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After years of rumors about a remake another sequel is released upon the public. Curse Of Chucky is the 6th movie in a franchise that hit rock bottom twice. First there was Child’s Play 3 that was generally hated and seemingly put a nail into the coffin, then it was Seed of Chucky which put in another. Though I still liked the third movie, the fifth was so far away from the original movie it felt like it belonged to an entirely different franchise. So here’s Curse of Chucky which, when you look at the poster and the trailer, promises the viewer to go back to the roots of the series, and to be honest: it keeps its promise.
Nica is a paraplegic who lives with her mother in a mansion located in a remote area. One day the doorbell rings: it’s the postal delivery guy with a package. In it is a Good Guy doll which Nica’s mother quickly disposes of. That night Nica is wakened by her screaming mother. She finds her mother lying in the middle of a room, an apparent suicide… but is it?
No of course not, but I won’t have to tell you that because you’ve probably seen at least one of the previous 5 movies. The doll is alive, though once again it will take at least one character two thirds of the movie to find out.
Curse of Chucky is a decent addition to the series. It’s a mash-up of an early Child’s Play movie and those horror movies set in remote houses. That is basically a sub-genre of its own. Aside from the epilogue the whole movie takes places in this mansion with long hallways, dusty attic and a noisy elevator. As the final girl Nica is interesting, mostly due to her disability. History has shown us slashers aren’t very considerate when it comes to the handicapped. They get murdered just as easily, often even more brutally. Who can forget the wheel chair guy in Friday the 13th part 2?
This movie does have it fair share of problems though. Most of them are probably to blame on the budget. While compared to other DTV sequels to horror movies Curse of Chucky is very good, it’s also very obvious the low budget keeps the creators from giving the movie a wide scope. One of the factors responsible is that the movie is set in the mansion for 95% of the time. They never even go outside. There are no big names attached to the cast and even Brad Dourif had probably a days work. It takes about 45 minutes before Chucky actually moves in front of the camera. Like the first movie, it builds up for a long time, too long in my opinion. Remember, this is the sixth movie, the guy hardly has any more surprises left.
The story keeps you guessing, mostly how and why Chucky just pops up without any explanation. This is also the most fun part of the movie and I did like how they attached this movie to others in the franchise, though if you’ve got problems remembering Seed of Chucky (like me) the appearance of certain cast members might pose questions. The ending is surprising, the epilogue and the scene after the credits are nice additions.
What I did hate was the little girl. She had no real function to the plot, other than to be in danger, and like Andy Barclay in the first movie the kid is immediately attached to Chucky though Andy had a good reason. While looking like she’s at least 10 years old she apparently has no notion of the fact that dolls can’t talk, and especially don’t use curse words. Her character felt too much of a carbon copy of the Andy story line in the first movie.
Curse of Chucky could’ve used a larger budget, or at least not have it all take place in one location during one night. It’s a better movie than most of us would have expected after Seed of Chucky, but copying elements from the previous movies made the movie feel cheaper then it looked. If there’s another sequel I hope it’s one that is a little more action oriented and has Chucky go places again instead of just stalking some people in a large house.
