After a couple of comedic entries, the killer-doll franchise returns to its horror roots with Curse of Chucky, the sixth of the series. Voiced by Brad Dourif, Chucky mysteriously is shipped to the home of a tortured painter (Chantal Quesnelle, Bruiser) who takes care of her paraplegic, 20-something daughter, Nica (Fiona Dourif, who’s Brad’s daughter, but good enough to avoid charges of nepotism).
Chucky quickly does away with the mother, which prompts an influx of family members for her funeral … and, unbeknownst to them, theirs. Nica’s vampish sister, Barb (Danielle Bisutti, Insidious: Chapter 2), wants to sell the house and send Nica to assisted living, so you know she’s not surviving. Barb’s precocious daughter (newcomer Summer Howell), however, is another story. The kid does great with lines like, “Chucky says life’s a bitch and then you die like a stuck pig.”
Directed by series creator Don Mancini, Curse of Chucky boasts a nice tie or two to the 1988 original, Child’s Play, bringing the 25-year saga full-circle. Brad Dourif even gets to appear in human form for the first time since the start, in flashbacks that make him look less like serial killer Charles Lee Ray and more like The Room mastermind Tommy Wiseau.
Mancini’s decision to avoid humor almost entirely pays off, again making Chucky an object of fright, not funnies. Several sequences are calculated to make the most of audiences’ fears of dolls that move, much less kill, and despite the occasional overflourishing camera movement, they click with a gory goodness. If only Mancini knew how to bring the thing to a close; Curse is stuffed with about four endings, and to top it off, there’s another awaiting at the close of the credits. —Rod Lott
I quit this series after the second one, but this one might bring me back.