I have long had a love/love relationship with the Child's Play series (or the Chucky series, depending on whether or not you are a pleb--just kidding). I have watched and love every movie in the series, including Seed--because I know your first thought upon reading that sentence goes to that movie. The personality of Charles Lee Ray and the aesthetics of the Good Guy dolls are the perfect formula for good scary fun.
I don't think I ever gave a review for Curse of Chucky, and I should have when it first came out. I thought it was a good movie. Not a great movie, but a good step back in a direction I wanted the series to be in. While I do love the two "fun" Chucky films (Bride, Seed) I felt like if Chuck was going to come back, it needed to be big. And while Curse of Chucky was a good film to re-introduce a Chucky doll that could be intimidating and scary once again, I feel like Cult better represents a celebration of the series nearly thirty years on.
I mean, gawrsh. This film has so many cool ideas in it, and the surprising element to me was Andy Barclay. When he had a special post-credits scene in the last film I was ecstatic. It's cool to see the original character/victim/actor return to the franchise, but Cult goes out of its way in a good way to show just how much of a badass Andy has become. This is no longer a victim, no longer a guy willing to let the world get him down. No, he's putting himself out there, trying to meet women and live life--and when that doesn't work out he gets his rocks off torturing the original Chucky doll which is now just a severed head.
That's just the opening of the film. Throughout the rest of the film we follow Nica (the protagonist of Curse) as she lives her life at a psychiatric hospital getting therapy from the worst doctor you could ever have and dealing with the worst assortment of patients you could ever be forced to deal with.
This isn't a knock against any of these elements. This series succeeds by throwing our poor main victim/character into the fray with a bunch of snobby, snotty assholes and crazies that will eventually become Chucky fodder. These new characters do a fine job of making you sympathetic to their plights (some of them) and also at the same time wish they were dead.
But moreover the best thing--and possibly the worst thing--about this movie was the build-up throughout the entire film. Though Cult follows the standard trajectory of a Child's Play plot (doll kills a bunch of people and it is blamed on the main character who insists that they didn't kill anyone) you get a good sense that Chucky is up to something bigger this time around, especially when you learn that
THERE ARE MULTIPLE LIVING CHUCKY DOLLS.
As the film reaches its ending and the mayhem gets cranked up to the top, this film takes you on a wild ride until its strange ending comes out of nowhere.
Chucky wins. Wholeheartedly. It's, I think, the first movie in the series (maybe Seed takes that reward, but that is debatable) where Chucky gets everything that he wants in the end.
How crazy is that? While its a great twist, a part of me can't help but be disappointed. Chucky is so despicable in this movie and he gets away with it? At the end, Andy sees the reports of deaths at the hospital and decides its time to go out and take care of business, and he brings a Chucky doll with him (why? Oh don't worry, that'll be revealed and it's a pretty badass secret). He arrives at the hospital and checks himself in because he's going to try to rescue Nica and get out of there (or maybe finish off Chucky while he is at it). So when one of three revived Chucky dolls comes to kill him (the one he brought with him) he STICKS HIS HAND INTO ITS STOMACH AND PULLS OUT A GUN TO KILL THE DOLL WITH.
What a badass sequence. I cheered, I'll be honest. That was the highlight of the whole film for me. Unfortunately, I was expecting Andy to get a couple more great moments in before the end of the film, but by that point the "Cult" was doing some last minute clean up and the movie was drawing to a close. Andy gets trapped in his cell, Nica is now possessed by the doll, and she and Tiffany ride away into the sunset together to commit more devious acts together.
While I was hoping for an Andy cleans house ending, I feel like perhaps this film is building up to maybe one more movie, especially with the post-credits tease at the end with Kyle from Child's Play 2. I can only hope this is the case, because with Andy back in a big, BIG way I'm hoping they bring back Ronald Tyler from Child's Play 3 and then all of Chucky's original victims can join forces and fight the new ARMY of dolls. Who knows, maybe Nica can regain herself and join in too. I like her character and I don't think she deserves to die as Charles.
I give Cult of Chucky a B+. A great film, especially if it's building up to something even better in the next film (Please for the love of God, Mancini!)
