I don’t need to inform anyone that mainstream Hollywood entertainment is still in the grips of a franchise and IP based fervor. Mega franchises, sequels, reboots, requels, remakes – all of these have been the lion’s share of high profile releases for well over a decade now. Everything from the most recognizable franchises in film history to more niche pop cultural artifacts have been resurrected, dusted off, and had a new coat of paint air-brushed on.
Every day across social media the online film community seems to litigate “the state” of Hollywood.
Superhero fatigue. Franchise fatigue. You know the discourse. Personally, I take as much of a nonchalant attitude with all this stuff as I can. I have my peccadillos. I have my areas of agreement regarding “the state” of Hollywood. But at the end of the day I’m just…a dude. A dude who just wants to watch movies and hopefully have as good a time as I can doing it. All of the fracas regarding the industry is, at the end of the day, mostly noise to me.
If a movie looks good, I’ll see it. That goes for Superhero Movie #852 or the latest under the radar indie gaining buzz.
So what does all of this waffle have to do with Curse of Chucky? Well, relatively speaking, I consider Curse one of the most successful franchise reboots we’ve gotten since the trend kicked off in earnest all the back in 2005 with Batman Begins.
Yes, I’m serious.
After almost a decade off screen, our favorite ginger-haired killer doll came back with the 6th installment in the Child’s Play series after the critical and commercial failure of Seed of Chucky. Franchise creator and steward Don Mancini stands by Seed, and since its release it has gained more appreciation over the years for its daffy, dark, and whacked out satirical looniness. It was clear, however, that Curse would be the first movie in the franchise to go straight-to-video/VOD, and the history of horror franchises that once occupied theaters being relegated to straight-to-video carries with it a certain stigma of cheapness and cynicism. Going from the big screen to the small screen is a sure sign that your franchise has officially run out of gas.
Then something unexpected happened. Curse of Chucky started getting good buzz after its Fantasia Fest premiere. It was largely hailed as a return to form, an unexpectedly confident and clever comeback from a once-popular horror franchise everyone had put in the rearview.
Like many successful reboots of the past 15 years, Curse took a drastically different approach with its tone, with Mancini stripping the story down to a cast of core characters, one location, and an emphasis on making Chucky sinister again.
Working with a lower budget and short shooting schedule, Curse of Chucky is crafted as a Gothic horror. There are clear Dario Argento-esque influences on display here in regards to camera work and lighting. This is a well shot, stylish film and despite some rough around the edges effects work, it could have easily been released in theaters.
But how does Curse of Chucky go about rebooting the franchise? Well, by continuing the franchise.
Nica (Fiona Dourif) is a paraplegic young woman who lives with her mother Sarah (Chantal Quesnelle) in a sprawling, secluded house. One day they receive a package containing a Good Guy Doll. Not knowing who sent it or why, Nica decides to give it to her niece Alice (Summer Howell) as a gift. That night Nica discovers Sarah dead from an apparent suicide.
But we know it wasn’t a suicide.
Nica’s sister Barb (Danielle Bisutti), niece Alice, husband Ian (Brennan Elliott), nanny Jill (Maitland McConnell), and local priest and family friend Father Frank (A Martinez) arrive for the funeral and to support Nica.
Soon family drama, old resentments, secrets, and bodies all start to pile up as Chucky’s beef with this family is revealed.
Mancini makes a bold move in keeping Chucky silent and his movement off-camera for half the film. We mostly see him playing the ‘Toy Story’ game as he enacts his sinister plan. We know it’s Chucky. We know he’s alive. Keeping the audience so far ahead of the characters in a story can knee-cap a film before it even takes off, but the rub here is waiting for the why.
Fiona Dourif as Nica is an instantly likable and easy to root for protagonist and the family drama that unravels throughout the film is filled with Mancini’s darkly humorous touch. The cliche of “is dad sleeping with the nanny?” is subverted with a smirk and characters you may expect to hate end up actually having a bit more dimension to them.
Who really fares best here is Chucky as a character. Fans often gripe about the rough around the edges design and effects work in Curse not being near on par with the theatrically released films. He’s less expressive and has a far more plastic sheen to him than the earlier films. The animatronic work is just a bit more basic, but it’s still recognizable as Chucky and it’s still good work for a direct-to-video/VOD film.
The character himself gets back to his darker roots as a plotting and scheming villain who relishes in the pain – both mental and physical, that he imparts on his victims. Brad Dourif hasn’t lost a thing since he began playing the character since the original film, and for my money Curse is probably the most genuinely scary Chucky has been since Child’s Play 2.
Despite the film being largely well received, it does irk some fans who feel Chucky’s motivation in the film is lackluster and commits the sin of adding backstory where none is needed.
It’s revealed through flashback that before his death, Chucky befriended Nica’s mother while Nica was in the womb. He develops an obsession with Sarah, kills her husband and kidnaps her, expressing a desire to become a family. The police find his hideout. Assuming Sarah somehow tipped the cops off, Chucky stabs Sarah in the stomach (which causes Nica’s paralysis) and flees. He’s chased to the toy store and gunned down on that fateful night in the 80s.
On one hand I understand this new exposition dump being hard to swallow for some. This is a significant retcon for the series as a whole, but it’s not entirely out of the realm of verisimilitude in my opinion, as one of the more interesting quirks of Chucky as a slasher icon is that he had a whole life before he possessed the Good Guy Doll. He was out and about with his own history as a flesh and blood serial killer well before his second life as a murderous toy, leaving his past a bit more open for exploring in ways that don’t feel hacky or reaching.
The delivery of this exposition is a bit undercooked, however. Perhaps if Mancini teased it out a bit more throughout the narrative it would have landed better, or even if he dedicated a bit more screen time to the flashback- but as it stands it’s an admirable, if somewhat sloppy, new wrinkle in Chucky’s story that injected new potential moving forward.
That potential is what resurrected the franchise and is what should be applauded. Of all the slashers that carved up the 80s, it’s rather surprising and delightful that Chucky is the only one with a continued, unbroken narrative going strong today.
Jason was rebooted in 2009 and has been stuck in movie purgatory ever since due to labyrinthian legal issues, among other things. Time will tell if the announced Crystal Lake series from Bryan Fuller comes to fruition.
Freddy has also been stuck in dreamland since his remake in 2010 put audiences to sleep.
I don’t think I need to explain to anyone reading this just how wild the branching timeline of the Halloween franchise is.
But Chucky? Not even his remake was enough to put a stop to his primary timeline. His story is ONE story, still going strong well into 2023. In fact, the third season of his awesome TV series for USA and SYFY – simply titled “Chucky” – just premiered this week.
2023 appears to be a good year for old Chucky. A third season of TV, the 10th anniversary milestone of the film that injected new blood into his fading franchise, and the 35th anniversary of the original Child’s Play. To quote the doll himself, I guess he’s our friend ‘till the end.
