Tags:
Film: Bride of Chucky
Year: 1998
Director: Ronny Yu
Writer: Don Mancini
Starring: Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif and Katherine Heigl
Review:
This film begins with a cop entering an evidence depository. This room actually pays homage to a lot of great horror film characters like Jason Voorhees, Leatherface, Freddy Kruger and Michael Myers. The cop is played by Vince Corazza. He opens up a locker and takes out a garbage bag from it. He gets into his car and makes a call, telling someone that he has what they want and he wants his money.
He parks and then goes to look inside the bag, but his throat is slit. The person that kills him is played by Jennifer Tilly. She takes the bag home to her trailer. She empties it, revealing doll parts. She has an obsession with dolls. She is also dating the notorious serial killer Charles Lee Ray before his untimely death.
We then shift to meet our other stars. We have a young man showing up to a house, he is played by Gordon Michael Woolvett. He is let inside by the Chief of Police, played by John Ritter. He asks Woolvett some questions and lets his niece who lives with him know that he is there. She is played by Katherine Heigl and her parents passed away, this is why she lives here. Heigl then leaves with Woolvett to go to a school dance. It is clear though that he is homosexual. They get into the car and we see that her real boyfriend is hiding in the backseat; he is played by Nick Stabile. They don’t make it far down the road before they are pulled over by Michael Louis Johnson. He is working with Ritter to prevent Heigl from seeing Stabile.
Back in her trailer, Tilly sews together the doll that was inside the garbage bag and it is Chucky. She then tries to perform a voodoo ritual to bring him back to life. It doesn’t seem to work. There is a knock at her door and she lets Alexis Arquette in. Arquette is dating her and tries to impress her by showing a Polaroid of a man he killed. It turns out to be a fake and he still hasn’t killed anyone. Chucky has moved and Tilly knows it has worked. She handcuffs Arquette to the bed and places Chucky on his chest. She tells him the story of her life before Charles Lee Ray was killed and Arquette mocks Chucky. He shows he is alive and kills Arquette. Tilly is hoping to help him find a body so they can be married and Chucky mocks her. He is then locked inside of a cage under her table. It should be pointed out that Chucky is voiced by Brad Dourif.
We then go back to the teenagers and Ritter shows up. He tells Stabile he will ruin his life if he doesn’t stay away from Heigl. He threatens to put him away. She goes with him back home.
The next day we see that Stabile lives by Tilly. She asks him for his help in moving a chest that has Arquette’s body in it. She then goes to the store and brings home a wedding doll. She puts it into the cage with Chucky, mocking him. He takes a ring from around its neck and uses it to free himself. He electrocutes her in the bathtub and uses the ritual to transfer her to the doll. He then tells her that they have to get to his body so they can get an amulet that he was buried with, so they can transfer their souls into human bodies.
She decides to call Stabile and offer him money to take the two dolls to New Jersey. He agrees to do so for $1,000. He tells Heigl and they decide to run away together. He shows up at her place and while they are inside, Ritter goes inside the van to plant marijuana. Chucky and Tilly won’t allow this to happen though. They set up a trap with the airbag that fires nails into his face. They get him into a cabinet under a seat and clean up the blood. Ritter did call Johnson to warn him to pull them over though.
When Johnson pulls them over, he checks the van and finds the weed. Before he can call it in, Chucky decides to take matters into his own hands. He blows up the cop car, after Heigl yelled to everyone that she wanted to vaporize him. To make matters worse, there was a lighter taken from Corazza. It is found at the crime scene and there is already a link between Arquette as well. Now the police, led by Lawrence Dane, want to question the young couple.
Can they prove they aren’t the ones doing the killing? Or will they take the fall of Chucky and Tilly’s crimes? Who else will become a victim of them? Will they get the amulet and get out of these bodies or will they stay stuck in them?
I have to say that this film is interesting, because Child’s Play III seemed like the end by chopping up Chucky, but they decided with the beginning influx of remakes/sequels to bring him back. One thing that sets this apart though is that Chucky is known for his witty, dark humor, but this film ends up poking fun at other classic horror films as well as itself. I’m very glad that Dourif continued with doing the voice of Chucky. The rest of the cast is actually pretty good for this flick. This film is similar to past ones with having the slasher and body count. It is also very interesting to have some death scenes, especially being performed by two toys.
Now this film does come with its issues though as well. The first that sticks out to me is continuity issues. Chucky in previous films states that if he is stuck in the body for too long he could never get out of it, but in this one, he still believes he is able to do so. This one introduces an amulet that will allow him and Tilly to leave the body. We’ve never heard of this amulet until this film. I will give a little leeway that he has been in the body for so long, that he might need it now to get out of it, but that is me creating and bridging the idea without the film backing it up. This film is also a comedy, which hurts films for me, because it is hard to take seriously. With that being said though, this is a film about two dolls killing people, so I guess I shouldn’t be bothered that it is a comedy as well. I also took Chucky much longer to start to exhibit human functions as a toy, but Tilly is able to cry the very next night. This also sets up an act and what happens in the end.
I would recommend this film if you are a fan of the Child’s Play series. This one isn’t as good as the original, but this is a different type of film. This one plays partly as a satire of horror films of the past and even poking fun at itself. It is great to have Dourif back as the voice of the doll and the rest of the cast is pretty good. The film’s story isn’t bad, but it is hurt by continuity issues as well as being a comedy. If you want to see a horror/comedy, then this one isn’t bad. If you are going for more a serious horror film that is scary, then I would avoid this one unless you want to see the whole Child’s Play series.
My Rating: 5 out of 10