BRIDE OF CHUCKY
US, 1998, 89 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Tilley, Katherine Heigl, Nick Stabile, John Ritter, Alexis Arquette, Brad Dourif (voice of Chucky), Lawrence Dean.
Directed by Ronnie Yu.
Bride of Chucky is the fourth in a series which began with Child’s Play, focusing on a demonic doll, a doll possessed by the spirit of a killer (voiced by Brad Dourif).
The first three films were very successful, although it was said during the 1990s that the young children who murdered another child in the United Kingdom had been influenced by the film. This did not appear to be the judgment of the presiding judge. However, it offered a caution about the impact of horror films and the availability of videos.
Jennifer Tilley stars as the voice of the Tiffany Doll as well as starring as Tiffany the girlfriend of the killer. The complex plot has Tiffany being killed and her spirit going into the Tiffany doll so that the Tiffany and Chuck dolls can produce their own child… The film also suggests that voodoo rituals were to be used so that the two criminals could inhabit the bodies of friends whom they murdered. However, this plan goes awry and only the dolls survive.
Direction is by Ronnie Yu, a Hong Kong director who went to Hollywood and made such films as Shanghai Moon, The 51st State and Around the World in Eighty Days.
1. The popularity of the Chucky series? The first three Child’s Play films? This film as a sequel?
2. The popularity of horror, the menacing doll, the sinister voice? The plots and murders? Rituals? This film being different with having the two dolls and their making love and producing a child?
3. The technical aspects, the special effects for the dolls, the action sequences? Horror? The musical score and the range of songs? The mood of the songs?
4. The film relying on its previous films, its in-references to so many horror films, paying homage to them? A film buff’s film?
5. Tiffany, her stealing the doll, the police evidence depository – and the irony of Jason’s mask and the relics of Michael Myers, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Freddie Kruger? The irony of watching The Bride of Frankenstein on the television – and this as a point of reference for The Bride of Chucky?
6. Tiffany’s trailer, her book of reference, Voodoo for Dummies, her trying to rebuild Chucky? Her success? Her memories of Charles Lee Ray? Their relationship? Her giving a bride doll to Chucky?
7. Her death, the electrocution, the television in the bath? Her personality going into the bride doll?
8. Tiffany’s neighbour, Jesse, the dolls going to Charles Lee Ray’s grave? His girlfriend, Jade? Their relationship, their friendship with Tiffany?
9. The grave, Tiffany and Chucky and the voodoo plan, the amulet released from the grave, their moving from the dolls into Jesse and Jade? The plan going awry?
10. The fight of the dolls at the grave? Tiffany killing Chucky? Her giving birth to the child? The promise of a sequel?
11. The popularity of this kind of what if horror? The tradition of dolls representing human personalities in sinister fashion in cinema?
