CURSE OF CHUCKY (2013)

Studio:       Universal Pictures
Director:    Don Mancini
Writer:       Don Mancini
Producer:  David Kirschner
Stars:     Fiona Dourif, Danielle Bisutti, Brennan Elliott, Maitland McConnell, Chantal Quesnelle, Summer Howell, A Martinez, Brad Dourif

Review Score: 

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Summary:

Chucky returns to terrorize a family that is mysteriously connected to his previous life as serial killer Charles Lee Ray. 

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Wheelchair bound Nica lives in a secluded old mansion with her troubled mother Sarah Pierce. Nica flirts with the deliveryman who brings an unmarked package to their door, although Sarah discourages her daughter from any potential romance. Inside the box is the unwrapped Chucky doll. Nica mentions that her niece Alice will love it while Sarah appears vaguely uncomfortable with the doll. Sarah puts the doll in the trashcan outside. That night, Nica is awakened by screams before finding her mother lying dead in a pool of blood. Chucky sits motionless in a nearby chair.

Nica’s sister Barb and her husband Ian arrive at the house along with their daughter Alice, her nanny Jill, and family friend Father Frank. The family believes that Sarah committed suicide. Nica discovers that the doll is nowhere to be found when she attempts to give it to her niece, but Alice finds Chucky in the bathroom. Because her family is struggling financially, Barb tries convincing Nica to move into assisted living so that they can sell their mother’s house.

Alice helps Nica prepare a chili dinner for everyone. While the girls set the table, Chucky puts Vetox rat poison in one of the bowls. At dinner, Barb watches her husband flirt with the nanny. Father Frank excuses himself suddenly when he breaks into a sweat. He is later decapitated following a car accident.

Back at the house, everyone reminisces while watching old home movies. A strange man is seen in the background of one of the films. Alice tells everyone that Chucky is missing. While Jill searches for the doll, Barb corners Jill in the kitchen and the two women make out. Nica finds Chucky on the couch next to Ian. Nica becomes stuck in the house’s elevator when the power goes out temporarily. She ends up with a knife wound on her leg, which goes unnoticed because her lower half has no feeling.

Barb worries when Alice claims that Chucky has been telling her disturbing things. A storm begins outside. Nica calls the delivery company and learns that the Chucky doll was sent from a police evidence depository. She then begins researching the doll on her laptop and discovers Chucky’s murderous history with Andy Barclay. Barb lies in bed with her husband while Jill stays in another room with Alice, but both women video chat via webcam. Barb sees a small figure move behind Jill and alerts the nanny’s attention to it, assuming that it is Alice. It turns out to be Chucky, who then kills Jill by electrocution. At the same time, Nica Googles a picture of Charles Lee Ray and recognizes him as the strange man in her family’s home movies.

Barb and Ian argue about Jill. Ian reveals that he knows about his wife’s affair and tells her that he hid a nanny cam inside the doll. Nica tries to warn her sister about the doll, but Barb is too focused on the collapse of her marriage. Later, Barb discovers scars all over Chucky’s head when she pulls away his makeup. Chucky then stabs Barb in her eyeball. Her body tumbles down the staircase towards Nica, followed by Chucky.

Nica is able to lock herself in Ian’s bedroom. When Nica warns him about Chucky, Ian rushes to Alice’s room and finds Jill’s body. Ian comes to suspect that Nica actually killed everyone when she continues to blame Chucky. Ian holds Nica captive while he watches the nanny cam footage. The live feed shows the doll stalking him, but it is too late for Ian to react and Chucky kills him with an axe. Nica breaks her restraints and uses her deadened legs to stop Chucky’s axe. She then beheads the doll. While dressing her wound, Chucky recovers and pushes Nica’s wheelchair over the banister.

While Nica lies on the foyer floor, Chucky reveals that Charles Lee Ray once stalked Nica’s mother Sarah and kept her prisoner. Ray stabbed Sarah while she was pregnant and caused Nica’s paralysis. Sarah was the one who informed the police of Ray’s location just before he hid in the Chicago toy store. A chase and struggle ensues before Nica is finally able to stab Chucky.

Police arrive and arrest Nica for the murders in the house. Nica is subsequently convicted at trial. In the parking garage outside the courthouse, the arresting officer plans to sell the Chucky doll collected as evidence, but his throat is slashed by Tiffany. Afterwards, Tiffany goes to a USX store and prepares to ship Chucky to another location.

Alice comes home to her grandmother’s and sees an open USX package on the kitchen table. Chucky appears behind Alice and proposes a game of “Hide the Soul.” Alice’s grandmother is seen gasping for air with a plastic bag over her head.

In a post-credits coda, Chucky is shipped to Andy Barclay, but Andy greets the doll’s arrival with a shotgun blast.

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Review:

Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers are commonly touted as “The Big Three” of horror filmdom’s top icons.  “The Lakeshore Strangler” Charles Lee Ray, better known by his diminutive alter ego as the Good Guy doll Chucky, is often unjustly overlooked even though he has a body count on par with his peers and can give Freddy a run for his money in the one-liners department.  Chucky’s film series also shares an accordion-like timeline of highs and lows that is all too common amongst longstanding slasher franchises.  Still, Chucky remains a recognizable figure, even if the character is more memorable than any of his individual silver screen outings.

Despite annual theme park appearances at their Halloween Horror Nights event, and a residency in their year round House of Horrors attraction, Universal Studios has not exactly been clamoring to keep Chucky in the public consciousness with a regular presence at the Cineplex.  “Curse of Chucky” sees its release just one year shy of a decade since the previous “Child’s Play” sequel, 2004’s “Seed of Chucky.”  Without any executive pressure above the line on writer/director Don Mancini and producer David Kirschner to pump out new installments in the series, it is a reasonable bet that the original creators would only revisit the “Child’s Play” universe if they had a genuinely entertaining tale that they wanted to tell.

And their passion for the project that they initially birthed in 1988 runs just as high on the fifth sequel 25 years later.  “Curse of Chucky” is a satisfying chapter in the saga of a serial killer turned child’s toy that harkens back to the heyday of modern horror with a cool sheen of contemporary polish.

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The cast list of “Curse of Chucky” is filled to the brim with faces that are familiar mostly because they resemble other actors.  Brennan Elliott channels a Mark Ruffalo vibe while his onscreen wife Danielle Bisutti stares with crystal eyes that could confuse her for Rena Sofer’s sister.  Their sexy nanny, played by Maitland McConnell, paints on her pants and struts about as though Jaime Pressly just walked in from her “Poison Ivy” sequel.

Fiona Dourif, daughter of Brad “Voice of Chucky” Dourif, stars as wheelchair bound Nica.  The Chucky doll is mysteriously delivered to Nica and her mother in an unmarked package at their spooky Victorian mansion.  Once the doll is unwrapped, Nica’s mother ends up in a pool of blood and Nica’s extended family comes for a visit to put the estate in order.  Nica’s niece takes a liking to Chucky, but it doesn’t take too long for Nica’s other relatives to start joining her mother in the morgue.

Straight out of the gate, “Curse of Chucky” deftly establishes an honest mother-daughter relationship and backstory that makes it clear that these are characters serving more of a purpose than being mere knife fodder.  Clever characterizations and sincere performances across the board give surprising depth to Nica’s family and their various internal relationships.

The characters are so well defined that it works as a detriment because it takes a while for Chucky to shine in the spotlight.  While the screenplay works on establishing everyone as believable personalities, Chucky sits motionless in the background or offscreen until he is given free reign to conduct his latest rampage.  The movie is almost half over before Chucky becomes fully animated and finally delivers dialogue in Brad Dourif’s familiar voice.

With the carnage underway at last, things do devolve into familiar territory.  A thunderstorm begins outside the mansion, and the excessive lightning flashes become so frequent that it might as well be daytime.  “Curse of Chucky” starts laying its style on thick, yet curiously, it works.  If “Child’s Play” sequels appeared more regularly, this sixth film in the series would be harder to stomach.  But the long gap between Chucky adventures makes even a predictably goofy installment seem all the more inviting.  And whether it is the dilation of Chucky’s pupils or the clink of a spoon against tooth enamel, the production is clearly putting its best foot forward with a focus on slick camera movements and an attention to little details in visuals and sound design.

While it is nowhere near as daffy as “Bride of Chucky” or “Seed of Chucky,” it would not be a “Child’s Play” movie without some level of tongue in cheek charm.  A movie about a serial killer’s soul trapped inside a child’s doll can only be approached with a certain amount of seriousness, after all.  Like its predecessors, “Curse of Chucky” generously bends the standards of realism to suit its narrative, usually with blatant disregard for story elements to require sense.  Looking back too much thought after the credits end will only result in an unending list of questions.  How did Chucky know which dinner guest would be served the poisoned chili bowl?  Why does Chucky need the little girl specifically?  And did the story of a serial killer possessing a doll and committing a bevy of murders not make national headlines that these people do not recognize Chucky as a symbol of evil?

Of course, wanting answers to any of these questions only means that you are doing it wrong.  Few are going to watch the sixth movie in the “Child’s Play” series without already being a fan or without having some foreknowledge of the comedic horror blend that Chucky brings to his table.  For those who know exactly what they are signing up for, “Curse of Chucky” meets all expectations and then some.  Far from perfect, it is a return to classic “Child’s Play” form that proves Chucky should not be neglected when it comes to ranking the top faces in horror entertainment.

NOTE: There is a post-credits scene.

Review Score:  75

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