Chucky has been a part of my life since I was six years old. The original Child’s Play is still my favorite movie. I have watched all the sequels time and time again. Even though they got a little cheesy over the years, Chucky has always been my go to. And yes, part three is just horrible, and Bride and Seed of Chucky are straight up comedies, but therein lies the difference between those sequels and Curse of Chucky. This movie goes back to it’s horror roots that the first movie had.
Nica is the main character of the film and lives there with her mother Sarah (Chantel Quesnelle). Nica is a paraplegic. She is played Fiona Dourif (True Blood), and yes she is the daughter of Brad Dourif (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Rob Zombie’s Halloween). The voice that we have all come to love as the one and only Chucky.
It starts off with this package arriving at Nica’s, house. music in the background is just eerie. It’s kind of giving you the implication that this is not gonna be another cheesy Chucky movie. Don Mancini (Creator of the franchise) wanted to get away from the fun cheese of the last two movies and go back to the original horror roots. A great idea to say the least, I don’t think some people would want another cheesy Chucky flick. I enjoy Bride and Seed of Chucky, but they are absolute brain candy. This one does to Chucky what Wes Craven’s New Nightmare did for Freddy, which is make them scary again.
The delivery guy gives Nica the package and she and her mother open to find and a brand new Good Guy doll. It was so refreshing to see him restored to his former glory. Franken-Chucky looks cool and all, but Cute Chucky is just so much more creepy, I think anyway. That same same night the terror begins. Nica is awaken in the middle of the night by her mother screaming. She goes downstairs to find her mother impaled with a giant set of scissors.
The next morning Nica’s sister Barb, Brother-in-law Ian, little niece Alice, and their nanny Jill arrive. Now the fun can really begin. Before the killings start happening Nica goes to give Alice the doll, but it’s gone. It was sitting in the chair in the living room when they arrived. You can see Nica questioning in her head “What the hell?”. As the day goes on, little things keep happening that arrises Nica’s suspicion. The biggest one being where did the doll come from? So she calls the company and they tell her its from an “Evidence Depository”.
As the evening goes on, Chucky begins with hiding Alice, having her believe that it’s a game of Hide-and-seek. Then he starts his killing spree. He electrocutes someone with a bucket of water which in turn shuts off the power. A classic horror movie cliche. Rainy night, no power, a killer lurking inside the house… Before the power cuts out Nica googles ‘Chucky doll evidence’. Of course it brings up articles about the murders of all the previous films, and finally she gets to pages about Andy Barclay very shortly after discovers the truth about Chucky. Throughout the night he kills them all one by one. A cop arrives and Nica is covered in blood holding a knife. Like Andy Barclay in the first films, no one believes her when she tells them Chucky did it. Thus I think gives the title of the movie. The ‘curse’ being that no one believes people who come into contact with Chucky. Would you believe someone saying “A doll killed my family”? She ends up getting locked up in an asylum for the criminally insane which leads into Cult of Chucky. Which I hope to review when it comes out in October.
What I like about this one is the fact that it goes back to being creepy, and made Chucky not so campy anymore. It may have taken almost 30 years, but Chucky has finally embraced the whole Killer Doll motif. There is a reason that he chose this family, but I won’t tell why. The fact that Chucky is in disguise is a great concept. We get the best of both worlds in a sense. And Alice says one of the best lines in the movie. She’s praying with her mother and she says “Chucky says there is no God. He says ‘Life’s a bitch then you die bleeding like a stuck pig’. Every time I hear her say that it cracks me up, because it’s reminiscent of Andy Barclay in Child’s Play when he says “Aunt Maggie was a real bitch and got what she deserved”. What is it about kids cussing in movies that makes us laugh?
I love the casting and the little treats we get at the end after Nica gets committed. With the budget that this film had, Don Mancini and his team made it work. The house alone was great and was character in itself. It definitely gives the movie that classic gothic feel. Also Nica’s character arc is one for empowerment. She’s in a wheelchair and is physically the most vulnerable of Chucky’s victims. She still takes him on and fights. Even though she ends up in a nuthouse, she’s alive and will continue to fight along side Andy Barclay in the upcoming sequel, Cult of Chucky.