Movie Info
Movie Name: Bride of Chucky
Studio: Universal Pictures
Genre(s): Horror/Comedy/B-Movie
Release Date(s): October 16, 1998
MPAA Rating: R
What’s wrong with your voice, lady?
Chucky has been stolen from police evidence and now is in the hands of Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) the former lover of Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif). When Tiffany learns Chucky didn’t intend to marry her, she decides to keep him as her prisoner and her toy. Chucky has other plans however. Freeing himself and trapping Tiffany in her own doll, Tiffany and Chucky must now find new bodies to inhabit. Realizing they need an amulet buried with Charles’ body, Chucky and Tiffany kidnap lovers Jesse (Nick Stabile) and Jade (Katherine Heigl) and begin a cross country crime spree.
Jack Tripper’s Pinhead audition
Directed by Ronny Yu, Bride of Chucky (sometimes called Child’s Play 4: Bride of Chucky) was the follow-up to Child’s Play 3 of 1991. The film’s different tone ended up with better reviews than Child’s Play 3 (but still negative), and the film became the most profitable film in the series.
Bride of Chucky takes a different approach to the Child’s Play story. In the other movies, Chucky is inevitably after Andy, but here, that is pretty much thrown out the window and now he can jump bodies simply by having an amulet. The change in plot also was a change in the film and this film takes the already funny series and turned it into a straight horror-comedy (I would argue that the follow up film Seed of Chucky even goes further and is a comedy-horror).
I hope someday I can be a doctor!
The movie is pretty reflexive and despite the comic tones, quite violent and bloody…taking a bit of a page from Scream. The movie references lots of other horror films throughout the film. There are shot of Jason Voorhees’ hockey mask, Michael Myers’ mask, and Freddy’s glove in the police station, and John Ritter’s nails in the face attack get referenced as a tie to Hellraiser and Pinhead. It is fun for horror movie fans, but does take away a bit from the legitimacy of the film as a “true horror” film (I had always thought a good sequel would have been Chucky being placed in a “Good Girl” doll…guess that will never happen now).
Barbie is armed!
The cast of the film is pretty fun. Brad Dourif continues to be great as the voice of Chuck, and Jennifer Tilly’s squeaky voice seems oddly appropriate coming out of the Tiffany doll. John Ritter plays the creepy, obsessive uncle who gets whacked a bit too early, and Katherine Heigl has an early pre-Grey’s Anatomy starring role as half of the runaway couple. Alexis Arquette plays the wannabe killer Howard Fitzwater/Damien Baylock.
The star of the Child’s Play movies continues to be the Chucky doll and this time you have Tiffany added to the mix. With their animatronic style, I think they come off as “more real” than all the computer generated enemies, plus they are allowed to move a bit stiff since they are living dolls…though I didn’t really need a sex scene or birth scene.
Bride of Chucky is a bit of a change from previous Child’s Play films, but if you are a fan of the series, you will probably still enjoy it. The follow-up sequel might however turn off real fans because all horror is almost lost for comedy…there the balance isn’t quite right, but it is closer. Bride of Chucky was followed by Seed of Chucky in 2004.
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