Curse of Chucky(2013) Review

After hearing news that there’s going to be another Chucky film and then seeing the trailer for Cult of Chucky I decided it was time to watch the only Child’s Play film I’d not seen. My missus is a big fan of Chucky so we settled down to watch the crazy little bastard hopefully kill some people and drop some one liners whilst doing so.

Written and Directed by Don Mancini

Stars – Brad Dourif, Fiona Dourif, Chantal Quesnelle, Danielle Biscutti, A Martinez, Maitland McConnell and Summer Howell.

Run Time – 97 minutes

Budget – $5,000,000 (estimated)

Tagline – Fear Has A New Home

Trivia – The actress who plays Nica, Fiona Dourif is the real life daughter of Brad Dourif, who provides the voice of Chucky.

Trivia – The knife Charles Lee Ray uses during the flashback sequence is the same knife Chucky uses throughout the first Child’s Play movie.

Everyone knows there’s been a lot of Chucky films and before Curse was released the franchise had moved in a completely different direction to how it started. The Child’s Play films were about a nasty little bastard doll who liked to kill people. Charles Lee Ray had managed to voodoo his soul into a doll after he was shot, he then killed and terrorised several families. The third film sparked a lot of controversy in the UK when a pair of child killers killed a young boy and rumours floated around that they tortured him in a similar style to what happened in Child’s Play 3.

Moving on from the controversy and the darker side of a killers soul inside a murderous doll, the franchise took a turn towards comedy. Bride of Chucky I very much enjoyed, sure it wasn’t as dark but it did feature some cool sayings from Chucky. However then came Seed of Chucky, this film was so bad it put me off the franchise completely and that in turn is why it’s taken me 4 years to get round to watching this. I didn’t realise until some people on Twitter pointed it out that this one goes back to it’s roots.

Like a lot of slasher films the basic story is kept pretty simple. One day Nica who is wheelchair bound gets a package delivered, inside the package is a Good Guy’s Doll, yes it’s everybody’s favourite pint size serial killer Chucky! Straight from the off we can see her Mother is a bit of an a-hole. Tragedy strikes and soon her Mother is found dead, surely a coincidence, or is it?

Nica’s family come to visit her sister who wants her to sell the house left to them and go into an assisted living facility, her sister’s husband who genuinely seems like a decent fella, her niece, her niece’s nanny and for some reason a priest. Nica gives Chucky to her niece as a present, obviously this backfires.

There’s another death as Chucky being to play, Nica soon suspects that the red haired doll is to blame but nobody would or will believe her. One stormy night the electricity goes and so do the phone lines, it’s now time for Chucky to stalk, kill and play games with everyone left in the house whilst they also deal with their own issues.

Usually a slasher film chucks in some random reason about why the killer is killing who he is killing. This is where Curse of Chucky really shines, I mean surely a doll wouldn’t be randomly sent in the post to someone just for the hell of it right? We get some insight into who and why Chucky was targeting this family. What’s great is that that in turn delves into Charles Lee Ray’s history and everything comes together well including a scene during the final credits.

The Good

• The whole story is really good, I loved the look back into the past and the reason why these killings are taking place.
• Brad Dourif as Chucky, I know it’s only voice work but he was made for this part so much so that I don’t think I’d like to see another one without him voicing, for me that’s like Hellraiser without Doug Bradley or Nightmare on Elm Street without Robert Englund and I know how I viewed it when that happened.
• Chucky is horrible in this one, he still has a comedy edge with his one liners but it’s a welcomed return to a darker version of him.
• There’s a couple of pretty brutal and gory kills as you’d expect and they don’t disappoint.
• Nice twist with the married couple.
• Summer Howell who plays Alice, Nica’s niece is a really great young actress.
• The ending was brilliant.

The Bad

• Like all films based in big old houses I always wonder why the hell don’t you sell up and go somewhere better, somewhere where you can actually afford to decorate.
• I’d have liked a couple more characters as cannon fodder.
• Some aspects of the story don’t make sense when related back to Seed and Bride of Chucky.

Other than that there’s not much that I didn’t like about this film, it was enjoyable and as I mentioned a great return back to the Chucky of old. Curse is a far better film than Seed or Bride and I’d go as far as to say it’s at least as good as any of the sequels. For some people Chucky isn’t a horror icon and for others he is up there along with Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers and Pinhead, all of which have been in some poor sequels. This film has me really hyped for Cult of Chucky, I can’t wait! So if you’ve put up with Seed of Chucky but haven’t watch this then you’re missing out.

Overall Rating – 8/10