BRIDE OF CHUCKY
Penned by Don Mancini, who has made a career of writing all the Child's
Play movies, the film takes the character of Chucky the doll in a new
direction from that of his 1988 debut. Then, he was a classically scary
concept: a child's plaything gone wrong. Like in The Exorcist and
Rosemary's Baby, the horror came from the juxtaposition of innocence
and evil. Now, 10 years later, Mancini's new Chucky has mellowed into a
cute little wise-ass with a bad disposition and a butcher knife. His misdeeds
and foul language contrast with his childish (if demonic) expression to
produce laughs, not horror, and Mancini has turned up the sarcasm full blast.
And now Chucky has a girlfriend who's every bit his equal. They trade good-natured
barbs as well as Dan and Roseanne.
Brad Dourif has made a long career of playing strange characters, starting
with his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
(1975) and appearing most recently as the creepy gas station attendant in
last month's Urban Legend. His role
as the voice of Chucky is probably his most famous, though Child's Play
afficionados know that the character is not the doll itself but the spirit
of satanic serial killer Charles Lee Ray, whom we met during the opening
credits of the 1988 film. As he is being shot by a police officer in a toy
store, Ray grabs the first thing he can find--a doll--and calls upon the
dark spirits to endow it with his soul. And throughout the following three
films, Ray has been trying to get back into a human body, always stymied
by those who want to destroy him.
The woman who finds and reassembles the burnt, battered parts of the
10-year-old doll this time is Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), Ray's long-lost
girlfriend. After a lover's spat, she locks him up in a cage with a little
plastic bride doll, as a cruel joke. But he breaks out, kills her, and transplants
her soul into the girl doll. As we watch, the cute little dolly changes
from a doe-eyed bride to a leather-jacketed, black lipsticked hellion with
bleached-blonde hair and black roots. After a reconciliation of sorts, the
two begin a hunt for the amulet buried with Ray's corpse, which can provide
them with the power to regain human form and live horrifically ever after.
Integral to their plan is a pair of lovesick teens, Jesse and Jade (Nick
Stabile and Katherine Heigl), who not only can provide wheels to the cemetery,
but are perfect specimens of young human flesh. Jesse and Jade are good
kids, but at every stop on their trip, someone gets killed. The kids become
suspects, and even suspect each other, but no one knows it's really the
dolls hiding in the back seat who are doing all the mischief.
Bride Of Chucky's good points (its humor and character chemistry) struggle to overcome its bad points (terrible acting and a tiresome, boring love story between Jesse and Jade). The bloody murders are not nearly as horrible to watch as the doll sex scene (yes), but that scene is necessary to set us up for the following sequel. Not to give away the ending, but I'm willing to bet that the next movie will be called Son Of Chucky. ***