Review of Curse of Chucky (2013) by Jesse O — 09 Oct 2013

I can't believe how much fun I had watching this movie. Let's get this straight, this is a direct-to-dvd feature and it's budgeted as such, so it would be unrealistic to expect this movie to expect this movie to be, or look, perfect.

But for the, obvious, minuscule budget the film had, they certainly overcome every aspect of it with some solid acting, for a direct-to-dvd feature, some good writing, and some really clever moments that help tie this movie back to the original series of films, rather than the last two flicks in the series, which were far more black comedies with hints of horror.

This movie is just a fun little romp. In a way it reminds me of some horror films from the 80s where, while terrible things would happen, the entire tone of the film was a little lighter than all the murdering would imply.

This isn't a movie that you should, at any point, take seriously. If you do, then you'll absolutely hate this movie and you'd really be missing the point. If the idea of a serial killer doing a ritual than transfers his spirit/soul into this little doll, who he then uses as a host for his murderous rampages, sounds like something that should be taken seriously to you, then you have issues.

This is a movie that, I'm sure, was always intended to have some of that campy charm, because it's hard to tell this type of story and have anyone, other than little kids, take it seriously. Thankfully the film doesn't go out of its way to be campy, like the last two movies did.

The thing about being campy is that you can't be so self-aware when you're doing it, you can't go out of your way be campy, because then that just leads to self-parody. Look at Snakes on a Plane, for example That movie was terrible because it was so self-aware of itself, like the movie was also in on the joke and it was just awful.

This movie, thankfully, finds that sweet spot. While this movie has some great one-liners from Brad Dourif, who is great as always, the first half of the movie is spent building up suspense and getting, at least, to know some of the characters before they are murdered off.

So I do think that a concerted effort was made into having this film feel more like the original trilogy without forgetting that Bride/Seed of Chucky existed. This is a sequel, it's not a remake..

.or even that much of a reboot, it is a sequel. And, as mentioned, I did think that the movie acknowledged its past in clever little ways. There are certainly some surprises in the last 10 or so minutes of the film, credits included, so make sure you sit through them.

..or fast-forward. Despite what the rating says, I really liked this movie much more than the rating implies, it's just missing more Chucky one-liners and, perhaps, a better story. Regardless of that, this movie is still a lot of fun to watch.

It's not really a rebirth but I'm really looking forward to what the future holds for this franchise that I grew up on.