CULT OF CHUCKY: Arguably the best in the series since the 1988 original...
Andy Barclay will be forever haunted by his childhood experiences at the hands of the infamous 80s ‘Good Guys’ doll Chucky. He’s the foundation on which writer/director Don Mancini has built and sustained a horror franchise.
The shotgun blasted head from the end of 2013’s Curse Of Chucky is a trophy in Andy’s safe keeping, but this bodyless, supernatural form of serial killer Charles Lee Ray now taunts our hapless hero by refusing to die. Meanwhile wheelchair bound Nica (Fiona Dourif) who survived the same movie from four years ago is banged up for Chucky’s crimes and is surprised to learn she is being moved to a medium security facility. Here she is cross-examined in group therapy about her belief that the doll did the crimes not her. Dr Foley who leads the session confronts her with a Chucky replica and soon after multiple deaths, designed to compound Nica’s murderous guilt, begin to mount up.
The look and feel of Cult Of Chucky gives the film a dreamy quality. For the seventh in his series, Mancini has gone big on stark white walls and floors, and dressed all the characters in muted greys. Storywise, it cocks a snook to existing rules and logic of the franchise to deliver a very new spin on the Child’s Play experience. Jennifer Tilly is a hoot and when we are first re-introduced to her, she is wearing a bright red coat. Now you really do notice the monochrome choices in every other aspect of the film. Other flashes of red are added to good effect to denote who is bad and who is good. Fiona gets to channel her dad Brad Dourif (the voice of Chucky) and if you dwell too long on that meta-aspect, her actions and dialogue in character could be a case study for Freud.
Cult Of Chucky is a fun ride with the expected litany of gruff one-liners from the diminutive killer, brutal deaths and conceptually a couple of big surprises that stray from the existing formula. It’s unlikely to make you a Chucky convert, but is arguably the best in the series since the 1988 original.
Stuart Wright
