Curse of Chucky Is One Of The Better Child's Play Movies, With A Great Performance From Fiona Dourif

[philosoraptor42]

Curse of Chucky (2013)

While the Child's Play series isn't consistently brilliant, all the Child's Play movies are fun, with "Child's Play 3" being the only one I'd say was completely mediocre.

It seemed quite bizarre to me that so many apparent 'fans' of this series dismiss "Bride of Chucky" and "Seed of Chucky" for being comedies. ALL the Child's Play movies have some level of comedy in them. But Don Mancini, who has written every "Child's Play" film, has clearly decided to respond to this strangely pervasive opinion amongst fans of his series. So now "Curse of Chucky" is the first to try to play it pretty much entirely straight. But even here there are some (very welcome) silly moments.



Brad Dourif is, as always, playing the voice of Chucky, but here we have his daughter, Fiona Dourif, playing the lead protagonist. She plays a young woman confined to a wheelchair, but lucky enough to be living in an enormous house with its own elevator.



As much as Don Mancini might be trying to be ultra-serious here, there's something sweet and silly about the various characters set up here. Still, there's a definite logical order to the events in the movie and questions like "why is Chucky randomly in THIS home?" and "how did Chucky even get here?" are all answered clearly.



Personally I miss the comedy and to be quite frank, I found "Bride of Chucky" extremely creepy and I don't really feel like that about "Curse". It's clearly a horror movie, but I never really felt particularly tense. Still, this is perfectly entertaining and the central performance from Fiona Dourif really helps to hold the film together. We also get an all-too-short appearance from Tiffany, played by - and actually inhabiting the body of (see "Seed of Chucky") - Jennifer Tilly.



This is a perfectly adequate Child's Play movie. If you were upset by Bride and Seed and the main thing you didn't like about them was the comedy, then congratulations, you got your plain old serious Child's Play movie. I hope you are satisfied. Personally I felt like this could have done with more comedy.



One other thing though. You should stay til after the credits. Since this was going straight to DVD, Don Mancini realises this could be the final movie in the series. As such, he's filmed a cool little finale to tie things up, just in case he never gets the chance to do so again. What with the after-credits sequence and the rather cool way the movie ends, I'm actually pretty excited for another instalment.

B-


Ranking and summing up the "Child's Play" series:

6. Child's Play 3 (1991) C-
Better acting than part 2 before it and a genuine sense of fun, but there's a clear sense that the ending was neutered here. When we are expecting the seemingly inevitable 'all hell breaks loose' finale, the movie suddenly falls flat. This film had so much potential and the spark of wit that Don Mancini brings to each instalment is still here. However, Child's Play 3 is a rather hollow entry in this otherwise highly enjoyable series.


5. Seed of Chucky (2004) B-
This movie moves into self-parody and is full-on comedy, but while not all the jokes are great, there are some scenes which had me in stitches. Tiffany rather upstages Chucky in this movie in the drama surrounding their roles as psychopathic parents. And her attempts to overcome her addiction to serial murder were absolute comic gold. While Glenn (or Glenda) wasn't the monsterous progeny we expected from "Seed of Chucky", you have to give Don Mancini credit for not making Chucky's child a less interesting clone of Chucky himself. It's hardly sensible to berate a movie for surprising us, particularly when it is done in such a creative way.


4. Child's Play 2 (1990) B-
The acting isn't great (strangely even from Jenny Agutter), but there's a lot of creativity, particularly in the factory towards the end. There's still the same creepy atmosphere as well as the campy silliness. (Though arguably the scene where Chucky spanks the teacher with the ruler wasn't funny enough.)


3. Curse of Chucky (2012) B-
An attempt to play things straight, presumably after there was so much badgering of the creator for a Chucky movie that wasn't comedic. I'm glad they didn't remove the comedy entirely though. Jennifer Tilly's appearance was very welcome. The main highlight here, however, is Fiona Dourif as Nica. I seriously hope Nica appears in further sequels (which I'm sure are forthcoming).


2. Child's Play (1988) B+
I didn't actually like this the first time I saw it because I thought I was supposed to take it seriously. If you are expecting a serious horror movie this is extremely cheesy. Now that I recognise the comedy elements, I actually think it's extremely effective. Funny, but extremely creepy too.


1. Bride Of Chucky (1998) A+
Hilarious AND creepy. Plus the addition of Tiffany adds a much-needed extra dimension to the Chucky saga. This is wonderfully inventive and one of my favourite horror comedies.