Summary:
Chucky works his way into the insane asylum where Nica Pierce is being kept, and meanwhile, Andy Barclay tries to hunt down his old rival once and for all.
My Thoughts:
Well, at this point in my life I can say I have seen all of the Brad Dourif (“Blue Velvet”) Chucky movies… Hooray?
While I will admit that none of these films are great movies, most of them are pretty fun. The character of Chucky is so ridiculous, and the way in which he goes about killing people is often so absurd, that as a genuine horror fan I often found it hard not to enjoy myself. This film sort of wraps up Chucky’s story… I say sort of because, in the immortal words of Chucky: “I always come back.” As of now, there’s still a Brad Dourif-voiced Chucky television show in development for the SyFy Chanel, and Don Mancini is supposedly pretty involved with that. And of course, there was the 2019 remake “Child’s Play” starring Aubrey Plaza, which I still haven’t seen as of the moment that I’m writing this review, but I’ve been told that it sets up for a sequel. Chucky isn’t going away, but this film did sort of feel like it had a touch of finality to it.
“I am a vintage, mass marketed children’s toy from the 80s, standing right in front of you, holding a very sharp scalpel.”
“Cult of Chucky” follows the events of “Curse of Chucky”, wherein Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif, “The Master”) was blamed for the murders of her family and sent to a high security mental institution. Years later, after Nica is transferred to a medium-security sanitarium under the supervision of Dr. Foley (Michael Therriault, “Total Recall (2012)”), where she quickly becomes friends with Michael (Adam Hurtig), but finds herself isolated from the other patients because they believe her a mass murderer. Meanwhile, Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent, “Child’s Play”) is keeping Chucky’s severed head alive in a cupboard, and simultaneously, Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly, “Tideland”) brings a Good Guy doll to visit Nica in the psych ward.
So, first off, this movie sort of did some hand-wavy magic to skirt around some issues that it made for itself with the ending of the last film. The last scene of “Curse of Chucky” (besides the post-credit sequence) showed Chucky possessing Alice Pierce (Summer Howell), and in this film we quickly learn that Alice is dead, and she really has no part to play in this movie other than a brief cameo in a nightmare. The post credit sequence of “Curse” showed Andy blowing Chucky’s face off with a shotgun, and that is sort of Chucky starts off in this movie. I have to say, Andy keeping Chucky’s severed head in a cupboard is one of the more disturbing things this series has shown us, but as far as the rest of the movie goes, this entry is just okay. I did like that Jennifer Tilly was back as Tiffany, or rather, back as Tiffany Valentine possessing Jennifer Tilly’s body… I think? There’s a great line in the film when Tiffany is talking on the phone and admits even she looses track of who it is she’s supposed to be at this point in the series.
One of my biggest issues with this entry is pacing. There’s a lot of boring stuff that revolves around the characters wrestling with their sanity at the insane asylum, and it really takes a long time for Chucky to do anything fun in this film. This series is no stranger to storylines involving characters saying other characters are crazy because they think a doll is a murderer, so honestly the plot, even though it was set in a different location, felt very well worn. Towards the end of the film however, there are a few fun twists and revelations.
This was another direct to video entry in the series, and its obvious that the budget for this film was pretty low; it’s also obvious that they used most of that budget for practical Chucky effects and, I’m venturing to guess, Jennifer Tilly’s paycheck. The production design was one of the casualties of this movie. Most of this film takes place inside the sanatorium, and all of the rooms shown inside this sanatorium are exactly the same: white walls, white floors, and florescent lights. It’s distractingly apparent that the locations are all small sets, and the fact that everything looks identical does not help this film overall appeal.
(SPOILERS)
Perhaps one of the best twists is when Chucky reveals he now can have multiple dolls and people possessed at the same time. If you look at this logically, it prompts all sorts of issues, but if you just take this in stride, it’s fine. Chucky ends up in three different dolls and one of our main characters, and the ending, where Chucky sort of ends up on top, is a fun way to end this particular entry.
Verdict:
I didn’t enjoy this film as much as I did “Seed of Chucky”, which is where I think the series sort of peaks; it’s an okay ending to the Brad Dourif era of “Child’s Play.” This series has never been anything remarkable, but the films usually provide enough entertainment to warrant sitting through their short runtimes. If you like Chucky and you’ve come this far in the series, you might as well finish it.
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