Just the Ticket #69: Breaking The Curse of Chucky, Sequel-itis Cured?
As promised last time, I've come down with another case of Sequel-itis. No clever backlog of rants for you today (which is apparently a symptom of this particular strain of the Hollywood horror), so speaking of Hollywood horror, I'll just jump right into a review of the latest and possibly the greatest entry in the strange Franchise of Chucky....
It might sound like a colossally stupid idea to make a movie about a doll who gets possessed by a serial killer and becomes a nigh-immortal homicide-machine, but the colossally stupid idea that began with Child's Play has since grown into a six-movie franchise, the latest of which rounds out what I call the Trilogy of Chucky (since the latter three end with "of Chucky," rather than being numbered Child's Play 4-6). This unexpected, underrated sixth installment, titled Curse of Chucky, serves as both an adequate conclusion and a welcome opening for future entrants in the series.
It's been awhile since I first saw the original trilogy, and though I panned both the Bride and Seed films as ridiculous efforts to extend the filmmaker's bottom line, I received the Curse with open arms and an essentially unbiased mind, not knowing what to expect. Consequently, I was watching as my gaping jaw preceded me over the edge of my white-knuckle-gripped seat, every doll-footed, shuffling step of the way.
The house that serves as the backdrop for Curse of Chucky is a perfectly creepy character in itself, with ancient decor, an industrial elevator fit for the most haunted of hotels, a shower Hitchcock would be proud to film a murder in, a dining room table made for a game of rat poison-roulette, and a ceramic clown creepy enough to have you racing for the proverbial porcelain throne. And then there's Chucky (still voiced by Brad Douriff after all these years). In his plasticized state, every twitched eye, swiftly-raised arm, and Exorcist head-turn surpasses the once-glimpsed clown in its ability to tighten the viewer's gut. Every kill is a gothic, yet campy work of art designed to please both horror movie purists and today's gore-entrenched fanbase, all of this achieving the goal of recapturing the pre-Bride spirit of slasher-movie suspense that made the first trilogy great.
Sure, there are moments when the film falls apart. I mean, I have as many lesbian fantasies as the next guy, but as formulaic T&A, it did nothing to improve what had been a grade-A horror classic up to that point (in fact, it hurt the quality of the presentation from then on). Also, there are limits to how many endings a movie can have before the viewer wishes they would just pick a point to stop and do so. If you see a certain last name appear twice in the credits, you know how the movie will resolve itself anyway. Many energy bars, cereal bars, and granola bars go out to the cast and crew for bringing back fan favorites Andy (a now adult Alex Vincent) and Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) as last-minute cameos and tying the franchise together in a nice, neat bow, but why do third acts always have to fall apart these days?
B
Note: if you think about it, Chucky was also the inspiration for many other animated doll concepts, including the Killer Krusty segment a past The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Terror" episode, R.L. Stine's Night Of the Living Dummy quadrilogy, and possibly the Toy Story trilogy. So bad or not, it's still iconic.
Stay tuned for the next Sequel-itis installment as I start overdosing on Remagine in the White House.
It might sound like a colossally stupid idea to make a movie about a doll who gets possessed by a serial killer and becomes a nigh-immortal homicide-machine, but the colossally stupid idea that began with Child's Play has since grown into a six-movie franchise, the latest of which rounds out what I call the Trilogy of Chucky (since the latter three end with "of Chucky," rather than being numbered Child's Play 4-6). This unexpected, underrated sixth installment, titled Curse of Chucky, serves as both an adequate conclusion and a welcome opening for future entrants in the series.
It's been awhile since I first saw the original trilogy, and though I panned both the Bride and Seed films as ridiculous efforts to extend the filmmaker's bottom line, I received the Curse with open arms and an essentially unbiased mind, not knowing what to expect. Consequently, I was watching as my gaping jaw preceded me over the edge of my white-knuckle-gripped seat, every doll-footed, shuffling step of the way.
The house that serves as the backdrop for Curse of Chucky is a perfectly creepy character in itself, with ancient decor, an industrial elevator fit for the most haunted of hotels, a shower Hitchcock would be proud to film a murder in, a dining room table made for a game of rat poison-roulette, and a ceramic clown creepy enough to have you racing for the proverbial porcelain throne. And then there's Chucky (still voiced by Brad Douriff after all these years). In his plasticized state, every twitched eye, swiftly-raised arm, and Exorcist head-turn surpasses the once-glimpsed clown in its ability to tighten the viewer's gut. Every kill is a gothic, yet campy work of art designed to please both horror movie purists and today's gore-entrenched fanbase, all of this achieving the goal of recapturing the pre-Bride spirit of slasher-movie suspense that made the first trilogy great.
Sure, there are moments when the film falls apart. I mean, I have as many lesbian fantasies as the next guy, but as formulaic T&A, it did nothing to improve what had been a grade-A horror classic up to that point (in fact, it hurt the quality of the presentation from then on). Also, there are limits to how many endings a movie can have before the viewer wishes they would just pick a point to stop and do so. If you see a certain last name appear twice in the credits, you know how the movie will resolve itself anyway. Many energy bars, cereal bars, and granola bars go out to the cast and crew for bringing back fan favorites Andy (a now adult Alex Vincent) and Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) as last-minute cameos and tying the franchise together in a nice, neat bow, but why do third acts always have to fall apart these days?
B
Note: if you think about it, Chucky was also the inspiration for many other animated doll concepts, including the Killer Krusty segment a past The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Terror" episode, R.L. Stine's Night Of the Living Dummy quadrilogy, and possibly the Toy Story trilogy. So bad or not, it's still iconic.
Stay tuned for the next Sequel-itis installment as I start overdosing on Remagine in the White House.
Comments
Post a Comment