For ten years,
the tortured soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray has been imprisoned
inside a child's doll. Chucky is reborn when his old flame, Tiffany, rescues
his battered doll parts from a police impound. But Chucky wants his new
playmate cut down to size, so he transforms his blushing bride into a stunning
little terror. Chucky and Tiffany can't wait to start their own homicidal
honeymoon. When this demonic duo hits the road and hooks up with a pair
of unsuspecting newlyweds, they leave a trail of murder and mayhem behind
them. Chucky's back!
"You know what the French call an orgasm?
La petite morte."
- Damien |
This film wastes
no time in letting you know where its coming from. In the opening shots,
we see a police evidence lockup containing Jason's mask (of Friday the
13th fame) and Freddy's glove (of Nightmare on Elm Street infamy).
From a locker, a cop pulls a bag containing the shredded remains of Chucky,
the once goodguy doll who was possessed by the soul of serial killer Charles
Lee Ray. It is obvious that Chucky will be resurrected, as were Jason and Freddy many times (most recently by Bride's director Ronny
Yu, in the crossover Freddy vs Jason), and the setting is one of
post-modern horror, as was fashionable at the time of the film's release,
thanks to Scream and its equally shitty disciples.
The basic plot
is this: Chucky's former girlfriend, Tiffany, resurrects Chucky via some
needlework and voodoo, who then kills her (whilst she is watching Bride
of Frankenstein) and pours her soul into a female doll of Chucky's
stature. Tiffany manages to convince her hunky neighbor - who is running
away with the girlfriend whose Chief of Police uncle has banned him from
seeing - to transport the two dolls to Hackensack, New Jersey, where the
body of Charles Lee Ray is buried. Once there, the two dolls will exhume
the body, claim back the voodoo amulet which will allow them to repossess
human bodies, kill the two teens and take over their forms. Its pretty
weak at best, but lets face it, you're only here for three things - the
dolls, some laughs and some grisly murders.... and that's what you get.
The Tiffany doll is brilliant and Jennifer Tilly - though i did miss her
voluptuous form filling the screen - brings her to life wonderfully. Brad
Dourif gives Chucky - now horribly disfigured, thanks to Tiffany's stitch-up
job - appropriate levels of menace and sick humor. And the deaths are pleasingly
grisly and imaginative.
What is good
about this is that it never really pretends to be anything other than ridiculous.
There are constant references to horror movie staples, such as Pinhead
etc., and the script consistently pokes fun at the state of affairs. And
the whole thing rattles along at a brisk old pace. At just over 80 minutes,
there isn't much screen time when some absurd situation or some blood-letting
isn't in the works. It just sets up the plot and the set-pieces and gets
on with letting them play out much as you would expect.
Alexis Arquette,
doing his best Marilyn Manson is the first to go, and while Chucky certainly
puts him through some pain, the deaths get more elaborate as the film progresses.
One of the best scenes sees Chucky blow up a cop car after getting stoned
in the back of the teens' truck, and the reaction of a stoned spectator
teen to Chucky crawling away and giving him the finger is priceless, and
for me the biggest laugh of the film. It also has one of the films two
impressive explosions, a minor note, but its always nice to see some good
pyrotechnics in a movie.
Some of the
structuring is done quite well also, with the two unaware teens gradually
suspecting each other of the string of murders that seem to dog their roadtrip.
And anytime someone new enters the fray, you can guarantee they'll get
theirs. Perhaps the best death is a tie between the 'honeymoon sweets'
murder and the resultant Final Destination-style splattering of
one of the film's main characters. There's also a suitably perverse sex
scene which was crying out to happen, topped off with a nice punchline,
which sets up the film's final twist.
And what a twist
it is. Hardly unpredictable, but well done none the less, it tops off a
sick and entertaining hour and a half effectively enough to warrant a further
sequel. Give it a go - just don't expect The Silence of the Lambs.
There's no Oscars here, and all the better for it.
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- In the opening scene Michael Myers' and Jason's masks (from the Halloween and Friday the 13th movies), Leatherface's chain saw (from the Texas
Chainsaw Massacre movies), and Freddy Kruger's glove (from the Nightmare
on Elm Street movies) are visible.
- When John Ritter's character is killed, his face looks like Pinhead
from Hellraiser. Chucky exclaims "Where have I seen that before?"
- There is a character in the film named Damien Baylock. In The
Omen, the satanic child is called Damien, while his evil nanny is called
Mrs. Baylock.
- A certain Bride of Chucky promotional poster is a parody
of one of the Scream 2 posters.
- The
date on Tiffany's newspaper clippings at the beginning of the movie and
the date of death on Charles Lee Ray's tombstone is November 9th 1988,
the release date of the first Child's Play movie.
- In the opening shot, when the policeman is walking through the
evidence locker room, several dolls appear. These resemble, or may actually
be, from the movie series Puppet Master. They appear in the first
storage case shown, on the left side of the screen.
- According to the DVD's director commentary, Chucky was originally supposed
to say to Chief Warren (John Ritter), "Sorry, Jack, but three's a crowd,"
after killing him. This joke refers to the fact that Ritter also starred
as "Jack" in the hit TV sitcom Three's Company. But at the last
minute, the director deleted that out of the script because he found it
too corny.
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