philosoraptor42

Child's Play 3 (1991)

Just as "Omen III: The Final Conflict" decided to move the years forward, so has Child's Play 3. Okay, so this is totally not a comparison I would be making if it weren't for the decision to randomly review both franchises side-by-side. But more significantly for the Child's Play series (particularly considering that Brad Dourif has remained the voice of Chucky throughout the films), this is the first time that Chucky's regular rival Andy is played by a new actor. Some may recognise Justin Whalin from his time as Jimmy Olsen in the cheesy Superman tv series "The New Adventures of Superman". Not knowing that connection going in, Justin definitely looked familiar when I was watching the movie and he does a good job here as Andy.

The decision to fast forward Andy to greater age and maturity allows for a step forward in Andy and Chucky's rivalry. Not only is Andy now feeling reponsible for others rather than being mostly a helpless and distressed figure with little choice but to simply worry about himself, but he is also old enough to have a serious love interest (something that Chucky won't have any opportunity for until the next movie). I don't think the decision to switch from the previous actor, Alex Vincent, suggests any kind of gripe with him by the filmmakers since they weren't going to get such a clear change in the age of the character releasing this sequel barely a year after the last one.

The new, more mature Andy now has to take responsibility for others and one opportunity for this is that Chucky has a new victim. He is now pursuing a different little child and so Andy is not in a position of being the victim again, but rather being the only person who really knows how to stop Chucky. Just like how Ripley has become the expert in defeating the aliens by "Alien 3", Andy is now the expert Chucky-hunter. The thing that hasn't changed however, is that there is still pretty much nobody who will believe him.

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Okay, below is my original review for the fourth Chucky movie from back in April 2011. It still remains my favourite movie in the series so my opinions here remain the same. Just one thing though. The negative comments I've heard about "Bride of Chucky" criticise it for going too far into comedy. Here's my problem with that.... Every single Child's Play movie is a comedy! Yes seriously! Heck, "Bride of Chucky" is, if anything, the closest to providing actual scares. Perhaps the problem is that the fans of the series had grown up too much by the time this came out. They remembered Child's Play as being scary because they saw it when they were young. By the time "Bride of Chucky" was released perhaps they were capable of handling more vicious horror content and it seemed tame as a result. The film is, after all, a full seven years after "Child's Play 3". But even so, by comparison to the fairly toothless third movie, "Bride of Chucky" is just SO much tenser.

Anyway, there'll be more chance for me to express my updated feelings on "Bride of Chucky" when I review the follow-up, "Seed Of Chucky", since both movies contain what is possibly the most fantastic addition to the franchise: Jennifer Tilly as Tiffany (or even, in "Seed Of Chucky", as herself).

Bride Of Chucky (1998)
(originally reviewed here)

I don't know what brought me to consider this one. I wasn't really terribly impressed with the original "Child's Play". Still with one of the Child's Play movies being tied to the Jamie Bulger tragedy (and the coinciding "video nasty" scare) I guess I'd felt it was necessary to watch it.