Directed by Don Mancini
Starring Fiona Dourif, Danielle Bisutti, Brennan Elliott, Maitland McConnell and Brad Dourif
The collection of five people who read these reviews might have noticed that I've thrown a few complaints about my internet service dying every night around 7:00 p.m. As a result, I haven't reviewed any recent (read: anything release since, like, 2000) flicks on the blog in a while. Well, I decided to open up a Steve Austin-style can of whoop ass on that situation and get new internet service as of...7 days before this review was posted. For now, though, I just watched Curse of Chucky on Netflix at high noon. Somehow, the atmosphere was lost.
Yup...it's Curse of Chucky, the sixth installment in the much-loved and simultaneously much-maligned killer doll franchise. Still written and directed by Don Mancini and still with Brad Dourif doing the voice of the main man himself, no less. According to the fine folks at Wikipedia and IMDB, this was Mancini's attempt at bringing the series back to its roots and away from the goofiness of Bride and Seed. Personally, I didn't think there was anything wrong with the horror-comedy approach. I mean, we're dealing with a series of movies about a f**kin' KILLER DOLL. It's not like the concept is one that begs to be taken as seriously as Jim Cornette likes to take...pretty much everything. But it seems like I'm outnumbered. With that bitching out of the way, I'm at least happy that Mancini didn't decide to go the original remake route that he planned on and instead made this flick another sequel. It follows the continuity of the series just fine. But since it's not scary in the least bit, it's only partially successful in its mission. Enough jibber jabber. Let's get to it.
Here we are, 25 years after the events in the original Child's Play, just like we are in real life at the time of this flick's release. This is another one of those films that wastes absolutely no time getting the hell going, quickly getting to the strained familial existence between Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif - yes, Brad's real-life daughter) and her mother Sarah (Chantel Quesnal) live in a bigass house together. It's established early that Nica is none too happy with her life, and she has reason to be. A paraplegic throughout her entire existence, her father died before she was born, boring life. You know, the works. Five minutes into the running time, Nica and Sarah receive a mysterious package containing...you guessed it...Chucky. Five minutes after that, Sarah is dead, found by Nica with a big stab wound in her throat.
Now, much was made in this movie of the fact that Chucky looked exactly as he did during the original trilogy of movies before they ramped up the goofy. It was meant to signify a return to the darkness, or something. But he's still the same Chucky, more or less.
For starters, this movie takes the original movie's approach when it comes to his dialogue. After Sarah's death, Nica's older sister Barb (Danielle Bisutti), her husband Ian (Brennan Elliott), daughter Alice (Summer H. Howell) and their live-in nanny Jill (Maitland McConnell) arrive at the house, along with their priest, Father Frank (A Martinez). Of these, the only one who doesn't immediately scream "cannon fodder" is Alice, and it's this character that Chucky immediately forms the friendship with. It's also for this reason why we get the LONG buildup of Chucky doing his best poker face while Nica's family prove themselves to be a bunch of dislikable asshats trying to scheme her out of the house in order to get a boatload of cash for selling it. I WILL give the movie some bonus points, however, in that it surprised the hell out of in how it went about handling Jill the nanny's presence. I took one look at this hot blonde and said, "yeah, Ian is banging her." The actual reason why she sticks around managed to throw me for a loop.
Anyway, commence series of deaths. Mancini has always been really good at crafting strong death scenes throughout the series. Like, we're talking cringe-worthy stuff. Curse of Chucky has some real audience poppers. The first one to go is the Priest, who bites it in a vicious car accident brought on by some timely rat poison in his chili. We get stabbings, decapitations, axes, and all kinds of other happy stuff along with the requisite amount of times that the f-bomb can be dropped by Brad Dourif's trademark dark, angry voice. Once again, this guy really does make the movie, even though he is only ON camera for about five minutes when the movie gives us its background exposition segment explaining just why Chucky chose this particular destination to be mailed to. Suffice to say, he has a lot more to do with the Pierce family than you would ever think.
Still, as visceral as the movie was on occasion, it wasn't scary. When you've got a script filled with a bunch of dislikable characters. Now, that CAN work when you give the antagonists some cool factor and one-liners. To me, this is why Bride and Seed (the former more than the latter, definitely) worked. There isn't much investment in the characters, so thus, there's no reason to be pissing yourself in terror when Mancini and his frankly amazing camerawork are pulling their tricks during the "stalk and slash" sequences. Now, Nica DOES get more likable as the movie goes on. Fiona Dourif did get her father's genes when it comes to becoming characters. Hell, Brad was able to make Rob Zombie's Halloween remakes almost watchable. You can't get much higher praise than that, and Fiona has a lot of that same charisma. So +2 points for her - here's hoping we get to see her in more horror movies.
And the movie has a really cool post-credits sequence that you should definitely stick around for. No spoilers here, but suffice to say it's a real crowd pleaser for long-time fans of this series like myself. Even moreso since it features a guy that I met face-to-face at a horror convention.
Whoo boy, time to wrap up this dog and pony show. I know it sounds like I hated this movie, but truth be told, there actually is quite a bit to admire about it. It finds a way to tie everything together that has happened previously in the series into a nice, neat little ball at the same time that it makes things feel like something totally new. Whoa, what? It's also got some good kills, some decent lines from Chucky (once he actually starts to talk), and a background sequence featuring Brad Dourif as Charles Lee Ray, serial killer, that might be some of the most sickly disturbing stuff I've seen in any horror movie. But the overall tone of this movie is one of the most depressing things I've seen in a while, and not in a good way. Coupled with those characters who will inspire you to reach through the TV and strangle them, and we're not talking Joe Bob levels of "check it out" here.
** 1/2 out of ****. I'd still recommend this movie for a watch if you've seen every previous movie in the series, which, if you're reading this blog is almost certainly the case. If you're new to the series, however, start with #1 and then make the call if you're up for the rest or not, because this one isn't worth going out of your way to watch.
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