Let's Just be Friends...till the End

Our favorite Good Guy doll is back! Cult of Chucky is available on Netflix and in the Redbox. Netflix is not carrying the unrated version and, as of right now, I can't find a side-by-side comparison of the two. If the unrated cut of Curse is any indication, you're not missing out on much...except the post credit scene. It's only about 15-seconds long, but it's pretty sweet.

First, this movie is getting way more hate than it deserves by assholes that are only casual fans. None of the franchise have really been amazing outside of the original. According to IMDb, all of the series minus Seed and the original rate in the 5-star stars range. Child's Play has a 6.6 and Seed of Chucky hits the lowest in the series with a 4.9. It should be noted that 4.9 is higher than most big name horror sequels. Chucky might not be as physically intimidating as Michael Meyers, Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, or Freddy Kruger but he's been consistent. He's also the only one that hasn't needed a reboot or remake. Even Scream got that lame ass TV series reboot. And how many goddamn continuities does Halloween have with next year's sequel? Four or five?

While Cult of Chucky certainly isn't as good as the first two films, it does find the balance that's been missing since Bride came out. It is funny, hilarious in a few places even, but still a legit horror movie. That's a hard place to get to and it almost feels like a Tales from the Crypt movie at times. It works well here and could keep the series going for at least one more film, which we kind of need considering the end of the movie. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you what it is.

This one also seems to ignore Seed of Chucky (thank Chthulu!) with the exception of Tiff being in Jennifer Tilly's body...which is exactly where I've wanted to be since Bound hit VHS twenty-one years ago. I should sue the producers of that flick for the repetitive motion injury. Anywho...

Calling Alex Vincent an actor is a bit like calling Ron Jeremy a gynecologist. Vincent played Andy in the first two Chucky films and reprised the role in a bitchin' cameo at the end of Curse of Chucky. Outside of that, he's done like five movies that no one saw. Still, it's a great touch having him in the movie as the original character. Having the series creator Don Mancini writing and directing was also nice. Their presence made it feel less commercial and more like a love letter to the fans, which I really appreciated.

The addition of Fiona Dourif to the series has been a wonderful decision, as well. She plays the character of Nina with realism (given the situation) and takes her in a legitimate direction. In Curse, Nina is very timid and scared. She's the basic survivor girl and we're concerned for her safety throughout. Having survived the ordeal and accepted the fact that she's a nutjob murder (yeah, she got blamed for everything,) she's now much more headstrong and shifts closer to the heroine dynamic we expect as her story arc progresses. She's also awkwardly hot. Like one of those hippy chicks you see hanging around the new age section at Barnes and Noble. I feel like that's a big thing, because we need the final girl to be someone we know. Fiona Dourif's Nina could easily be my neighbor. Well, not my neighbor because I live in the barrio, but still, you get my point.

The story itself makes precisely zero fucking sense. It seems pretty obvious what's going to happen, or it did to me, and then every single thing I thought I had figured out, went a different direction. That direction was sort of stupid overall, but it works well. You're confused, right? Here's the deal: From where I sit, as a fan of the series and a horror writer, this movie was so damn predictable that I should have been able to hit pause ten minutes in and write the exact same story. Mancini realized that and changed each of those big surprise moments to something you never would have guessed. It makes you scratch your head occasionally, but I was genuinely surprised each and every time. He took it out of that "I've seen this movie a thousand times" arena and flipped it into something unpredictable and fun.

Overall, this is a far superior sequel then parts 3-5. It's not a great movie, but it is a fun movie. It's also a worthy sequel, and honestly, how many of those come along in the slasher sub-genre? 3 out of 5 stars for being a flawed by fun film, plus a bonus star for restoring one of my favorite franchises to something respectable-ish.

4 Stars for a Bloody Good Time!