Cult of Chucky (2017) Review

“This is the end, fucker”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Don Mancini got the right amount of resurgence in the Chucky franchise by going back in familiar territory, making his slasher icon straight up scary again. When that paid off in the direct to video entry, Curse of Chucky, Universal trusted him enough to have another go.


PLOT


Cult of Chucky takes place four years after the events of the preceding film; The story follows the paraplegic Nica Pierce stuck in Harrogate Psychiatric Hospital as she is falsely accused of murdering her family, not having proof that the real perpetrator was the serial killer doll Charles Lee Ray. As she goes through intensive shock therapy by her abusive therapist Doctor Foley, she is starting to think she did what she is accused of and Chucky was just a figment of her imagination. At this hospital does she interact with other people that actually are stable. The other patients include Angela who has schizophrenia, Claire who has a mix of anger & pyromania issues, Madeleine who’s been unstable since suffocating her own child, and ‘Multiple Malcolm’ who has dissociative identity disorder. During a group session, Foley introduces a Good Guy doll as a new therapy technique, which Madeleine quickly treats like it was her baby. Nica then gets a visit from Tiffany Valentine (still possessing the body of actress Jennifer Tilly) who was Alice’s guardian, telling her niece had died of heartbreak and leaves behind her own Good Guy doll. At night, the second doll comes to life a Chucky and predictably targets Nica. He finds her cut her own wrists as a result of her grief towards losing Alice. By morning, she wakes up stitched up and Angela is found dead staged as a suicide. This incident has her remember her past experiences really happened. By the next group session, Nica tries to convince Foley that Chucky is alive, but he seems to prove it’s unlikely due to burning the doll’s hand with a lighter where the doll doesn’t respond. Claire tries getting rid of the second doll and she realizes Nica was right when he bites her. When Foley suspects her to commit self harm, he and nurse Carlos (Zak Santiago) strap her to a table hoping to sedate her. That doesn’t happen when Chucky uses spare time to use an oxygen tank that he launches through a skylight; The falling glass would impale and decapitate her. Andy Barclay, who has the head of the original Chucky that tried to kill him, has kept it hoping to prove he’s alive to Foley, hoping to prove Nica’s innocence. That sadly never worked and upon hearing what’s going on at Harrogate, this means Chucky has split his soul into multiple dolls. Realizing this, he goes there and mails a third doll with a buzz cut to the location. He doesn’t get there until the next day and during the night, one of the dolls try to coax Nica into killing Foley, which doesn’t work. By morning, Madeleine smothers the same doll Foley introduced and starts feeling placated when burying it. When Andy gets there at the same time his doll is mailed, he commits himself by punching a guard. At the same time, the first doll emerges from the grave and Madeleine allows it to kill her by ripping a piece of her spine from the mouth. Foley tries to assault Nica during a hypnosis trance, but he gets stopped by the second doll. When the buried doll enters the office, Nica finally realizes both dolls are alive. They then awaken the third doll Andy brought and together kill Nurse Ashley (Ali Tataryn), Carlos & Multiple Malcolm. Upon this, the second doll admits to having Alice killed when hosting her. The third doll goes after Andy, but he ultimately gets killed by him as he rips a gun from his chest, shooting him down and stomping his face. The second doll then fully possesses Nica, whose body regains the ability to walk and puts the use of her legs to good use when stomping on Foley’s face to death. Nica-Chucky leaves Andy in the cell and reunites with Tiffany waiting outside, who also split her soul with her own doll. The film ends in a post credit cliffhanger where the severed head is finished off by Andy’s foster sister Kyle (Christine Elise).


THOUGHTS


I was impressed with what we got out of Curse, so I was instantly onboard with what else Mancini had to provide and he surpassed expectations again. With a bigger budget compared to the last one, it’s able to feel as grand as the second film because the creativity goes nuts here. One Chucky is already scary on his own before Tiff is in the picture, but an army of Chucky dolls is a living nightmare and they embraced it. It’s not everyday you would see a trio of dolls team up to kill one guy with a broken glass, scalp and electric screwdriver. That got me on the edge of my seat after already seeing one get choked out and another get decapitated from an oxygen tank. That’s the kind of creativity that felt missing for a while until this came along. Brad Dourif still nails it in making Chucky an unhinged figure that it makes all the right sense for him to make an army of himself and the designs in each one of them are way better than what was done in Curse. Had the show not been made, it would’ve been all the more shocking of a cliffhanger to see him get away with the mess he made. Seeing Alex Vincent return to play Andy as an adult was another great way to be a return to form for the franchise because seeing him hardened has proven trauma can be a weapon instead of a weakness. He kept that head because he wanted to understand how his voodoo functions, only to be one upped by his rival who did it before capture. It makes a lot of sense for him to think so because he’s never straight up seen how he’s gotten new bodies which happened by chance each time. Since he still keeps in touch with Kyle, it’s good to know he was never alone in a personal fight. And it was bold of him for being willing to kill Nica had he not ran out of ammo. Plus, it was pretty dope seeing him torture the head in the opening after all the years the villain has traumatized him and generations of audiences since 1988. As for Nica, Fiona Dourif is still an impressive feat in continuing to spread that theme of not being overthrown by trauma. She was so alone within because she had no connection with the other patients and Michael Therriault showed Foley as one who never intended to help her get better. She couldn’t connect with them because as each one of them showed, they don’t have the same issues. Adam Hurtig made Multiple Malcolm so unpredictable that he thought he had a Chucky personality for no reason. Grace Lynn Kung showed Claire to have unexplainable paranoia before one of her fears was actually true, while Marina Stephenson Kerr showed Angela to be too troubled to figure herself out. And lastly, Elisabeth Rosen showed Madeleine to be most deluded as she never understood her own past actions and found an uncomfortable resolution. The feeling of defeat almost went into full effect when she let the loss consume her deeply. Ironically, Chucky stopping her suicide gave her an unusual second chance to face her demons. It didn’t go as planned since Chucky had the last laugh by taking over her body, but it still paved the way for her to be eventually saved in the show. Plus, I found it top tier acting for seeing Fiona impersonate her dad Brad as Nica-Chucky during the climax. This movie holds well on its own, but there were still a few things that don’t make much sense upon rewatching. For starters, why would Chucky call Angela of all people? I know he wants to get in Nica’s head, but it’s on him wanting to trust someone not stable. And did Foley even mistake Tiffany to be Tilly since that is the latter’s body? I mean if Nica pointed it out, it’s a surprise he didn’t pick up on it. I don’t even see the point of him allowing two dolls on campus even if he doesn’t believe the truth. And I would so believe Andy if I see a severed doll head scream after being shot with a pin nailer. Also, if Foley wanted to further prove his point, he should’ve used the scalpel to stab him. Hell, how does Tiff even have Andy’s number? Since Andy tries to hide his past to strangers like his date Rachel, it’s hard to believe the former would go this far to get in his head? On top of that, why aren’t there any cameras in the hallway? I mean that would’ve gone a long way to help Andy & Nica out. If Chucky made the time to wipe the evidence with Nica’s body, that should’ve been said so. Lastly, how did Buzzcut-Chucky not feel the gun inside him once alive? I mean anything alive would’ve felt a metal object like that. Ignore this, then you’ll still have a blast for what’s shown. In short, Cult of Chucky is an impressive follow-up that knew exactly how to raise the stakes in more ways than one. If you’ve been a fan of this slasher franchise since day one, see this as soon as possible.