through our cable provider).
Charles Lee Ray was a notorious homicidal maniac terrorizing Chicago (I feel like we were just here singing and dancing . . . ). But he died in a toy store. What no one knows is in his dying moments, he transferred his soul into a Good Guys Doll (basically a Cabbage Patch Kid with batteries). What follows is the terror that one sadistic man in the body of a doll can inflict on a family and his known associates.
"Child's Play" starts off a bit slow. We see Karen trying to raise Andy by working a dead-end job as a jewelry salesperson at a department store. She gets him a backstreet Good Guys Doll for his birthday. Then we sit through a half hour of Chucky telling Andy to do things off screen. What everyone else sees is Andy talking to his imaginary friend, like every kid does. The first kill is a good one, but this movie doesn't try to rack up a kill count like most slasher films do (that's left to the sequels). Yeah, the movie hold s a lot of cliches, but at the time of filing this movie, this was an original story.
Probably the greatest thing about the movie is the Chucky Doll itself. It looks amazing, it makes incredibly real movements, and its truly terrifying. Some of the more movement-oriented scenes (like when we see him jump on top of a bed, or kick down a gate) use someone in a suit. I'm still unsure how they accomplish this. Everything is still in correct proportions, but the movements are obviously a person in a costume. Maybe they made large versions of objects in the scene, and had a dwarf in the costume? Also, Brad Dourif is incredibly charismatic as Chucky - both as a human and as a doll.
Check it out - supernatural elements and a great slasher.
<><><><><>INTERMISSION<><><><><>
Skipping four movies, we obviously miss a few things. Chucky comes back for Andy 2 years later, and fails. He comes back 8 years after that when Andy is sent away to military camp and he fails. After the first three, the series takes a turn to be less horror and more comedy. "Bride of Chucky" sees Chucky's girlfriend - Tiffany - from when he was human (played by Jennifer Tilly) get put into a doll, and them go on a crime spree as two dolls. "Seed of Chucky" has us finding out Tiffany gave birth to a son named Glen, who raises his parents from the dead. Tiffany and Chucky give up killing to raise Glen and take the bodies of Jennifer Tilly and Wu-Tang rapper Redman (playing themselves). This doesn't last long, and Glen and Tiffany seemingly kill Chucky at the end, where they have both become human.
<><><><><>AND WE'RE BACK<><><><><>
Taking place roughly the same time the movie was filmed, "Curse of Chucky" brings our favorite doll back and better than he has ever been!
Nica (Fiona Dourif) has been a paraplegic her whole life. Confined to a wheelchair and pitied by her family, she feels very alone in this world, her family not letting her out to experience any of it. When Nica's mom dies mysteriously the night after they receive a Good Guys Doll named Chucky in the mail unexpectedly, the family comes to pay a visit. Nica's sister Barb (Danielle Bisuttu) comes to visit with her family and brings Father Frank with her, and little Alice starts carrying Chucky around with her everywhere. Bodies start turning up, and Nica slowly begins to think that the doll Chucky is behind all these deaths. Chucky turns out to have a really good reason to be visiting Nica: Charles Lee Ray is the reason she was crippled!
Again, it starts off really slow. The first death of the movie we don't even get to see. We hear Sarah screaming, and then Nica gets downstairs as quickly as she can in her wheelchair. The next death is due to poisoning (26 minutes in). We see the actual part where the death occurs - the roof of the car is in his throat, and when it's removed his head rolls right off his body - but we don't see Chucky involved. The reason everything is slow is because it's building up tension between the family and how everyone pities Nica. It's obvious that Barb and her husband Ian are going through a rough patch, and that the nanny Jill is a catalyst for this.
There are two things apart from the slow beginning that bring this movie down, and their names are Barb and Alice. Yeah, I know Alice is a child, but she's so annoying! And it's amazing to me that Danielle Bisuttu has been in as many things as she has, because she acts about as well as your average kindergartner.
What this movie does right is casting Fiona Dourif opposite he father. She is tremendous. She is able to capture all the verbal and mental abuse this character has taken and still carry on, knowing she's more powerful than that. The strength of her character is undeniable.
Again, the doll is great. It has never looked better. Obviously in 2013 every horror movie was CG-happy, so it was great to see "Curse of Chucky" use relatively little. Nearly every seen with Chucky is done using either a doll or animatronic, or a person in a suit. Some of the movements the doll makes are so creepy, and again Brad Dourif's voice adds such an element of terror. Speaking of, we don't hear Charles Lee Ray's voice until 45 minutes into the movie. The suspense of that, knowing who Chucky really is, is a driving force behind this movie.
If you've enjoyed any of the Chucky movies, check this one out. It is my favorite of the entire series. And Don Mancini made sure to bring it back to it's roots - he did away with almost all the comedy that stemmed out of this character. Chucky still has a few one-liners, because that's part of Brad Dourif's charisma when it comes to the character. The important thing is, Mancini did away with what made "Bride" and "Seed" garbage. The series became comedies, and that's one thing "Curse" definitely is not.
Oh, and the post-credits scene is well worth the watch. 25 years in the making, actually!
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