Cult Of Chucky

Released 2nd November

Seen 16th November

Directed & Written by Don Mancini
Produced by Universal 1440 Entertainment
Starring Brad Dourif, Fiona Dourif, Alex Vincent & Jennifer Tilly

The Child’s Play series is one that’s gone through many variations. The original 3 movies were all focussed on Andy Barclay and had a serious tone to them despite the admittedly silly concept. Bride & Seed of Chucky took the series in a more comedic direction, which culminated in the underappreciated Seed (Which I once wrote about my love of). When Seed didn’t do quite as well as they expected at the box office the series went straight to DVD and straight to the darkest it’s ever been with Curse Of Chucky. Now we have Cult of Chucky, the culmination of decades of building and they’ve built up to something glorious.

Cult of Chucky put’s our favourite sociopathic doll Chucky (Played by Brad Dourif) in the mental asylum where Nica (Played by Fiona Dourif) is residing after the events of Curse of Chucky forced her to be locked up. As he always does, Chucky comes to play around and kill as many people as possible and the only people standing in his way is the girl he paralysed in the womb and Andy Barclay (Played by Alex Vincent), his original friend to the end.

From the first frames of this movie, you know that this is going to be something different. The look and style are not like anything we’ve seen before in this series. The set of the asylum is a pure white set surrounded by snow and I’m convinced it’s just because Don Mancini knows that blood looks gorgeous when sprayed on snow, Hateful Eight proved that to the mainstream but this is the horror genre taking it to its logical endpoint and it’s stunning to look at. The best part is that such a pure bright white set means that a few drops of blood are all this movie needs. Sure, it’ll let the red stuff fly when called for, but some of the most effective scenes only use a cup full when other movies with a less stylised set would need a gallon.

Every performance is incredible. Every. Single. One. Brad Dourif’s iconic voice work never fails to be perfection and this film is no exception, it might be some of his best work in the franchise because there are some sequences here where the only thing that you have is Brad’s voice and he just sells it. Jennifer Tilly returns as Tiffany and it’s a performance that belongs among the greatest femme fatale’s of cinema, plus there’s one scene where they just pointedly address that she’s Tiffany stuck in Jennifer Tilly’s body (If that doesn’t make sense, you need to go watch Seed of Chucky) and it’s so cleverly done that I just beamed like a child. Alex Vincent’s return to the franchise is a step above what was expected, he still has that same charm he had way back in the first two movies but now there are decades of anger on top of that adorable Andy we once knew and he pulls off a powerful complex performance. The star of the film, without any doubt, is Fiona Dourif who cements her place as one of the true greats in the horror genre. She takes the part of Nica to a place that’s even darker than it was last time and my god is she incredible, especially during the last 15 minutes of the film where she… oh, let’s just say that she makes it very clear that this is her series now and she is going to enjoy owning it.

All the side characters are wonderfully strange, from Multiple Malcolm (Played by Adam Hurtig) to Nurse Carlos (Played by Zak Santiago). Nurse Carlos might be my favourite of the side characters purely because they pulled off a rarity in the horror genre… a gay character who isn’t a cliche. This series has been doing this for a while now, ever since bride, but it Carlos might be my favourite of the batch. In fact, this movie has a few more LGBT moments in it, including something right at the end which just opens up to a whole realm of possibilities for future films. It’s so well done and I’m so happy they slipped it in there in a way that doesn’t overshadow anything, but just put’s it in there because it works with the story being told.

Plotwise this might be one of the crazier films due to what they try and pull off with Chucky, but it works so well and everyone just enjoys themselves so much that you go along with it and love it. It opens up so many new possibilities for the series to go, it can embrace the insanity even more and do anything it want’s in the next movie and if they keep this level of quality up, they’ll be doing so much better than most other major horror series would by this point.

Cult of Chucky is by far one of the best in the series, creating incredible tension with some stunning visuals and incredible performances. It’s got some of the most creative and insane visual sequences in any of the Chucky movies and it’s just a blast to see. Bring on the next one Don, I wanna play some more.

8/10