Title: Cult of
Chucky
Director: Don
Mancini
Released: 2017
Starring: Fiona
Dourif, Michael Therriault, Adam Hurtig, Alex Vincent, Jennifer
Tilly, Brad Douriff
Plot: Four years on
from the events of Curse of Chucky Nica (Fiona Dourif) has
been confined to a mental institution after being framed for the
murder of her family by Chucky (Brad Douriff). Now transferred to a
medium security unit, only to soon find herself tormented once more
by the killer doll.
Review:
The Seventh instalment in the
Chucky franchise its actually quite staggering that there is still
any life left in this series and while the other icons at this point
were heading to space, crossing over to other franchises or in
the case of Pinhead just constantly feel like has just wandered into
the wrong movie. Chucky on the other hand has just become a more
grotesque visage over the course of the films to the point were he
has just been now reduced to a heavily mutated head being kept in the
wall safe of series mainstay Andy (Alex Vincent) or has he?
Certainly
it’s clear from the start that Mancini much George Romero with his
zombie saga that he making
these films for the fans rather any kind of critical audience but
despite this it’s fun
seeing him trying to sew the series together by giving Andy more of a
cameo as he’s opens the film on a date which quickly turns sour
when his date discovers his troubled past of being tormented by the
killer doll with mention of his babysitters murder giving us a
flashback to her demise in the first film. Sadly we don’t get to
see any more of these classic even though Andy does mention them in
the same scene.
Focusing
once more on Nia as we pick up her story four years on from Curse
of Chucky were she has been
confined to a mental institution and now left questioning if Chucky
was even real. However being moved to a medium security unit it’s
not long before Chucky is up to his usual antics helped largely by
the fact that somehow these good guy dolls keep showing up at the
facility. Initially as a therapy tool if one which is soon being
passed around the residents as Mancini somehow manages to play the
long game in dragging out the inevitable reveal that Chucky is very
much alive. Considering how
we are so deep in the series the fact that he is able to still pull
off such mind games with this character really is a credit to Mancini
as he really builds the tension by having the usual methods of having
Chucky reveal himself such as burning the dolls hand all fail.
The
location itself is suitably isolated to make such a small cast
effective while the sterile whiles and snow covered landscapes make
nice change for the series even if we are denied a rewarding show of
blood sprayed across snow. Equally considering that the majority of the potential victims are all paitents helping with the early mind games as a early murder is written off as suicide.
Curse of Chucky
had felt in many ways like a
reboot for the series and a chance to rework its formula with the more obvious slasher shocks being
traded out for genuine tension so it feels like something of a step
back in many ways to see the film slipping back into old habits even
though the revel of what the cult of the title is certainly an
interesting move for the series. Of course with the upcoming remake it did
leave me wondering if we’d ever get to see this angle come to
fruition especially ending on the cliffhanger of sorts it does.
Seeing Andy though
potentially being setup as the franchise’s Dr. Loomis is an exciting
prospect which sadly doesn’t come to fruition thanks largely to
Andy kind of failing in the
hero department.
Thankfully
the character
of Chucky still feels as fresh as ever with Dourif seemingly showing
no kind of acting fatigue from playing the character for so long
there is certainly fun to be had, more so when he’s as creative a
lil psycho as ever giving us an incredible kill sequence involving a
skylight and a compressed air cylinder finally delivering the payoff
that was sorely missing from the greenhouse kill in The
Hand That Rocks the Cradle . The
main issue here is that Chucky is clearly here a character being
crushed under the weight of his own mythology which is certainly not
helped by Mancini’s determination to make everything tie together
rather than
starting the journey afresh as
the previous film had seemingly set things up to be
this especially coming to a
head when Jennifer Tily’s Tiffany has to confirm that she’s not
actually Jennifer Tilly, which is infact a throwback
to Seed of Chucky than
the kind of baffling logic seen in Oceans Twelve were
Julia Roberts imitated Julia Roberts! Regardless
it was only after I looked it up on IMDB that this plot element
became clear, while certainly not helped by Seed being the
forgettable mess that it is.
While
Cult is far from the worst entry in the series it’s unquestionably
a step down
from the previous film and with remake on the Horizon it’s unclear
if Mancini’s
vision for the franchise will ever materialise despite claims
of more film and a TV series to follow whether this will happen or
not remains to be seen.
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