Seed of Chucky
(Rogue/Universal Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(2004)
review by Big McLargehuge

There are times when your credibility as a film reviewer is wagered like so many five-dollar chips at a Vegas blackjack table. This is one of those times. I’ve never been a big fan of the Child’s Play series as I could never get over the whole possessed doll angle, and if you can’t suspend your disbelief for that, well, the series is a loss.

However, there are times when against every even the most stridently assembled logic, the fifth film in a low-budget series for niche’ market fans becomes one of the best satires in a long, long time.

Seed of Chucky is that satire. I should remind you that Seed of Chucky is the fifth in the series.

I mean, first off the film has some fun at the expense of several classic films, Psycho (two kills and an “I won’t even hurt this fly”), Halloween (seeing through the eyes of the killer almost identical to Halloween), The Shining (“I can’t think of a thing to say”), Willard (rat attacks ventriloquist), Forest Gump (Running sequence), and Raiders of the Lost Ark (Glen/Glenda’s journey to Hollywood complete with prop drive twin engine plane and red line on map showing progress).

The film also has a hell of a lot of fun with the cast, Jennifer Tilly as herself, John Waters (yes, THAT John Waters) as a paparazzi who asks Tilly what her real birthday is as she’s being led away from a murder scene, Redman (the rapper) as himself casting his biblical epic (Mel Gibson isn’t the only one God talks to in Hollywood…) with stunning lines like “Mary, I want to axe you why you lain with another man”, and Gina Gerson (mentioned often but never seen… always funny too). The real standout is Tilly though whether she’s trying to hide candy bars from the prying eyes of her personal assistant Joan, or desperately trying to seduce Redman so he will sign her to play the part of The Virgin Mary, or railing against Julia Roberts, and finally, playing up the angle that no one remembers her career except for the kissing scene in Bound with Gina Gerson. It’s jaw-droppingly funny and she is jaw-droppingly funny delivering these whacked out self-deprecating lines as both herself and the voice of Tiffany, Chucky’s wife.

Brad Dourif once again supplies the pipes for the Chucky Doll and as I’ve said before, minute for minute Dourif, even in the lousiest of movies, still delivers a fantastic performance irrespective of the role. And it’s no different here. He’s been the voice of Chucky for five films now and always delivers enough humor to take the edge of the fact that we’re watching a doll. For those who don’t know, Dourif has is one of the best character actors out there, look for him especially in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Mississipi Burning.

There’s a plot to the film too, which is sort of standard material for the Chucky lineup, i.e. both Chucky and Tiffany want to transcend their lives as puppets and enter real bodies to continue their killing spree. When the film bogs down in that it’s merely okay, but when the dialogue is poking fun at the very franchise that led to five films it transcends schlock horror and becomes campy art. There’s a bit where Jennifer Tilly calls Joan and Tiffany intercepts the call. Of course both Tiffany and Jennifer have the same voice and Joan can’t tell them apart. When Chucky attacks Jennifer and Joan asks why she’s screaming Tiffany answers, “Gina Gershon is fingering me.”

I nearly wet my pants.

There is another character to add to the plastic family of doom, a gender ambiguous doll named (affectionately of course) Glen or Glenda who treks from a ventriloquist festival in Glastonbury England to Hollywood to find his parents. He arrives on the set of the film Chucky Goes Psycho and reanimates the dolls using the incantation on the back of the magic amulet that has traversed all of the films to date.

Once awakened Chucky and Tiffany adapt to their new lives as parents to a gender confused doll who looks like David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust (and talks like him too). But old habits die-hard and before long they are killing their way through Jennifer Tilly’s life in a quest to posses both she and Redman.

I have to say the last quarter of the film loses steam as the humor takes back seat to furthering the whole possession plot and by then I had laughed so hard and so long that I didn’t really care. Still, all said and done, Seed of Chucky is hilariously inventive.

Tony Gardern’s special effects are surprisingly good and eschew’s CGI in favor of good old Karo Syrup and Food Color and prosthetics. There is a great decapitation scene too (that leads to a tremendous laugh) starring the effects director!

Director, writer, producer Don Mancini doesn’t skimp on the gore either, which is extremely refreshing in the age of quick cuts. He lets the camera linger on the viscera for more than a millisecond. Mancini knows the characters well, he’s written the screenplays for all five films and directed this one and the predecessor Bride of Chucky. Mancini has a knack for duplicating the signature shots of great directors and manages to throw more than a hatful of Hitchcock.

Universal is releasing Seed of Chucky with a whole shitload of extras including – A fact list about the Child’s Play films, some deleted scenes, Chucky screen tests, two commentary tracks; one with Mancini and Tony Gardner, and one with Mancini and Tilly, a photo slideshow, a short documentary about the conception of the film and the five films in the series, video diary entries from Jennifer Tilly, and interviews with the Chucky and Tiffany dolls.

The film is presented in 16x9 widescreen.

Oh, and they run Britney Spears off the road to her flaming death…

What’s not to love?