SEED OF CHUCKY
US, 2005, 87 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Tilley, Red Man, Hannah Spirit, John Waters. Voices of: Jennifer Tilley, Brad Dourif, Billy Boyd.
Directed by Don Moscino.
There must be a sizable niche market out there for Chucky thrillers. After three Child’s Play films, which introduced the murderous doll which was inhabited by the spirit of a serial killer (voiced always by Brad Dourif) who continued his spree through Chucky, it wasn’t enough. In 1998, Don Moscino, who has written all the screenplays) must have been inspired by the Frankenstein films of the 30s and invented Bride of Chucky. It’s not difficult to see where this is leading… and here he is: Glen (or if Tiffany the bride doll had her way, Glenda), voiced with a cultivated androgynous voice by Billy Boyd.
We first meet Glen who is tormented by strange nightmares and who lets loose murderous instincts on a family that said he was the ugliest doll they had ever seen. He escapes to America in a delivery plane and van and ends up in LA where Jennifer Tilly (sending up her image) is having a career slump and connects with the director of a biblical epic (Redman). And Glen or Glenda meets his/her mum and dad, especially Mum who is envious of Jennifer Tilly’s career (the joke, of course, being that Tiffany is also voiced by Jennifer Tilly). Mum is actually on a 12-step program to stop her addiction to busy-ness which, in her case, is disposing of unwanted people. Meanwhile Chucky goes out with Glen on a bout of splatter bonding.
This means that the film is more tongue-in-cheek cheeky than usual with a lot of quite funny references to the Chucky movies themselves and humorous barbs including the targeting of Julia Roberts and Mel Gibson and his religious movies.
It’s all very silly in a clever kind of way, some crass moments, some frightening moments, some funny parody moments. Of course, it is only for the Chucky-converted.
1. The popularity of the Chucky films? The doll, the menacing doll, the murdering doll? Macabre humour? The Bride of Chucky? The consequences for the Seed of Chucky?
2. The opening English settings, the family home? The transition by air and van to Los Angeles? Los Angeles, Hollywood, homes? Authentic atmosphere for this kind of horror? The atmospheric score?
3. Audience suspension of disbelief, the doll and the voodoo curse, the doll with the spirit of the serial killer? the creation of the bride? The creation of the child?
4. Glen, the opening, his being the gift, the British family, the birthday? Their all saying he was the ugliest doll? His murderous instincts aroused? His menacing of the wife in the shower, menacing of the father, menacing of the little girl? His killing the family? His self-consciousness? His dreams and nightmares about murder? His escaping on the van, the plane, to Los Angeles?
5. Chucky and Tiffany in Los Angeles, their tradition of murder? Tiffany and her wanting to reform? Her twelve-step course, busy-ness? The advice, the psychology? Her making exceptions? Chucky and his innate evil? Their voices?
6. Jennifer Tilley, her sending up her career and style? Her wanting jobs, her career in a lull? The irony of her wanting to play the Virgin Mary? Her discussions with agents? Going to see Red Man, the effect on him, her throwing herself at him? Together?
7. Tiffany and her jealousy of Jennifer Tilley’s career, her own ambitions to be a film star? The control, the pregnancy of Jennifer? Red Man and his death? The pregnancy, the effect on Jennifer?
8. The arrival of Glen, Tiffany wanting him to be Glenda, Chucky wanting him to be Glen? His English accent, way of speaking, androgynous? Women’s clothes, men’s clothes? Chucky taking him out for bonding, the killing?
9. The effect of the birth of the baby? Twins? The irony of possession? Tiffany and her career in Jennifer? Chucky and his continuing to be his evil self? Glen and Glenda in the children?
10. The film as self-referential, the other films? The range of Hollywood jokes? The parodies of the horror genre? The mixture of the spoof and the macabre?
