Bride of Chucky Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: Chucky is resurrected, yet again, and tries to get a new body or something like that.

Review: Chucky may get lucky, but that's the last thing you will get after dragging a date to see this. So after a seven year hiatus and part 3 being a huge disaster, they decided to turn the franchise into a complete joke. And while it's true the sequels were becoming more idiotic, this film unintentionally continued that trend--somehow exceeding the over the top nature of part 3. The "Child's Play" title is dropped in favor of going with the apropos "Chucky" moniker with a vague reference to "Bride of Frankenstein" even though the plot borrows more from "Romeo and Juliet" for some strange reason. I wouldn't mind this comedic direction if it weren't handled mindlessly. Other horror franchises, like Jason, have showed you can change the tone yet maintain a faithful presentation of a beloved character and the ongoing continuity. "Bride of Chucky," on the other hand, not only fails to be true to the characters, but also creates plot holes and comes off blatantly stupid rather than funny. Although this has nothing to do with Chucky, I want to mention that Universal Pictures turned down this very concept (of making a serious franchise comedic) in regards to "Jaws," but they felt it was okay with Chucky? I don't get that one.

Obviously the biggest fault of this movie is that the plot makes no sense and has nearly no connection to the previous three entries. In other words, they made this film specifically so audiences didn't have to watch the previous films to "enjoy" this one; as Mr. Sullivan prophetically alluded to, you must always think about the bottom line after all. The film begins with a slightly amusing moment as we learn Chucky's remains, after being shredded in part 3, are held at some evidence locker alongside signature items from the other major horror icons (like Freddy, Jason, etc.); this was clever, but they blew their best gag out the gate. Also, it's about fucking time this bitch ends up in evidence, although, how ironic since this is the one time I'd say he might not have ended up that way! Screwing with the audience's understanding of the continuity, we are introduced to a new character, Tiffany, who claims to have been Chucky's girlfriend...I'm assuming right before he was killed. And where exactly was this chick during the events of parts 1-3? Couldn't she have simply been an obsessed groupie or something along those lines? That might have been excusable, albeit moronic, but it would fit our flow of the events more concisely. Whatever, because she bribes some cop to steal Chucky's remains, and then she materializes out of thin air and kills the cop. I don't know how else to explain this scene...one minute the cop is sitting in his car and then he is somehow having his throat slit. If she opened the door, why wouldn't he react? His window was up as well and she was not in the backseat. Editing at its finest, folks. Tiffany reconstructs Chucky with extra doll parts that conveniently bring our beloved dolly to a somewhat recognizable state; I must stress the contrived nature of this since clearly Chucky would be unsalvageable after part 3. Then, to show us the level of "comedy" they were striving for, we see Tiffany reading "Voodoo for Dummies" that conveniently has Chucky's little chant from the movies. Wouldn't this feasibly put her soul in the doll though? I guess they are claiming the hexagram on the ground somehow makes a difference? Ugh, I don't know. Thinking the chant didn't work, we meet Tiffany's lover who is supposed to be some Marilyn Manson wannabe. After a bunch of corny jokes, that I guess may have been more amusing in '98, Chucky comes to life and kills lover boy. Instead of being grateful for his revival, Chucky starts talking shit and Tiffany locks him in a playpen she needlessly has.

You know, as stupid as this movie is, it might have been mildly acceptable if the entirety of the film was about Chucky and Tiffany wreaking havoc, "Bonnie and Clyde" style, but they had to throw in idiots we don't care about. Enter Jade and Jesse: two rejects with one of the worst, dumbest, and most pointless plotlines I could possibly imagine. Where is Andy? Why doesn't Chucky even mention him considering he's been the focus for three straight films?! Jade and Jesse have this "Romeo and Juliet" thing going on that I mentioned earlier, but we never learn why Jade's uncle, Warren, wants them separated. Warren is the chief of police so you know what that means...that's right: SHENANIGANS! And I love me some zany antics! I feel like "Bride of Chucky" is to "Child's Play" what "Batman & Robin" was to "The Dark Knight;" nah, that's not fair, "Batman & Robin" was actually funny (though unintentional). Chucky escapes from his little playpen and for some inexplicable reason, he kills Tiffany yet is able to transfer her soul into a different doll. I don't even know where to begin with this scene; it pretty much speaks for itself in terms of idiocy, but, seriously, why would Chucky do this? It's okay though, because the best way to handle a stupid scene is to one-up it in the very next scene as we learn more bullshit that conflicts with the continuity. Apparently now Chucky's original human body was buried with some amulet that can let him and Tiffany transfer into human bodies. Well, we can clearly see from the first movie that, no, he was not wearing any amulet when he was killed, but, besides that, they would not simply bury you in the clothes you're wearing when you die, you fucking imbeciles! This is like a fan script written by a 10 year old, although that is insulting to 10 year olds. It's bad enough we are left to assume the two have "turned human" while in the dolls, but did we really need to introduce a plot hole in the process?

Later Tiffany pays Jesse to transport our dear little dollies to the cemetery where the amulet is at, but this leads to Jesse feeling like he can run away with Jade...all because he has $500. This is 1998 and not 1898, right? I should probably mention the audience is torturously subjected to lame toy-related jokes like "Barbie, eat your heart out," as well as the most cliched of humorous setups like some pothead seeing Chucky. Blah blah blah, people start to get killed in contrived ways making Jesse and Jade suspicious that perhaps the other is the one murdering people yet this doesn't stop them from getting married. This plotline could have worked if it were played up more as the central theme, but instead we get a sex-scene between Chucky and Tiffany who also decide to get married; commence eye rolling. I can just picture Don Mancini writing: "And then the gay friend gets run over by a truck after seeing Chucky come to life! Hah, they'll love it!" Anyway, the couple realizes the dolls are alive, Chucky and Tiffany force them to go to the cemetery, but on the way Jesse and Jade easily turn Chucky and Tiffany against each other. For contrivance's sake, Chucky's body was exhumed that night by one, lone guy who was apparently dedicated to helping skip exposition. Tiffany is burned inside an oven and captured by Jesse while Chucky holds Jade at knifepoint to help him get the amulet. The two guys trade their respective gals, but Chucky stabs Jesse and then ties the two up with rope he pulled out of his ass. Tiffany, realizing Chucky is a douchebag, tries to kill him allowing for Jesse and Jade to get free. Tiffany is seemingly killed off by Chucky who is immediately knocked into the grave with his own corpse. Chucky is shot to death in the lamest defeat yet as some detective pops up to help them clear up the situation in yet another contrived moment. The film ends with Tiffany giving birth to some creature that attacks the detective.

I know there will be people who will defend this piece of shit and say they meant for the movie to be stupid, but I honestly think Universal and crew thought people would find it funny as is; the stupidity is not as intentional as people are led to believe. At the same time, I really don't mind Chucky being humorous, since he was joking more and more in part 2 and 3, but this film is not faithful to the story, characters, or franchise as a whole. Freddy is a good example, because he became more humorous as the sequels went on, but the films mostly stayed true to that character and continuity. Not to mention, when Freddy did become overly comedic, that's when fans got tired of him...so why would anyone think this was the right direction to take Chucky? I would argue the same reason Chucky 3 failed is the same reason why this Chucky succeeded: the era they came out in. As I mentioned, Chucky 3 came out in the worst time for horror films, but this Chucky came out in the wake of a horror boom thanks to "Scream" and its clones. So what do we really have here? You have a ton of contrivances, plot holes, and continuity errors, stupid and boring characters, cliches galore, lame and often idiotic jokes, and the ruination of a horror icon (though he was the admitted lamest of the bunch). But why am I rating this movie on the same level of part 3? Well, there are moments when the comedy works, I can't decipher exactly how much of the stupidity was intentional so I can't completely use it against the film, the production value was surprisingly high with a nice gloss the other entries lacked, and it was somewhat entertaining in an offbeat kind of way. However, to clarify, I think Chucky 3 is better storywise, but it sucks in its own special way.

Notable Moment: When Warren is shot with the nails and Chucky mentions that he looks familiar. This little nod to Pinhead was amusing, I'll admit, and made me smirk.

Final Rating: 4.5/10