THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When you change the scenery, you can save your franchise from deep waters. Writer Don Mancini knew this when giving a much needed update to Child’s Play.
PLOT
The sequel Bride of Chucky follows Tiffany Valentine collects the remains of the doll once possessed by her love Charles Lee Ray. She reassembles the doll with spare pieces in her trailer home and brings him back from the dead with her voodoo expertise. It’s proven to work when he kills her goth admirer Damien (Alexis Arquette). Chucky’s return would quickly disappoint Tiff when he admits he never intended to marry her before his first death. She chooses to imprison him by trapping him in a playpen, only for him to retaliate by dropping a television set on her while she’s bathing which resulted in her to be electrocuted to death. He then transfers her soul to a bride doll, which puts her in the same predicament on the need of new human bodies to continue their previous lives. Chucky points out they need an amulet called the ‘Heart of Damballa’ in order to body swap without the need of relying on the first person they reveal themselves to. Tiff picks her neighbor Jesse Miller to drop them off to a cemetery in Hackensack where Chucky was buried since he had the amulet last. The plan is to use him and his girlfriend Jade Kincaid to drive the dolls to the cemetery only to use their bodies to be their new hosts. Jesse is convinced to do it since he doesn’t know of what happened to Tiff, but mostly motivated in exchange of $1000 to run away with Jade and start their own lives since her uncle Warren does not approve of their relationship. Soon as he picks up his girlfriend, she agrees to marry him along the way. As Jesse helps her pack, her strict uncle and police chief investigates his truck in order to plant a bag of illegal marijuana and later frame him, but that plan doesn’t go his way when the dolls try to kill him by tossing a jar of nails into his face. They hide his body before the couple returns and continue with the trip. They don’t go too far when getting pulled over by Officer Norton (Michael Louis Johnson) who finds the weed when searching Jesse’s vehicle. Just when he returns to his cop car to report it, Chucky kills him by igniting his car tank. Since they don’t know how it happened, they suspect each other to be responsible especially when civilians nearby suspect them first. Despite having suspicion towards one another, they still choose to elope at a chapel in Niagara Falls. During this, the dolls kill Kincaid for good when he wakes up and tries to escape. They then elope as well when falling in love all over again as they kill a couple who stole Jesse’s wallet. By morning, Jesse’s friend David Collins (Gordon Michael Woolvett) catches up with them and tag along. Just when he suspects them to be innocent, he panics upon seeing Warren’s body. When Jesse pulls over for him and Jade to see what he sees, the dolls reveal themselves to be alive. David would panic and get out of the truck, but would get in the middle of traffic that he would be ran over by a semi truck. The dolls hold the newlywed human couple at gunpoint and order them to keep driving as they explain their ordeal. In order to evade the cops, couples would then ditch the truck and take an RV from an elderly couple the dolls quickly kill too. Jesse & Jade instigate an argument between the dolls in order to distract them long enough to be free of them. Just when Jesse pushes Chucky out the RV, he crashes. The main doll is still able to hold Jade after the crash in which he takes her to his grave at gunpoint and has her give him the amulet. Tiff barely survives the crash after being kicked into an oven and Jesse holds her at gunpoint in order for Jade to be returned to him. Chucky does go on with the exchange, but still ties up the couple to go on with the ritual. Just when he seems to get what he’s been wanting for so long, Tiff declares they’re better off dead than be fugitives for whatever would be left of their lives and decides to stab him in the back. Chucky retaliates by stabbing her back in the stomach which seems to have killed her. Jade takes advantage of this to trap him in his grave. She and Jesse get held at gunpoint by Private investigator Lieutenant Preston (Lawrence Dane), but he realizes they’re not to blame of the recent murders when seeing Chucky. He sends them on their way when calling his superiors they’re innocent, but the film ends with the PI getting killed by a baby doll coming from Tiff who gives birth to before giving her last breath.
THOUGHTS
Mancini knew he had to avoid repetition since the first three films had mirrored narratives, and boy did he spice things up in this straight up horror comedy. Director Ronny Yu helps give a proper balance between both genres in order for whole narrative to have a good balance. The laughs and scares go to the dynamic couple of villains that continue to be icons to this day. You already expect Brad Dourif to be diabolically colorful as Chucky, who gets quite an upgrade with his visible facial scars that still haunt me to this day thanks to David Kirschner’s designs, but it is Jennifer Tilly who brings new life to the series. She’s incredibly great as Tiffany for despite showing her to be psychotic whenever she chooses to kill, especially when she insists on getting creative, but has this unlikely softness due to being a hopeless romantic like the protagonists seem to be. If you don’t believe she is, then seeing her tear up to The Bride of Frankenstein will prove otherwise. She is so attached to Chucky because they connect solely off of the pleasure they have when killing. Chucky does come around in pleasing her, but the fact it takes convincing for him to do anything for her proves how they were never meant to be and their relationship is toxically codependent which doesn’t change as the franchise progresses. You would think both of them would be put to misery when they die here, but their unplanned child proves to be another chapter of insanity for them to go through. The birth of Glen, later known as GG, felt just as unsettling as the unwanted comedic doll sex between both killers. Our protagonists are predictably the other side of the coin when it comes to toxic relationships because even though they have their own bickering, they pick up the pieces better than the villains do that love doesn’t cure toxicity per se but only makes it noticeable. Nick Stabile & Katherine Heigl definitely bring a Romeo & Juliet vibe to the table because as Jesse & Jade, their actions are impulsive to prove how far they’ll go for each other. The fact they doubt each other for who they are proves how rushed they acted upon their relationship. Considering how overly strict John Ritter made as Warren, it’s not a surprise why Jade chose to be rebellious enough to let her heart do the thinking. Compared to the killer dolls, they still want to try not for making it as far as they do but for willing to not define each other for them since they’ve never tried to hurt each other. Even though they got a lot of steps to make things better for another, I have my fingers crossed the characters have a better relationship now than they did here, since they seem have a happy ending unchanged thus far compared to the other characters that have crossed paths with the villain(s). Having said what I said on what makes the film entertaining to this day, it doesn’t change the things that are head scratching upon a rewatch. For starters, the retcon on the amulet is so forced because we never saw Chucky wear it the day he first died. He could’ve said it was in his pocket to be more believable about it. Also, how come the police station didn’t have a camera at the evidence vault? I mean that helps solve many cases, so not having that is crazier than this film making other slasher franchises canon to one another with their signature items being in the vault too (Jason Voorhees’ hockey mask, Leatherface’s chainsaw, Michael Myers’ pale white mask and Freddy Krueger’s glove). And why was the doll’s remains if no one believes in Andy of Chucky? It’s just a strange way to set up Tiffany getting a hold of him. It even feels stranger for how there was a cop that got shot by Chucky when pursuing the Kincaids and no one mentions it at all as the franchise progressed. I mean that had to have seen Chucky with the gun and not Jade. Personally, Jesse should’ve met up with Jade & David at wherever the dance was gonna be since they know Warren and Norton would have followed either way. I mean hiding in David’s car was like asking to get caught. Moving on, if Damien wanted to impress Tiff with the idea of being a killer, he could’ve taken a picture of a random corpse to stumble upon. It is a stretch, but that could’ve worked if he tried. And how does Chucky keep quiet when wanting to sneak up on Damien? It’s one thing to hide under the beds, but it’s a miracle he didn’t notice his mark on on the seance in the middle of the trailer. And howcome Tiff didn’t hear him break out of the playpen? It ain’t like the tv was that Lou for her to ignore. It even gets crazier to know Jesse ignored the broken playpen because the damage looks nothing like as if an animal did it. I don’t even blame Jade for being so annoyed of Norton being an underling for her uncle that she’d try to attack him in public, but you’re playing with fire putting your hands on a cop. On top of that, how did anyone not hear the commotion in which the dolls killed the thieving couple? The obliviousness is insane in this world. Other than that, I’m sure you can have a good time as much as possible. In short, Bride of Chucky is a shakeup much needed to make slasher films entertaining going into the 21st century. If you’re a fan of Child’s Play, I don’t doubt you’ll enjoy this sequel as well.
Comments