Tags:
Film: Cult of Chucky
Year: 2017
Director: Don Mancini
Writer: Don Mancini
Starring: Allison Dawn Doiron, Alex Vincent and Brad Dourif
Review:
This film begins in a fancy restaurant. We have a couple that are having dinner. Allison Dawn Doiron is the woman and the man is Alex Vincent. Vincent is reprising his role from the first two films in the series as Andy Barclay. Doiron has issues with Vincent owning guns and she reveals that she knows about his past. He brings it up and she tells him that is too much for her. He then goes home where we see he has more than a few guns. He opens a safe and takes out the head of the original Chucky doll. The doll once again voiced by Brad Dourif. He smokes a joint while they talk for a bit. He then starts to torture it.
We then get brought up to speed of what has happened between the previous film and this one. Fiona Dourif, the woman who survived the previous ordeal, is in a maximum security hospital where they believe she is the one who murdered everyone. She is getting shock therapy. Her doctor is played by Michael Therriault. He reveals to her that they are going to be moving her to a medium security hospital. He feels she has been showing good progress.
Fiona is brought to her room by Zak Santigao. It is revealed that there are no cameras here. She just cannot take advantage of this. Fiona then goes to the common room to meet the others. There is another nurse played by Ali Tataryn. We meet a woman who is schizophrenic, played by Marina Stephenson Kerr. She thinks she has died and is a ghost. There is Adam Hurtig, who has multiple personality disorder. The final two are Grace Lynn Kung, who is in for arson, and Elisabeth Rosen, who we learn later on, had post-partum depression and murdered her child.
Kung isn’t happy about Fiona being in their group as what she did is notorious. Therriault decides as a way to help her therapy, a Good Guy doll is brought in. It states that its name is Chucky and she gets upset. It is revealed that 2% of them had this name and Terriault paid extra to get one. Rosen takes a liking to it and pretends it is her baby.
That night the doll wakes up and steals a scalpel. On his way down the hall, Kerr stops him. She tells him that he isn’t real and has a funny back and forth with him. Before he leaves he states that he is going to kill her next. Chucky gets to Fiona’s room to find that she has attempted suicide.
Fiona wakes up the next morning when Santiago comes into the room. She is confused and sees her arm has been sewed up. She looks down and sees that in her blood it says ‘Not So Fast’. There is then an alarm that goes off and Fiona follows Santiago. Kerr is dead and it looks just like Fiona’s attempted suicide. In her blood it states ‘Chucky Did It’.
Kung believes that Fiona did this. Hurtig thinks it is the doll that Rosen has. Fiona claims she is innocent. That day she gets her first visitor. She is hoping it is her niece who she loved very much. It turns out to be Jennifer Tilly, who was the guardian of her niece. It turns out her niece is dead and she brought the doll that her niece was using in therapy. There are now two Good Guy Dolls in the hospital. Therriault proves that the doll isn’t alive by burning its fingers. When Fiona wants this done to Rosen’s doll, she leaves.
How is it that Vincent has alive and the one in this hospital as well? More murders happen and Vincent finds this on the internet. He heads that way. Which doll is possessed? Can Fiona and the rest survive this ordeal and stop Chucky before it is too late?
When I heard this film was coming out, I was slightly interested. After hearing some podcasts on it, I decided to give it a chance and I’m glad I did. I really like where writer/director Don Mancini has taken this. First off, I’m glad to see that he has written every film in the series, because that has kept the continuity together where some series lose it. New pieces to the mythology get introduced each film, but none of it completely violates a previous film. Now I was confused to see Tilly back as the human version of Tiffany. I feel I need to re-watch Seed and Curse of Chucky to see if that is explained. This one also has multiple Chucky dolls that are alive, which I really like this idea. It was also fun to see Vincent back playing Andy. I do feel that he was underutilized and kind of a waste in this film. I liked the ending and hope they are going to do another film in the series. Also, watch the unrated cut if you can, there is another character brought back with an after the credits scene. FYI, the version on Netflix is not unrated. Also the references to previous films in the series and other horror were fun to see.
The acting in this film is great. Brad is amazing as Chucky’s voice. He brings such comedy and horror to this doll. Fiona, who is his daughter in real life if you didn’t already know, was really good as well. Her character has quite the change in this film and I really liked it. She even mimics her father’s laugh and it gave me chills. Therriault is solid as the doctor and I like the reveal about him. Tataryn was gorgeous, even though her outfit might be a little too revealing to be a real nurse. Tilly is still looking good and she is usually solid. The rest of the cast round out the film well.
Next I have to cover the effects. First off, I’m not a fan of what they do with Chucky. I still prefer the how he looked from the original through Seed. I don’t mean the scars and stitching, but using more practical and animatronics. It looked more realistic to me where they are going more CGI. Some of the blood and gore in this film was practical and it looked great. There is a scene where glass is broken and snow coming down, both were CGI and looked fake to me. I thought the editing of the film was good. It builds the necessary tension until the climax. There are deaths sprinkled throughout and more happen as things are revealed which is good. The score didn’t stand out to me for this one, but it doesn’t hurt the film either.
Now with that said, I would recommend seeing this film, especially if you are a fan of the series. I thought the concepts introduced into this film were good. It brings back old characters which I liked, even though I wanted more of them. The film continues keeping continuity and going back to a darker tone. The acting was good, especially from both Dourifs. Some of the effects were really good where others I was disappointed in. The editing was solid and the score didn’t stand out, so it doesn’t hurt it or help it to me. I think this is one of the better installments to the series. I think this is a good supernatural slasher.
My Rating: 8 out of 10