Thursday, October 10, 2013

One Hell Of A Good Curse

In Curse of Chucky everyone's favorite evil doll gets back to what he does best: being a dick and killing people. It steers away from the camp and comedy which dominated the two previous films, Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky. In Curse, Chucky once again gets nasty.

Sarah and her wheel-chair bound daughter Nica live in an old country home. Sarah spends her days painting and heavily medicated (The reason for the latter is explained later.) while Nica dreams of leaving. One afternoon a mysterious package shows up for Sarah containing Chucky. There is no return address or accompanying letter. And almost on cue, Chucky begins saying his famous, child-friendly quips. Of course, neither woman is impressed and Chucky is thrown in the garbage. Later that night, Sarah commits suicide. Allegedly.

The following day, Nica's remaining family descends upon her -- sister Barbie, brother-in-law Ian and niece Alice. Also among the group are Alice's nanny, Jill and Nica's former priest, Father Frank. After a dinner of lovingly prepared vegetarian chili, bad things start to happen. And I am not talking about heartburn.

One of the coolest things about Curse of Chucky is Brad Dourif's real life daughter, Fiona, plays Nica. (Fans of the series know Brad as the voice of Chucky.) She's charming as a young woman who is innocent and sheltered but also tough and determined. Her war of words with Chucky near the end of the film is fantastic. As you undoubtedly noticed, I said that was one of the coolest things. The other very cool thing about this movie is Brad Dourif appears as Charles Lee Ray for the first time since the original film, Child's Play. Since Charles Lee Ray was killed in Child's Play, his appearance in this film should have your "twist senses" on overload.

Nica's house guests are annoying and sometimes just downright fucktarded. Barbie is a bitch who lacks subtlety and is horrible at hiding things. Ian is an unmotivated doofus. Alice is far to whiny for a girl her age and Jill is just fucking stupid. The only tolerable one among them is Father Frank and sadly he gets the least amount of screen time. (That's the only blatant plot hint I am giving you.) The guests try to settle in but as it goes with these movies, people start dropping one by one. There is distrust and paranoia. And well, you know how all that goes in these movies.

Although Ian's character is a doofus, he does give the best line of the film: "It's just a doll. What's the worst that could happen?" As always, Chucky delivers his sarcastic comments and straight-up asshole one-liners we have all grown to love.

Fans of the series who tolerated the previous two films as I did will love this one. (Although Jennifer Tilly was wonderful in Bride and Seed.) Oh FYI, that's another hint. Not a plot hint, but you know damn well there will be another sequel. Curse is one hell of a fun movie and horror fans and fans of Chucky all need to get the popcorn ready, grab a beverage, turn the lights off and enjoy this movie! If the characters weren't so annoying it would have been an "A" for sure. However, points get deducted when I actually want to see people die. So Curse of Chucky gets a solid "B".

Oh let me give a big P.S. -- watch through the end credit. Just sayin...


There will be many more horror related entries to come as Halloween draws near. Thanks for reading this one. If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.



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