Seed of Chucky (2004) Review

“I can’t think of a thing to say. Fuck it”

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

When a family is born, we like to think making change can do good, only to realize you may not be capable of it.


PLOT


Seed of Chucky takes place six years after the previous film and follows a doll that was conceived from killer dolls Charles Lee Ray & Tiffany Valentine. He has been nicknamed 'Shitface' by a British ventriloquist named Psychs (Keith-Lee Castle) that exploits him, only for him to travel from England to Los Angeles upon finding his parents on television for a movie about them starring Jennifer Tilly, called 'Chucky Goes Psycho'. He finds them in a prop room and uses the Heart of Damballa to awaken them where they wake up surprised to know they have a child. Since he has no genitals, they debate on whether to name their child either Glen or Glenda. They continue their killing spree by killing special effects technician Tony Gardner and when Tilly finds the man's body, she reports her discovery to the police. Chucky and his family agree to use their voodoo to transfer their souls to celebrities. Tiff is willing to transfer to Tilly and Chucky is willing to transfer to rapper Redman who is invited by the actress to her home, as she intends to seduce him for a lead role in a Virgin Mary adaptation he plans to direct. When her assistant Joan expresses disgust, she fires her over having an opinion. The doll family and their couple sneak into a limousine and onto Tilly's home hiding in her attic. Before both celebrities have their affair, Tiff knocks them unconscious to inseminate Tilly with Chucky's sperm, intending to use her baby as the host for Glen/Glenda. Shortly after, Chucky takes his child on a joyride to kill paparazzo Pete Peters (John Waters) who has photo proof of their existence since he was following Tilly around. Glen almost stops his dad from killing him, but his good intentions lead to him dying anyway when being exposed to sulfuric acid. Despite being haunted of an accident, Chucky is delighted of his child's participation. Tilly does wake up pregnant the next day and shares this to Redman, but he deems himself impossible to be the baby daddy because he recently had a vasectomy. When he refuses to hire her for not deeming pregnant women attractive enough for a role, Tiffany guts him and hides his body, where her child sees the whole ordeal from afar. The next day, Tilly wakes up with a fully pregnant belly and she calls Joan in panic, only to be interrupted by Chucky who straps her down to her bed. As he does so, his picture of killing Peters falls out of his pocket and Tiff calls him about it since she really wants to stop killing period. Just as Chucky admits he's too proud to stop and inadvertently finds Redman's body, they compromise to Tilly's chauffeur Stan (Steve West) who has a big crush on her. When Joan shows up to check on Jennifer, she gets killed by Glenda, which in turn reveals both Glenda the psychopath & Glen the pacifist are separate souls. This would be beneifical in the long run as both souls can separate the souls for the twins Tilly would end up having. Just when Chucky prepares another incantation that'll transfer his and family's souls, the cops arrive at the scene and Tiff rushes him to move forward. The chaos causes Chucky to prefer staying a doll which only disgusts his family instead. When Tiff declares leaving him, Stan breaks free and tries to intervene until he gets fatally stabbed. Tiff takes advantage to escape with her child before the cops break through the door to save Jennifer. At the hospital, Tiff completes swapping bodies with her before Chucky axes her in the head. Glen retaliates for the first time by killing his father, severing his limbs and his head. Five years after this, Tiff has lived Tilly's life and both halves of Glen & Glenda live the lives of the actress' children. The film ends in a cliffhanger where Chucky sends his arm to toy with his children on their birthday.


THOUGHTS


After being scared of this horror franchise for so long, I would've not expected creator Don Mancini to make a full blown comedy entry in his directorial debut. Some may have not thought this could've went out with a bang since this would be the last theatric entry until the 2019 remake, but it sure as hell was far from it. I don't want to hate on what Don was going for, but the change of scenery doesn't work after the meta-ness of Jennifer Tilly playing Tiffany & a fake version of herself. The jokes just don't land the way they're supposed to because I just don't think it fits the tone the way it's intended. Like there is no way any fan went into this expecting to laugh over seeing Chucky masturbate, miss his reference to The Shining or run over Britney Spears. And don’t get me started with seeing GG wet themselves because that was also unnecessary. I can still give credit where it's due when I say the effects done on the doll characters are still believable as is the violence they depict. I'm not kidding when I say the decapitation and gutting caught me off guard after already knowing what these antagonists. There is still an interesting dynamic with the killer family because they still think differently. Brad Dourif gives a believable portrayal on the quest for immortality since he grew tired of wanting to be human again, knowing he wouldn't live forever. Before consequences were proven in his USA/Syfy series, it made sense for him to go that route but Tiff wanted to live the fantasy lifestyle at least until she had to put up with her own consequences. It's not a surprise he would kill her over a different opinion because that's how psychotic he is that killing is a first instinct. It even felt weird to see Redman be depicted as a prude since he doesn't seem like that kinda guy, the only one that seemed like a legit saint was Joan. Hannah Spearitt is easily likable as this character because she had common sense to point out Jennifer's motives were not the best way to get a gig and it was a total bummer her sentimentality towards her got her killed. The most compelling thing that came from this mess was having a gender fluid/non binary lead that was Glen & Glenda, or as the series would call them GG. Billy Boyd does a fantastic job in making the character highly conflicted in an identity crisis that isn't talked about much. The whole point of their perspective teaches us the importance of self acceptance which is not always easy for anyone who relates to this character’s dilemma. Glen wants to be compassionate because there's no good validation in killing without reason, whereas Glenda enjoys that rush just like their father. You could say Glen did the right thing standing up to Chucky since it's obvious he wasn't gonna change. I say this because Chucky wasn't vengeful in pursuing his kid the way he would kill Tiff without hesitation. In the worst way possible, it brought them together. Having said all the pros I can remember, there are still a whole bunch of cons that confuse me upon rewatching. For starters, why does GG have a ‘Made in Japan’ mark on the arm? Chucky’s previous doll didn’t have one before his other body, so that don’t make much sense. That don’t even feel like enough proof after revealing they can talk. And why the hell would Redman ever want to direct a Virgin Mary adaptation anyway? I know musicians are artistic, but I do not believe anyone would tackle religious stories like they’re Mel Gibson. Personally, Psychs easily could’ve told the dump truck to stop without even giving away GG was alive. And was the term ‘awake’ always on the amulet to begin with? I gotta ask because it’s about as strange of a retcon as saying Chucky had it the day he left his body. Also, how the hell was there not any cameras in the prop room? It’s the 21st century, so there shouldn’t be any blind spots these days. If anything can be dumber than Peters thinking Jennifer would draw a picture of what she saw, it’d also be there were no cameras outside either to see the dolls leave the scene. The same can be said when Chucky drives Redman’s car. That could’ve solved Peters’ death as well. I even think Jennifer should’ve called 911 instead of Joan because that would’ve led to the dolls having to compromise body swapping someone else at that point. It’s even on Chucky to keep the photo on him if he didn’t want Tiffany to know what he was up to behind her back. That decision confused me more than trying to figure out how GG got the material to dress like their mom since there wasn’t any dolls around Tilly’s house. Lastly, I think the guy on the recovery hotline should’ve been fired for encouraging to have a slip. That’s not part of the job and that guy knows it. Ignoring all these issues would be hard to ignore if you ask me. To wrap up, Seed of Chucky is the franchise’s weakest link for backfiring in what was supposed to be a creative change. If you dig the previous entries, good luck with this one.