La Malédiction de Chucky

From the first couple of minutes it's easy to tell that Don Mancini is treating Curse more as a horror film than the previous couple of entries in the series. The movie is shot and edited to build suspense and is a world apart from the sitcom trappings of Seed.

A girl in a wheelchair (Brad Dourif's hot daughter Fiona) living in a rural home with her troubled mother receives a mysterious package one afternoon. It's Chucky, and he's somehow managed to get himself in the mail again. He's arrived to settle a score, and soon enough he has brainwashed a child into keeping his secret and is sneaking about in the shadows offing unsuspecting victims.

Many people are saying that this movie is a return to form, and that it retcons Bride and Seed out of existence. Er...no, the film very much DOES acknowledge the events of Bride and Seed. Even if you paid the bare minimum of attention it would be hard to not to realize this. But I guess that expecting the movie to go in a different direction only led to further surprises when it eventually did tie in to the previous movies as well as giving us more back-story to Charles Lee Ray.

I was worried that Chucky would be all CGI as Kevin Yagher has not been involved with the series since Bride, and while there IS some CGI, he's anamatronic for the most part. Instead of hogging the camera though he keeps quiet watches the humans interact for about half the movie before unleashing toy terror. Horror composer Joseph LoDuca delivers a pastiche of the Renzetti, Revell, and Donaggio's efforts without giving Curse a signature sound of its own. Not really a complaint, but more of a missed chance.

It's certainly a worthy sequel and a can be viewed as a genuine horror film without any of the guilty pleasure of Seed. Keep watching to the end of the credits for a further surprise that ties the series together even more (though it does contradict the closing scene before the credits actually roll).

It kind of annoys me that such a modest, but brilliantly executed, film like this goes STDVD when pretentious piffle like Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby gets sharted over every screen in America.

I got the sense that everyone involved in this movie committed 100% to making an exciting piece of clever and entertaining genre filmmaking. The lighting, production design and music were fantastic and the cast equally superb. Fiona Dourif is an impressive new scream-queen/final-girl and Danielle Bisutti did a wonderful job as the somewhat-sympathetic bitch.

I very much doubt that Don Mancini will be winning a Director's Oscar any time soon, but IMHO he ranks higher than many of the past winners because I feel he believes in value-for-money entertainment - and some of those fancy directors could learn a lesson from him.

The depressed Sarah (Chantal Quesnelle) lives with her disabled daughter Nica (Fiona Dourif), who is stuck in a wheelchair since she was born, in an isolated old house. Sarah receives a package with the creepy red- haired doll Chucky and she throws it in the garbage. But during the night she is found dead and Chucky is sat on a chair in the living room.

Nica's sister Barb (Danielle Bisutti) attends the funeral with her estranged husband Ian (Brennan Elliott); their little daughter Alice (Summer Howell); the nanny Jill (Maitland McConnell) and her friend Father Frank (A Martinez). Along the night, there are mysterious deaths and Nica discovers that the package was sent from the evidence depositary. She also researches the Internet and suspects that Chucky might be behind the murders.

"Curse of Chucky" is a great return of the franchise with a sinister history of Chucky. The cinematography and the camera work are top-notch and the plot is well developed. Wait until the end of the credits since the movie continues with a long scene; in the end, "play with this"! My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição de Chucky" ("The Curse of Chucky")

Chucky was always my favorite of the many serial killers that sprouted from the 70's and 80's slasher films. Sure, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Pinhead, Leatherface and Freddy Krueger were all instrumental in my fascination and divulgence into the horror genre - but the possessed Good Guys doll by the name of Chucky was always my favorite of the tentpole franchises.

It is hard to fathom that it was 25 years ago when Chucky was first launched into our pop culture references with Child's Play. Directed to Tom Holland on a story by Don Mancini, the 1988 horror surprised most everyone with a $35 million box office gross against a paltry $9 million budget.

Sequels ensued with Child's Play 2 (1990), Child's Play 3 (1991), Bride of Chucky (1998) and Seed of Chucky (2004). Through each film, the horror seemed lessened by the increasing use of black humor scattered amongst the bloodshed.

This is not to suggest that the Child's Play franchise lost its way, but it did veer off the original path. This deviation was not lost of creator Don Mancini who takes charge behind the camera for Curse of Chucky now available on VOD.

In this sixth edition of the evil doll's murderous exploits, Chucky is shipped from a police evidence lockup to a home of a young woman, Nica, confined to a wheelchair since birth. Chucky's first victim alienates the young woman and when other family and friends arrive at the house to comfort Nica, it allows for a higher body count and a night of mayhem. Nica is able to put the pieces together to eventually figure the doll at the centre of the bloodshed, but her limited mobility will be both a benefit and a hindrance on her ultimate survival.

We've come a long way since 1988 and Mancini has more digital tricks up his sleeve to bring the doll to life. Some might balk at the idea of a CGI motioned doll, but take our word for it, the added computer detail only adds to Chucky's evil looks. There are a few scenes where our villain gets to show real emotion using his rubber face and it is the technology that a lot of horror enthusiasts despise that is at the root of the improvements.

Mancini did go back to the roots with the story that focuses more on the development of the horror rather than the slapstick funduggery that overly consumed Bride and Seed of Chucky. Replacing much of the pop culture referencing in-jokes are some tense moments of horror and some valued kills that value quality over quantity.

Curse of Chucky goes places unexpected for a fifth sequel and it betters any of the films that preceded it in the series. Chucky is meaner, nastier and more patient which allows for better horror. There are some good scares in Curse and Chucky's evil might never have been better punctuated on screen. A solid story – one with flashback ties that support Chucky's choice of family terrorizing and some after the credit scenes that tie in the rest of the series – compliments the action and sets the stage for what we hope is the continuation of the franchise.

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This was a movie that I'll be honest; I didn't have high hopes for when I took it home as a pre-street from Family Video. I grew up mostly on the third movie in the series as it was always on the movie challenges. I also liked the second one quite a bit. Outside of that, Bride of Chucky was interesting in its way, but Seed I've seen once and didn't care for it. This one worked for me though after that first viewing. The synopsis here is after her mother's mysterious death, Nica (Fiona Dourif) begins to suspect that the talking, red-haired doll her visiting niece has been playing with may be the key to recent bloodshed and chaos.

We start this movie off getting to meet Sarah (Chantel Quesnelle) who is the mother to Nica. Nica is wheelchair bound and it seems to be from birth. Nica was going to college but dropped out and her mother is protecting her. She isn't very nice about it though. A package is delivered and it is addressed to Sarah. She opens it to find a Good Guy doll. That night, a scream wakes up Nica and she goes to check to find her mother murdered.

To help out with the funeral, Nica's sister shows up with her family. The sister is Barb (Danielle Bisutti). She is married to Ian (Brennan Elliott), who is struggling work wise currently. There is also their live-in nanny of Jill (Maitland McConnell). Ian can't seem to keep his eyes off her. There is also their daughter of Alice (Summer H. Howell). Joining them is Father Frank (A Martinez). We learn that Sarah and Nica left the church some time ago, but Frank is there if she needs him.

It is around this time that Nica notices that the Good Guy doll is missing. Alice finds it and where she does is a cause of confusion for Nica. Alice learns his name is Chucky. We soon see that Chucky is alive. He poisons one of the bowls of chili for dinner and that is just the beginning of the mayhem.

That is where I'm going to leave my recap for this movie and what I find enjoyable about this movie is that it is getting back to form of the Child's Play series. What is interesting is that this plays like a reboot for a good part of it. We know this is a sequel from research that Nica does that confirms events of the past happened. This movie plays with the idea that only Nica and Alice know the doll is alive. It takes the former a bit to realize it and Alice being a kid, no one will believe her. This is taking it back more to the slasher roots as well.

Something I found interesting is how many of the characters are unlikeable. The movie also plays with troupes of this as well. Nica is handicapped but doesn't want to be treated that way. Barb is convinced that her sister cannot do anything to help herself and wants her to move into an assisted living facility. This is in part that her family is struggling monetarily so she wants to sell the house. She is mean to her husband, so it makes you think that he's interested in Jill. I'll say, this young woman is attractive. There was an interesting reveal there that makes a lot of sense as well.

I want to shift the focus next to Chucky. Now the last two films we saw him, he has the stitched-up face. This movie here has a more traditional look, which made me think reboot. I did like a reveal later in this movie to in fact confirm, every movie leading up to this happened. There is a shift in Chucky as well that he might not necessarily being trying to get out of the body and embracing what being inside of the doll means. Having seen the next movie in line, I know something there that I won't spoil, but we get a bit of that here. Chucky is quite brutal with some things that happen in the unrated cut here.

Since I've delved into the character, I'll go next to the acting. Brad Dourif is back as the voice of Chucky. He's a great actor in general and he owns this character for me. That isn't to say the remake isn't good, but it is hard to top an actor who has taken it on for as long as he has. I liked that his real-life daughter of Fiona taking on the role of Nica here. She does a good job and it is this movie that I find her the most attractive. Bisutti, Elliott and McConnell are all solid. They are flawed. Bisutti doesn't have any redeemable qualities, but the other two show a bit. McConnell is also quite attractive. I'd say the acting on the whole is solid.

Then the last thing that I wanted to go into here would be the effects. It looks to be like they did as much with Chucky as they could practically. There are a few times where there is something off about the face and I'm assuming it was because they were going to have it move in a certain way. That took me out of the movie, I'll be honest. Aside from that, I think most of the kills look good. There is a bit of CGI that didn't hold up, but not as much as I thought. There is some solid cinematography here as well.

So then in conclusion, this movie surprised me the first time I saw it and I think it is still solid. I like them going back more to their roots from where the series was going. The voice acting of Dourif as Chucky is on point. Fiona Dourif is solid as our lead and the rest of the cast is solid. I'm middle of the road when it comes to the effects while the soundtrack fit for what was needed. There are some decisions made in this movie that don't make sense. Some of it can be chalked up to a slasher movie, but I want a bit more from this series. For me, this is movie is over average, but just coming up short to go higher.

My Rating: 6.5 out of 10.