"It's a doll - what's the worst that can happen?"
That's the question that has driven the Chucky franchise since it began back in 1988 with Tom Holland's Child's Play, and it's right at the heart of the first trailer for the direct-to-DVD reboot Curse of Chucky. Thanks to his small stature and innocent appearance as a kid's toy, Chucky is underestimated by most of his victims, which is what ultimately results in their death. Chucky may be small, but he is one seriously sadistic motherfucker.
Written and directed by Don Mancini, who is credited as the creator of Chucky, the new film centers on a young woman named Nica (Fiona Dourif, daughter of star Brad Dourif) who is emotionally hit hard when her mother commits suicide. Her older sister Barb comes to town with her family so that they can sort our their mother's affairs, and with their arrival comes a mysterious package in the mail containing a creepy red-headed doll named Chucky. Unfortunately, what the family doesn't know is that Chucky (Brad Dourif) is actually possessed by the spirit of a horrific serial killer with a vendetta who begins to take the family out one by one.
Unlike the most recent sequels in the franchise, like Seed of Chucky and Bride of Chucky, the new movie seems to be going for more horror and less comedy, which is a good direction for series. The only thing I don't like, however, is the CGI Chucky. As a direct-to-DVD sequel I'm sure that this movie wasn't able to get the budget of a theatrical release, but the graphics really stick out and don't look realistic at all. As proven by the question at the start of this article, there are still a lot of people out there who still don't see how Chucky is a threat to anyone, but he becomes even less threatening when he just looks like a collection of ones and zeros that was copy and pasted into a movie with human characters.
CGI Chucky aside, it's interesting to note that when Curse of Chucky is released on October 8th it will be an unrated cut, meaning that Mancini had full power to make the movie as violent and gory as he wanted - not having to fear the scissors of the MPAA to avoid an NC1-17. The series has always been a solid choice for horror fans looking to watch a few good kills, so hopefully this newest sequel can live up to that standard.
