Seed of Chucky Movie Review:


With its crude emphasis on gross-out elements instead of frights or comedy, “Seed of Chucky” earns a spot on my “Worst Movies of 2004” list. I’m a big fan of the “Child’s Play” series, especially “Bride of Chucky,” so writing such a negative review of Chucky’s fifth outing puts me in a very bad mood. However, even fans like me can’t help noticing that something went horribly wrong with the “killer doll” concept in this yucky flick. No, scratch that. Everything went wrong.

First of all, Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) and his bride Tiffany (voiced by Jennifer Tilly) don’t seem to mind being seen by humans here, and that spoils half the fun. While watching “Bride of Chucky,” I loved the way the dolls changed so quickly from inanimate objects to live characters and back again in the blink of an eye. Instead of worrying about being discovered in “Seed of Chucky,” Chucky and Tiffany spend most of their time arguing about “to kill or not to kill” as well as whether their new-found offspring (voiced by Billy Boyd), who’s not anatomically complete, should be a boy or a girl.

Almost as off-putting as the incessant arguing between Chucky and Tiffany is Jennifer Tilly’s over-the-top parody of herself here. The film starts out on a Hollywood movie set where the latest “Child’s Play” feature is being filmed. Tilly happens to be one of the stars, but she’s looking for better roles, which always go to Julia Roberts. Tilly’s scenes show the actress poured into low-cut dresses like a turkey stuffed for Thanksgiving dinner. (My apologies to the turkey.) While appearing delightfully comic in “Bride of Chucky,” Tilly does herself an injustice in “Seed of Chucky” by relying on vamping and screaming antics which come across as annoying, not as the kind of comedy she can do so well.

In terms of a “gross-out” rating, this movie ranks right below “Team America World Police.” Semen deposits, artificial insemination, graphic sexual language and masturbation are depicted in various scenes that evoked no laughter or fear from the audience at the screening I attended – just head shaking. Even the blood and gore spewed on screen seemed an afterthought to the raunchy elements taking center stage.

Isn’t there anything positive to say about “Seed of Chucky”? Hmm. I’m reaching, but the killer dolls look more lifelike than ever, and the movie is not a very long one – it just seems that way.



Betty Jo Tucker

Hardcore fans of the killer doll Chucky and B-horror movies are the only audience demographic that may enjoy Seed of Chucky, the fifth installment in the Child’s Play series. The actual horror of this film is how ludicrously poor a film it is, even for its own nature.

Don Mancini, the creator and writer of all of the Chucky films, directs this latest installment from his own script. The first Child’s Play was different take for horror fans, but as each progressed, Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) became more and more of a comedian than a scary icon. Through the previous four films, the killer whose soul transferred into the doll of Chucky has of course been killed dozens of times; he still has the battle scars to prove it. In the previous installment, Bride of Chucky, the killer doll found his old girlfriend, Tiffany (voiced by Jennifer Tilly), and ritualistically transformed her into his killer doll companion.

Seed of Chucky picks up with Chucky and Tiffany now being used as puppet props on a movie set, where Jennifer Tilly is playing herself as a B-horror movie queen. Chucky and Tiffany have a doll child named Glen (voiced by Billy Boyd), who has recently escaped from a harsh and murderous entertaining sideshow. After finding his parents and resurrecting them, Chucky and Tiffany learn that Glen is nothing like them. He is nice, confused about his gender, and wets himself when he sees his parents kill someone. The idea is then composed by the couple that they will artificially inseminate the actress Jennifer Tilly, and then transfer Glen’s soul into the baby, while Tiffany’s soul will over take Tilly’s body and Chucky will take over the body of her current fling, rapper Redman.

As anticipated, the body count begins to pile up in the most grotesque ways including a decapitation, a disembowelment, a splash of sulfuric acid on a victim’s face, and of course Chucky running Britney Spears (Nadia Dina) off of the road. Mancini blends in continuous inside jokes from classic horror films, including takes on Psycho, Rosemary’s Baby, and Chucky playing like he is Jack Nicholson in The Shining. However, the writer/director has no grasp on direction of any kind. Of course, Mancini does make Chucky a cursing comedian once again and Tiffany is worse this time around as well. The notion of having the characters being aroused by blood and guts among other things makes them nothing close to scary, just degrading. The new doll to the series of Glen looks so fragile and hideous as if he was a bad puppet created for laughs in Team America: World Police. The film even gets worse when Glen unleashes his martial art skills.

Going from once being an Oscar nominated actress in Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway to now being a franchise character of the Chucky films is the squeaky voiced Jennifer Tilly. Tilly screams a lot throughout the film and even makes fun of herself often in her quest to be a B-horror queen herself. Redman arrives as a prop for the film, as does John Waters in a cameo as a paparazzi figure. Hannah Spearritt also arises in a wasted role as Tilly’s young assistant.

Seed of Chucky arrives in theaters a few weeks after Halloween in the sense of picking up all the leftovers from The Grudge and Saw. Of course, the film does leave open an opportunity for a sixth film. The only beings that may enjoy this lump of garbage are the hardcore fans of Chucky. The film is actually a laughfest at how dreadful it really is. Also embarrassing is that this film got a theatrical release, there are some straight to video horror films that are actually better. Now that is scary.

Bailey Henderson

After three straightforward slasher films, starting with 1988's Child's Play, Mancini shifted to more knowingly silly horror with 1998's Bride of Chucky. This fifth instalment is a hilarious pastiche of thrillers, including movies within movies, self-reverential gags and outlandish grisliness. It's not very good, but it's great fun.

Glen (voiced by Boyd) is a Pinocchio-like puppet who escapes his vile English freakshow to find his parents Chucky and Tiffany (voiced by Dourif and Tilly) on the Hollywood set of a movie about their exploits. He naively uses his dad's magical amulet to resurrect them, not knowing that they're homicidal maniacs. But now they have a child, so they vow to break their addiction to murder. On the other hand, it'd be handy to inhabit the bodies of a couple of glamorous stars (Tilly and Redman, as hilarious versions of themselves).

The script is absolutely jammed with silly jokes, many of which are actually funny (we won't talk about the many that fall completely flat or never get off the ground at all). Each character has little quirks that make them great fun to watch, keeping us giggling both through the sheer audacity of the script (is Glen a Glen or a Glenda?) and the daring of the cast members (honestly, Tilly and Redman have no shame!). Even Waters, as a slimy paparazzo, goes for broke. And as the story gets increasingly unhinged, referencing horror films from Psycho to The Shining to Scream, we can almost hear the filmmakers laughing at their own jokes. Which in a strange way actually makes it funnier.

Now I have to confess that I've seen plenty of clips, but I've never seen another Chucky movie. Which may hand helped. The story stands on its own, never gets remotely complicated, and simply shows Mancini having a great time acknowledging his favourite scary movies while spinning a blood-soaked little yarn. It's actually nice to see a film in which the villains have strong, vivid personalities, even if they're plastic dolls. And while it's not terribly clever, it's still a gleeful must-see for horror fans.

Rich Cline

 

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