Cast: Jennifer Tilly, Katherine Heigl, Nick Stabile, Alexis Arquette, John Ritter, Brad Dourif (voice)
Director: Ronny Yu
Producers: Paul Gertz, Grace Gilroy, David Kirschner, Laura Moskowitz
Screenplay: Don Mancini
Cinematography: Peter Pau
Music: Graeme Revell
U.S. Distributor: Universal Pictures
Child's Play was one of about a half-dozen popular '80s horror movies to spawn multiple sequels. And, while Chucky isn't as immediately recognizable as Jason or Michael or Freddy (consider how few kids dress up as him on Halloween), he has entered the public consciousness to the degree where we're on a first-name basis with him. In the same year that Halloween celebrated its twentieth anniversary by bringing back Jamie Lee Curtis for one more go-'round with her implacable nemesis, Chucky (who's exactly half as old as Mr. Myers) has returned for the fourth time, and, as surprising as it sounds, this could prove to be the most enjoyable slasher movie of the year. It's better than H20. It's better than Urban Legend. And it's likely to be better than I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (if the first movie is anything to go by).
The original Child's Play, which was released in 1988 after the horror wave had already crested (Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street were both up to film #4, and Friday the 13th was all the way up to #7), boasted an interesting concept: what if a supposedly-cute child's toy came alive and turned homicidal? The film makers did not fumble the ball, and Child's Play offered its share of genuinely creepy moments. It wasn't a landmark motion picture, but it was adept at what it was trying to do.
The same can be said of Bride of Chucky, although its agenda is somewhat different from that of Child's Play. Bride of Chucky does not thrive on shock tactics and grisly eviscerations alone. Director Ronny Yu (Warriors of Virtue) and screenwriter Don Mancini (who has been involved in all 4 Chuck-a-thons) wisely decided that, in this post-Scream era, such an approach was passé. So they reworked the Child's Play concept and came up with a lively, intentionally campy comedy.
The basic storyline alone is preposterous enough to be worth a chuckle or two. A bleached blonde named Tiffany (helium-voiced Jennifer Tilly), who used to be Chucky's girlfriend when he was human, bribes a cop to steal the doll's twisted remains from the police evidence room. (As an in-joke, we also catch glimpses of the accouterments of various other motion picture slaughterers - Freddy's claws, Michael's Captain Kirk mask, Jason's hockey outfit.) After lovingly stitching the tiny rubber maniac back together, she uses a voodoo ritual to reanimate him. Soon after Chucky's revival (his voice is again provided by Brad Dourif), he proves his love by killing Tiffany and sticking her soul in an anatomically-correct female doll. The perfectly-matched, pint-sized pair then hijack a couple of unlucky lovers-on-the-run (Katherine Heigl and Nick Stabile) and head for New Jersey (the seeming destination of all wackos), where a talisman exists that will allow them both to return to human form.
Although much of the dialogue in Bride of Chucky is ripe, it's laced with one-liners that are a slice above the banal norm. The barbed repartee between Chucky and Tiffany is especially enjoyable. The special effects used to animate the dolls are flawless, even to the point of reproducing human-like mannerisms. Physically, Chucky looks much like he did in the other Child's Play movies, albeit worse for wear (after being patched up by Tiffany, he reminds one of Dr. Frankenstein's failed experiments). Tiffany, who does her own makeup and hair, bears a startling resemblance to the actress who provides her voice.
By design, the performances in Bride of Chucky are all terrible. Everyone is either dull and wooden (Nick Stabile and Katherine Heigl as the modern-day Romeo and Juliet who leave a trail of dead bodies in their wake) or waaaaay over-the-top (Jennifer Tilly in her pre-doll scenes and John Ritter as a very nasty cop). However, while this level of sub-par acting might hamstring 98% of all movies, it fits right into Bride of Chucky's overall approach.
From time-to-time as I watched Bride of Chucky, I was reminded of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series. Although the level of gore isn't as extreme, this movie has the same off-the-wall, dare-you-not-to-laugh attitude. Some people, I'm sure, aren't going to know what to make of this film. It's openly silly and, by almost every traditional critical standard, it falls a little short of the mark. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Bride of Chucky enough to place it on my ever-growing list of "guilty pleasures," and I recommend it to those who enjoy horror films (although probably not to anyone else). The movie laughs at itself, and I laughed along with it.
© 1998 James Berardinelli