Chucky: The Complete Collection Blu-ray Review
For the Chucky connoisseur...
Reviewed by Kenneth Brown, October 4, 2013
Director Don Mancini's
Child's Play trilogy and subsequent
Chucky sequels aren't exactly unique among fan-favorite horror series. The first installment remains unmatched. Reinvention is the franchise's lifeblood. Camp slowly displaces straight scares. The diabolical baddie becomes more central to the story with each passing film. The human element becomes more and more inconsequential. The kills gorier, the deaths zanier, the body count higher, the satire more pronounced, the entries more niche, and the true series fans that much more ravenous. Like the
Friday the 13th,
Halloween and
Nightmare on Elm Street sagas before it, the
Chucky movies aren't so much about developing a terrifying mythos as they are keeping a franchise alive and kicking. And, like the well-established icons of the genre before it, the series' undying killer has become an indelible fixture in horror, no matter how hit or miss the original
Child's Play sequels may be. Chucky has slashed his way through four different decades -- the 1980s (
Child's Play), 1990s (
Child's Play 2,
Child's Play 3,
Bride of Chucky), 2000s (
Seed of Chucky and 2010s (
Curse of Chucky) -- and I suspect this won't be the last.
Chucky of course is actually Charles Lee Ray, or the Lakeshore Strangler if you're feeling morbidly nostalgic; the briefly disembodied spirit of a voodoo-practicing serial killer forever possessing a Good Guy doll, best friend to children everywhere. More than that, Chucky is voice actor Brad Dourif's rampaging id. Murderous, maniacal and armed with a barbed wit and twisted sense of humor, Dourif (and Mancini's puppeteers) summon the obsessive drive of Jason Vorhees, the mercilessness of Michael Myers and the riotous, madcap lunacy of Freddy Kreuger. (As a grown man with a wholly irrational and debilitating fear of dolls, I can attest to Manchini's grasp of precisely what makes the knee-high ankle-slashers the stuff of cold-sweat nightmares. It doesn't mean Mancini is the greatest writer or director, mind you, but a healthy twinge of genre terror goes a long way, even through the silliest of sequels.)
The series story? Like any undead horror series, it's less of a story and more an episodic murder spree. In
Child's Play (1988), Chucky is hellbent on transferring his soul into sweet, innocent little Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent). It doesn't go so well for Chuck. In
Child's Play 2 (1990), the pint-sized fiend returns two years later, hot on the trail of the Barclays. When possession fails, he quickly settles for revenge... which doesn't go so well for Chuck.
Child's Play 3 (1991)? Andy (Justin Whalin) has graduated to sixteen-year-old military school cadet by the time his old pal shows up again, this time setting his glassy sights on a new boy, Ronald Tyler (Jeremy Sylvers). You guessed it, nothing seems to go in the demon doll's favor. Fast forward to
Bride of Chucky (1998). The series vaults into the late '90s -- and horror comedy -- as Ray's girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly) succeeds in resurrecting her dearly beloved Chuck, only to end up with her soul trapped inside of a bride doll herself. Things... kinda go well, although not so much for the former Lakeshore Strangler.
Seed of Chucky (2004) cranks the comedy and weirdness one notch higher, introducing the fruit of Chucky and Tiffany's plastic loins, Shitface (Billy Boyd), soon named Glen by his pops and Glenda by his mother. Chucky doesn't make it to the end of the movie, naturally, but manages to hold onto the not-so-mortal coil.
And so we come to
Curse of Chucky (2013), another departure of sorts, and all at once something of a return to form. It's not only the best sequel of the bunch, it just might be the best film in the series. Whether or not that proves the case for you depends entirely on your affection for the first
Child's Play and/or the camptastic
Bride and
Seed sequels. Love the 1988 original and you're sure to enjoy the darker, more unsettling traditional horror of
Curse. Prefer Chucky's sharp right turn into comedy, though, and you'll probably walk away grumbling that the sixth movie in the
Chucky Collection takes itself much too seriously. Personally, Mancini's constant reinvention of his devil doll series keeps things fresh, and the latest sequel unfolded as something of a happy surprise. Others who've settled into a comfy groove with the misadventures of Chucky's extended family may wonder where all the delirious self-parody has gone, and lament the victims, rather than the killer, reclaiming the spotlight. Regardless of where you fall, rest assured that Mancini isn't out to erase any film in the series. Elements return from all five previous films (be sure to sit through the end credits), giving the franchise a new future without sacrificing its past with a thinly veiled apology for lesser entries. (Ahem,
Child's Play 3.)
Is
Curse of Chucky the next great horror sequel? Slow down, it's not that revolutionary. As direct-to-video horror goes, though, it stands out from the pack. And as series sequels are concerned, it goes a long way to righting some old wrongs without trampling on fans that have made the franchise the cult favorite it is. Will there be another
Chucky film? A future 7-movie
Complete Collection set? You bet. Most of you will be chomping at the bit to see the next installment. The rest of you need only wait for Mancini to change the rules of the game a fourth time. It's bound to happen and, for better or worse, it'll be interesting to see where Chucky ends up.
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