Bride of Chucky Review

Posted by Darkness on July 10, 2012 (Updated: 21-Aug-2023)

Bride of Chucky takes place 10 years after the original Child’s Play film and almost straight after Child’s Play 3. The essential storyline is that Chucky’s old girlfriend, Tiffany, gets a hold of his remains from the end of Child’s Play 3 and stitches him back together. After another voodoo ritual, Chucky is alive once more. He kills Tiffany and transfers her soul into another doll. They get a pair of teenagers to take them to a cemetery to get the Heart of Dombala which is buried with Charles Lee Ray’s body. It’s a fun road trip with lots of action along the way.

 Bride of Chucky Review

Let me first say when I first saw Bride of Chucky, I absolutely loved it. I loved the new direction the filmmakers took the character. I mean, the previous movies had a lot of humour but Bride of Chucky goes all out. It is a black comedy from start to finish. The film was directed by Ronny Yu (Freddy vs Jason) and written again by Don Mancini. Ronny Yu puts a completely new stamp on the franchise. It had the highest budget ($25M) out of all the Child’s Play films. The style that it’s shot looks stunning. For the first time, the score is full of rock/heavy metal songs. The thought of doing that in a Child’s Play film sounds crazy but you know what? It all works in the film’s favour.

For the first time in the franchise, the story is no longer about Andy Barclay and Chucky’s obsession with him. After he is resurrected, he reveals he needs to get this Heart of Dombala which is buried with his corpse. This does raise some questions. If he could have used this amulet, why was it never mentioned in the previous three instalments? Why was Chucky so obsessed with Andy Barclay? It’s not a big deal and I guess it’s admiral they came up with a completely new story this time around.

 Bride of Chucky Review

Jennifer Tilly plays Chucky’s old girlfriend Tiffany. She’s just as crazy as Charles Lee Ray and she kills people purely for the fun of it without remorse. So I guess her and Chucky make a good match. Jade (Katherine Heigl) and Jesse (Nick Stabile) are the two teenagers that Chucky and Tiffany take on the road trip. They’re kinda like Romeo and Juliet. They have their own problems with Jade’s uncle, Chief Kincaid (John Ritter), interfering with their relationship. Jennifer Tilly is, weirdly enough, a great addition to the cast. I’m not really a fan of her but her voicework for Tiffany is fairly decent. The rest of the cast members are okay. You can’t really expect A+ performances in a horror flick like this.

There are a couple of jump scares at the beginning but the film isn’t supposed to be scary. The kills in Bride of Chucky are completely unique and are fairly creative, but are usually full of humorous dialogue. Chief Kincaid gets lots of nails thrown at his face and there’s a funny reference to Pinhead. The other cop is blown up in his own car and the couple at the honeymoon suite have shards of a mirror rain down on them. It’s great stuff to watch. The plot is generally pretty straight forward.

There are a couple of scenes in Bride of Chucky that I think just go too far. The first in the motel where Chucky and Tiffany have sex. The thought is so ridiculous so I’m surprised they actually went ahead and did that. Connected to that scene is the final shot of the film with Tiffany giving birth. I’m not even going to figure that one out. I honestly think they shouldn’t have done it.

 Bride of Chucky Review

Chucky is once again voiced by Brad Dourif. Though he has a bit more to do in this film than he did in the others. He’s top notch as usual. It’s very funny when we see Chucky laughing to himself. It’s so infectious. We see more of Chucky’s personality in this picture. I think it’s a double-edged sword. I’m not overly keen on seeing Chucky acting so love-struck with Tiffany. He’s supposed to be a heartless killer and I feel he’s lost a lot of the anger he had in the previous films.

The tone of the film is very much a light-hearted affair. Don’t get me wrong, there is some very funny dialogue here. When Chucky first reveals himself, he twists his right around and says “It ain’t the size that counts, asshole – it’s what you do with it.”. There are lots of funny one-liners like that. I think my favourite moment is when they’re in the camper van, and Chucky is arguing with Tiffany. There’s some extremely funny dialogue throughout the movie. Don Mancini did a great job with it. The film even makes fun of itself and there are quite a few references to other slasher movies in there too.

The special effects in Bride of Chucky are nothing short of outstanding. As I said, the movie had a fairly high budget in the grand scheme of things. I’m going to flat out say now, that the design of Chucky in this one is my favourite out of the lot. His design is completely unique. His face is all stitched together and it looks wonderful on screen. There has been a lot of advancements in terms of animatronics and puppetwork. Chucky can do all sorts of new things now. The Tiffany doll is alright. The doll can pretty much do all the same articulation as Chucky and convey various emotions.

 Bride of Chucky Review

It’s difficult to actually rank Bride of Chucky in comparison with the Child’s Play films. It’s sort of a reinvention of the character and there is a lot of great stuff in this film that just works well. The simple plot line, the humour, the style, the music, the special effects. In a lot of ways, it even surpasses the original film if you just liked the comedy aspect. I don’t love Bride of Chucky has much as I did when I first saw it. If truth be told, I have started to miss the old school horror of the original. But it’s still a fine addition to the franchise.

Rating:
(7/10)
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