Seed of Chucky

Before we really get started talking about this movie I have to mention that the format I viewed it in is not the same as you or some one of your friends will hopefully not buy and hopefully not rent. Therefore, I can’t comment on the presentation of the final version of the DVD, like that would help any, or discuss sound quality, picture, still screens, music, sound bites, Easter eggs, etc. All I can tell you is that I’ve seen the film and the extras, in some way or another, and what I saw just ain’t pretty. It’s not that I don’t appreciate a good horror film or that I can’t stand a silly film from the horror/comedy genre, lets just say, the Seed of Chucky should have never been planted. The plot, if it’s even worth discussing, is that apparently Chucky and his sidekick wife, Tiffany, are now Hollywood movie star puppets appearing in a series of films about the “urban legend” of a murderous doll possessed by a serial killer. Somewhere along their path they attempt to stop their killing ways and raise a child of which they cannot determine if it’s male or female, Glen or Glena. Of course, they have a hard time quitting cold turkey and end up killing more people, cussing, and artificially inseminating Jennifer Tilly who plays herself.

It’s not that Seed of Chucky is bad, I wouldn’t say that, it’s that it’s awful, a waste of money, and completely unoriginal. I will admit that I haven’t seen all the Chucky movies, but I don’t think I’d be shouting it from the rooftops if I had, but this movie was just horrendous. It was not only boring, but also unnecessary. Jennifer Tilly did one of the best acting jobs I’ve seen in a horror movie, but the puppets weren’t any better than what you’d see at some local mall around Christmas time. Hell, it might even be more entertaining to see a bear in a dress read a book to all her little bear children while their heads pivot from side to side in glee.

What worse? The fact that I can decide if director Don Mancini was sticking to the classical techniques of horror (as a nod to his predecessors in the film world), or if his plot seemed stagnant because he only used those typical, diluted gimmicks of horror to, unsuccessful as it was, generate feelings of suspense and fear. There was nothing new, nothing shocking. Seed of Chucky was no better at being a sequel (first or fourth) than Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason. Guess what? A woman was taking a shower, and she got killed. Guess what? When they tried to quit killing, they couldn’t. Guess what? When someone was sitting by themselves in a quiet dark room, a puppet showed up or ran behind them.

Monotony does not begin to describe the boredom of fake blood mixed with an overuse of foul language and ridiculous images of puppet boobs and masturbation. Maybe I’m just getting older, but who wants to watch a bunch of puppets that cuss like teenagers trying to be grown up and not realizing that very few grownups talk like that. Chucky and Tiffany end up sounding like a bunch of puppet trailer trash killers ready to head back into the mountains to stew up some fresh road kill.

Let’s be honest, do we really want to watch a horror movie where the main characters are exploring their parental roles and their child is in the middle of having a sexual identity crisis to the extent that it’s causing an eye twitch? Mancini has taken something that had the potential to be on par with Freddy and Jason and then messed it all up by overexposing Chucky and Tiffany as characters. Part of the mystery and fear of movies like these is that you never get so close to the main character as to not fear them, and with Seed of Chucky not only do they become not scary, they push into the realm of tiresome and never come back to redeem themselves.