This article contains spoilers for the Child’s Play series of films, and the Chucky TV series.With a franchise now seven features long and the recent TV series dropping, theChild’s Playfranchise has been haunting us since 1988 withChuckystanding shoulder to shoulder with the other iconic villains of the decade (despite being only 3 ft tall).
Headed by the inspirational Don Mancini,Child’s Playfollows the story of a single mother gifting her child a possessed toy for his birthday. Through voodoo, a serial killer places his spirit into the closest thing he can find - every kids' must-have new toy: a Good Guy doll.
Through clever low angle POV shots from the doll’s perspective, silently running around the house, and offing all the adults who don’t believe the boy,Child’s Playis a creepy low budget classic that excelled through tense storytelling and glorious practical effects, including puppetry and animatronics. However, this was no mere toy story.
Child’s Playwould go on to spawn many sequels, with varying results. The first sequel,Child’s Play 2would be just as nasty as the first and just as confident.Child’s Play 3would be embroiled in the off-screen murder of two-year-old James Bulger, and would raise the moral question ofthe Video Nasty in the UK.
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In a masterstroke, the fourth in the series would drop the numbered title and give the anthology a fresh spin by adding queer icon Jennifer Tilly (Bound, Family Guy) to its cast as Chucky’s girlfriend inBride of Chucky, before petering off limply withSeed of Chuckyin 2004. Despite being arguably the worst in the franchise,Seed of Chuckywould go on to finda place in people’s heartsfor its trans themes and openness in the relatively hetero horror genre.
It’s F***ing Chucky!
Chucky would hibernate for a while afterSeed of Chucky, but the character’s pop culture legacy remained. The villainous doll was kept alive by endless merchandise, an iPhone game, bad fan films, and inevitable comparisons with Chucky’s derivative competitors (Annabelle,Toy Story 5…). In 2018, Chucky would feature under Spielberg himself in an explosive and expletive-driven cameo in the overstuffedReady Player One, followed by a hollow feature length remake in 2019.
Canonically, the series would come back from the dead irregularly in straight-to-DVD editions withCurse of ChuckyandCult of Chucky. Every film mentioned would appear as they were released, following one after the other in order. The 2021 series follows directly on from 2017sCult of Chucky, directly linking back to it even, and is unrelated to the 2019 remake.
Cult of Chucky’sstory would place Nica (Fiona Dourif), the wheelchair-bound protagonist of the previous film, in a mental asylum, convinced that she was to blame for the killings. Meanwhile, Andy Barclay of the original trilogy has kept an animated head of the Chucky doll locked away for safe keeping. As the movie progresses, we learn that Chucky has discovered the ability to now copy and paste his spirit into that of any other doll or living thing, meaning that there are now actually multiple Chuckys on the loose.
Having killed their way through the inmates, Chucky condemns Andy to his own padded cell, possesses the body of Nica and walks out, linking up with Tiffany. Finally, by the end credits sting, Kyle (Andy’s foster sister inChild’s Play 2, played by Christine Elise) returns to finish the job.
Whereas Chucky’s peers have gone down the remake route (such asHalloween,Candyman, andTexas Chainsaw Massacre, which all saw quasi-remakes of late), Mancini and company have found major success in using the small screen to expand on theChucky™ ethos. WithChucky, they work on characters' development alongside the murderous doll, giving its world room to breathe rather than being confined to simply 90 minutes.
Guys & Dolls
From the beginning of the series, Jake finds Chucky in a yard sale, bringing the doll home with an aim of adding it to his art project. Quickly revealing himself and manipulating the boy, Chucky sets off the tried and tested chaos that a murderous doll brings. The original’s high-crime Chicago location has also now been transported to Hackensack, New Jersey.
Wannabe artist Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur) expresses his owncoming-of-age qualitiesthrough his affections for his classmate, Devon (Björgvin Arnarson). Jake’s home life is devoid of a mum and ruled over by his alcoholic widower of a father, who is totally unprepared to be supportive.
Also, resident rich girl and bully, Lexy, targets Jake repeatedly for being an introverted outcast. Her jibes are constant and so extreme that they almost come off as cartoonish, but surely for any young kid watching this and discovering their own sexuality, it is a more than accurate enough take on the high school experience and growing up.
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This series also lifts the lid on Charles Lee Ray’s origins as well. Once again, through the opportunities a longer-form series can bring to the table, we are shown just how Charles Lee Ray came to be, growing up and murdering his way through those close to him, to meeting Tiffany and coming full circle to now.
While there are very obvious direct expansions on theChuckymovie series, like the inclusion of fan favorites Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) and original victim-turned-badass Andy Barkley (Alex Vincent), this series keeps them as side characters to Jake’s main quest and leans in heavily to Mancini’s own background as a proud homosexual creative.
The series expands on its own queer themes, having its own out character. Rather than merely subtext now, the series feels updated for today’s views, without ever feeling forced or simply virtue signaling for the sake of being current (one episode is titled simply “Cape Queer,” a great play on the filmCape Fear). In a discussion withLooperonBride of Chucky’s queerness and casting, Don Mancini said:
I think it made it more interesting, so I just decided, ‘Well, I’m just going to increasingly brand my franchise as the gay horror franchise.’ Why not? I’m in a position to do it, so I’m just going to do it.
Back From the Dead
WhereChuckydoes lead on from (and again echoing the genre as a whole) is every character’s inability to truly stay dead. It’s a misshapen timeline, that once it kills off one person they only return to the next addition. Confusingly, Tiffany (Chucky’s long-suffering and psychotic girlfriend) for example, here also introduces herself to other characters as the actress, Jennifer Tilly. Elsewhere, actor Michael Therriault also returns to the series, despite playing an entirely separate character in the previous film… who was also murdered off. As kooky and wild as theChuckyfilm series has always been, quirks like this come off as baffling and are never properly addressed, generally preventing it from being one ofthe most important horrorfranchises.
Where theChuckyseries has always excelled versus its other scary cousins is Chucky’s (and particularly Brad Dourif’s sinister voice) ability to manipulate anyone he actually reveals himself to. Once again taking in its own openness to sexuality, Chucky (by way of connecting with the confused and put-upon Jake) speaks about his own “gender-fluid” child in a neat reference to Glen/Glenda, his offspring fromSeed of Chucky. It’s a really nice Easter egg for fans, and shows the lengths that Chucky is prepared to go to be relatable when he wants someone to do something for him. On this particular scene, Mancini said toAdvocate:
“Chucky is a psychotic killer. However, he’s not homophobic, and he’s not a bigot. He’s an equal opportunity killer”
The first series ofChuckyis a really enjoyable watch that expands on the evil doll’s world. With neat callbacks and the DNA of its own creator flowing through its output,Chuckyis exciting and expands nicely on a long series of classic horror films. Withthe confirmed second seriescoming sometime this year,Chuckycan be expected to continue that streak and add to that world even more.
