Sometimes a sequel comes along and trumps the original in terms of story, action, and fun.  It’s a pretty short list.  Among them, we have Wrath of Khan, Road Warrior, and Friday the 13^th Part 3-D.  Bride of Chucky is right up there.  (Granted it’s not as good as either Wrath of Khan or Road Warrior, but it’s just about on par with Friday 3-D.)

This time everyone’s favorite murderous doll Chucky (Brad Dourif) is resurrected by his former flame, Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) using a Voodoo for Dummies book.  It doesn’t take long for Chucky to get miffed at Tiff and he puts her soul into a female doll.  In order to get their souls back into human form, they need to get an amulet in Hackensack.  Chucky and Tiffany hitch a ride with an eloping couple (Katherine Heigl and Nick Stabile) and along the way continue their murdering spree.

Bride of Chucky is fucking hilarious.  There is no two ways about it.  If you’re looking for a scary movie, look elsewhere.  If instead, you want to laugh your ass off, by all means check it out.

The script by Don Mancini (who has written all the Child’s Play movies) is peppered with a lot of in-jokes that not only poke fun at the series (“It would take three or four sequels to explain it!”), but the other popular slasher franchises as well (in the opening scene there is a shot of an evidence locker featuring Jason’s hockey mask, Freddy’s glove, Michael Myers’ mask and Leatherface’s chainsaw).  He also concocted a lot of imaginative deaths.  We get a lip piercing ripping, nails to the face, and my favorite; a mirrored ceiling crashing down upon two swingers in a waterbed.

What makes the flick a classic isn’t the kills; it’s the dialogue.  The banter between Chucky and Tiffany is side-splitting and is some of the best witty repartee since Hepburn and Tracy.  I think what makes it so funny is that when they fight, they fight about normal shit just like regular people.  Like when Chucky gets pissed that Tiffany didn’t do the dishes.  (“Those dishes aren’t gonna wash themselves!”)  Hands down the funniest scene though is when Chucky and Tiffany fuck.  “Have I got a rubber?  Tiff… I’m ALL rubber!”

The addition of Tiffany gives the series a new lease on life and Tilly is very funny in both human and doll form.  Dourif once again does a dynamite job providing Chucky’s voice and he and Tilly have a good chemistry together.  It’s funny to think that there was a time when Katherine Heigl was the chick you went to if you wanted to make a kickass sequel that was better than the original.  (Under Siege 2:  Dark Territory was the other film.)  That is before she became a complete cunt and starred in that Grey’s Anatomy crap.  She does a good job here; it’s just a shame what a crummy turn her career has taken since then.  I also enjoyed seeing John Ritter.  He’s kinda the last guy you’d expect to be in a Chucky movie, so that makes his gory death that much more fun.

Director Ronny Yu, the man who did the classic The Bride With White Hair movies infuses the movie with a lot of his patented energy.  His inventiveness with the camera compliments the anarchic material nicely and he gives us a great finale in a cemetery.  Yu also “delivers” a truly awesome set-up for the sequel.  Yu’s mad skills coupled with Mancini’s witty script makes Bride of Chucky the best film in the Child’s Play series as well as one of the best horror sequels of the 90’s.

Bride of Chucky is a solid Number 8 on The Video Vacuum Top Ten Films of 1998 List, sandwiched in between Dirty Work and Rushmore.

<Tomorrow’s Horror Franchise Movie:  Leprechaun>

Killer Doll Movies were kinda passé by the time the 80’s rolled around.  It took a sleeper horror hit like Child’s Play to revitalize the genre.  Not only was it a clever updating of an old hat, it also introduced audiences to one of the coolest screen slashers of all time:  Chucky.

Good Guy Dolls are the hot ticket toy item and Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) wants one for his birthday.  Unfortunately, his mom Karen (Catherine Hicks) is strapped for cash and has to resort to buying a doll from a creepy homeless man.  What she doesn’t realize is that a deranged killer named Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) has transferred his soul into the doll.  When Andy isn’t looking, “Chucky” goes around killing his former criminal associates until he comes to the guy who taught him Soul Transference 101.  He tells Chucky that the only way to get his soul out of the doll’s body is to put it into Andy’s.  Karen and Andy believe that Chucky is alive but detective Norris (Chris Sarandon) thinks they’re nuts.  Only after he gets attacked by Chucky does he finally agree to help them stop the terrifying toy.

Director Tom (Fright Night) Holland kinda takes his time with the first half of the movie.  It’s fairly obvious to everyone in the audience that Chucky is a walking, stalking killer doll, but Holland spends too much precious screen time on superfluous scenes of Andy trying to convince everyone that he’s real.  Once Chucky starts running around and fucking people up though, the movie really cooks. 

The scene where Hicks finds that there are no batteries in the Chucky doll is one of the greatest “Oh Shit” moments in horror history.  I first saw this flick in the theater when I was ten years old, and this scene fucking scared the shit out of me.  The finale when Chucky’s charred corpse comes back to life gave me the willies too.  There’s also a cool hammer to the face, a gnarly death by voodoo doll, and a toasty electrocution scene.  Holland delivers scares aplenty, but he even manages to give us some quality suspense as well.  I particularly liked the scene where Chucky tries to kill Sarandon while he’s driving a car. 

Brad Dourif’s creepy voice is what gives the movie its punch.  I can’t think of any other voice that would be as effective as Chucky.  He doesn’t really rely on wisecracks in this one but he still has enough of a potty mouth to make it hilarious whenever he drops the F-Bomb.

Another thing that makes Child’s Play memorable is the social commentary.  This flick really says something about fanatical consumer mentality of the 80’s.  Child’s Play was made at a time when parents would do just about anything to get their kid a Cabbage Patch Doll.  I bet if what happens in the movie really happened to your average Soccer Mom, she’d be gossiping to her friends:  “So what if my little Billy has a Good Guy Doll that’s possessed by a dead killer… at least HAS one.  I don’t see YOUR kid with a Good Guy Doll!”  I think the fact that every Christmas there is at least one toy that kids (and parents) go apeshit for (Nintendo Wii, Tickle Me Elmo, etc.) is partially what makes the film endure throughout the years.

Child’s Play is top notch in every department.  The acting is great, the direction is classy, and there are plenty of genuine scares.  I think Bride of Chucky is probably my favorite of the series, but Child’s Play remains one of the greatest Killer Doll flicks ever made.

Child’s Play is Number 10 on The Video Vacuum Top Ten Films of the Year for 1988, just below Not of This Earth.

<Tomorrow’s Horror Franchise Movie:  Bride of Chucky>

After a so-so second outing, Chucky, the killer doll returns in fine form in this fun entry to the durable Child’s Play series.  Screenwriter Don Mancini (who wrote all of the Child’s Play movies) gives Chucky some of the best lines of the series and spices things up by having the film take place in a military school (shades of The Omen 2).  

This time, Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif in the same nasally Jack Nicholson knockoff demeanor) gets reborn when the Good Guy line of toys are put back into production.  He kills the company CEO (whose motto is “The bottom line is still the bottom line!”) by garroting him.  “There’s nothing like a good strangulation to get the circulation going!”  He then sets out to find his best pal Andy, who has now grown up to become Justin (Serial Mom) Whalin who is attending military academy.  When he gets enrolled, his superior who knows his checkered past tells him, “It’s time to forgets these fantasies of killer dolls!”  Chucky initially wants to transfer his soul into Andy, but since Andy is now 16 (and played by a different actor), Chucky instead sets his sights on befriending a little black boy named Tyler and taking over his body.  “Just think, Chucky’s going to be a bro!”  During the climatic paint ball “war games” Chucky, ever the prankster substitutes live ammunition for paint and results in murder and mayhem.  This leads to the best scene in the flick.  Chucky throws a live grenade into the fracas and Andy’s nerdy put upon roommate jumps on it to save his fellow soldiers.  The icing on the cake though is when his glasses shatter on impact!  

That’s right folks; we’re talking about the Best Sacrifice by a Cadet Scene of 1991 here.  

Unfortunately, the ending in which Andy confronts Chucky in a nearby carnival haunted house doesn’t have the same impact and feels tacked on.  It also pales in comparison to the awesome finale of Part 2.  Don’t let that stop you from checking it out though; it’s still one of the Chuckster’s best.  He gets to spout some of his all time best dialogue including the immortal, “Don’t fuck with the Chuck!”  Andrew (Cobra) Robinson also puts in a funny turn as the sadistic barber who likes to say “Presto!  You’re bald!”  (Chucky’s retort:  “Presto!  You’re dead!”)  Director Jack Bender balances the scares and the laughs nicely and would later go on to direct episodes of Lost.  

This wasn’t a hit (the fact that it was only released nine months after Part 2 was probably the biggest reason for that), but it’s still a worthy addition to Chucky’s resume.  It would take Chucky seven years to come back to the big screen in the classic Bride of Chucky.