(2013) ***
In the 6th movie of
this silly franchise director Don Mancini eschews the humor and splatter from
the two previous installments and brings Chucky back to his darker, scarier
roots. The film takes place in a large,
dark mansion where wheelchair bound Nica is cared for by her elderly mother. The story occurs mostly in the span of one
long, rainy night. As the tale unfolds a
large package arrives at the homestead. Nica’s
mother opens the package and is puzzled when she finds a “Good Guy” doll. Having no use for such a thing (it’s a
collectible you idiot!) she tosses it in the trash. Later that evening Nica hears a crash and
finds her mother quite dead.
Arriving to help Nica settle their
mother’s estate is her bitchy sister, Barb, her brother-in-law, their daughter
Alice and their hot nanny. Alice finds Chucky and is
immediately taken with the (ugly) doll.
Tensions mount when Nica realizes that her sister wants to sell the
house. Meanwhile betrayals are revealed
and old hurts are revisited as a storm rages on outside. For a while I thought I was watching ‘Rachel
Getting Married’. Eventually Chucky
starts doing what he does best as he slices and dices his way through this
disgruntled bunch.
The greatest compliment I can give
to ‘Curse of Chucky’ is that it looks and feels like a mid-80s movie. Director Don Mancini has written and directed
every chapter of the Child’s Play franchise and he peppers this film with
numerous references to the other installments.
In fact, Curse of Chucky takes place 25 years after Child’s Play and the
“Good Guy” doll is refered to as a collectible.
Chucky’s back-story is effectively fleshed out via a series of flashbacks
that ultimately lead up to the opening scene of the original Child’s Play. This film could easily have been released in
theaters and it is puzzling why it went the straight-to-video route. Curse of Chucky is a slow burn (some might
say too slow) and Chucky does not start to do his thing until the 50 minute
mark (I checked). Still, the family
drama stuff is effective and the flashbacks make it feel like a more important
movie than it actually is. Most 80s
horror icons started out scary and evolved into over-the-top blood and
eye-rolling humor with Chucky being no exception. Curse of Chucky is a return to form as
Mancini makes Chucky ‘scary’ again. Easily
the best installment since the original film.
7 comments:
Wow - a decent Chucky movie! I still don't see how any kid could think that doll is cute.
Maybe the kid is one of those kids who think every doll is 'cute'.
Hm, I've never seen a single Chucky movie. I did really enjoy Rachel Getting Married, though, so maybe I need to give it a shot!
i was going to make a case that there's limits to how scary a movie about a killer toy could be. then i thought of the talking tina episode of twilight zone and changed my mind.
kind of in the hands of the teller. i found that out earlier this year when i caught the most recent Universal Soldier movie and was taken aback by how great it was - and how much better in the hands of a different director.
but this is the same director. hard to imagine the tone changing so much without the director changing.
sounds surprisingly good.
I have a number of Brad Dourif films in my queue, I'm a big fan of his but not a single Chucky film among them. Though I do agree a killer toy can be scary I am not a big fan of the Chuckster.
I think the thing about Chucky is that he's got a built-in goof factor that's unavoidable. Freddy Kreuger started out scary and got silly, but Chucky is actually a toy.
Anyway, good wrap up, JPX. Glad to know Chucky gets back to his scary roots as best he can.
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