Saturday, October 15, 2011

Franchises: Child's Play. Bride of Chucky (1998)

For the majority of the 90's, it looked like Child's Play was going to remain a trilogy, as the less than stellar reception of Child's Play 3 squelched any hopes for future entries in the series and Don Mancini, at that point, was content to let the series end there. And then, around the fall of 1998, my step-cousin, who was into Chucky, told me that there was going to be another movie. When he told me that the title was Bride of Chucky, I initially laughed, because that sounded so dumb, but when he said he was serious, my reaction was just, "Huh." Regardless, I was still frightened of 80's horror films at that point, so what did I care? I wasn't going to see it... at least, that's what I thought at the time. But then, the following year I opened up to all horror films by seeing Child's Play and Child's Play 3, so after that it was only a matter of time before I saw Bride of Chucky. I still wasn't sure what to think of the title but my step-cousin kept telling me that it was a really cool and even funny movie. After seeing clips and images of it, I finally saw the movie, for the most part, when it premiered on the USA Network one night and, I must say, I really liked it then and I still do now. Its tone may be completely different from the previous movies but change can be a good thing if it's done well and, in the case of this movie, I still think it's a really fun little horror film.

A police officer steals Chucky's shredded remains from the ending of the previous film from an evidence locker at the police station and plans to meet up with a woman who promises to give him money in exchange for them. However, when he arrives at the rendezvous point, he's murdered by the woman, Charles Lee Ray's former lover, Tiffany. She takes Chucky's remains back to her trailer and sews the doll back together before using voodoo to resurrect Ray's soul. Soon, everyone's favorite killer doll is back and Tiffany is happy to be reunited with her old flame... until she learns that a ring she found the night Ray was killed wasn't an engagement ring for her, as she originally thought. Angry at Chucky, she locks him in a child's play pen, but Chucky eventually manages to get out, murders Tiffany, and, in the ultimate revenge, transfers her soul into a bride doll that she gave to him earlier to mock him. Still wanting to be human again, Chucky offers Tiffany a chance to do the same by saying that they have to travel to a cemetery in Hackensack, New Jersey where Charles Lee Ray's corpse is buried and dig up a special amulet that was buried with it, an amulet that can transfer their souls into human bodies. To that end, Tiffany tricks her neighbor Jesse and his girlfriend Jade into taking the dolls to the cemetery in exchange for cash... and guess whose bodies the two little psychos plan to possess once they have the amulet?

This is where the series had a major change of direction. Say what you will about Child's Play 3 but it was still trying to be a serious horror movie, like the first two, whereas this film, knowing that the idea of killer dolls would eventually become laughable if it was continued to be played straight, decides to beat everyone to the punch and turn it into a total horror-comedy. Chucky is funnier here than he ever was before, the kills are over the top and ridiculously gory, and the whole film, as writer Don Mancini described it, is a macabre parody of date movies. Also, since this was made after the enormous success of Scream (which could be why this film was made to begin with due to the shot of adrenaline that film gave to the slasher genre), there are a lot of blatant references to horror movies and the cliches of the genre. Those who've followed the series from its inception may be a bit put off by the comedic tone of this film, as I kind of was initially, but if you give it a chance, I think you'll agree that this is a fun 89 minutes.

The film was directed by Chinese filmmaker Ronny Yu, who had just arrived in America before this film and directed Warriors of Virtue, which, from what I've seen, looks like a pretty lackluster fantasy adventure. Horror-wise, he would most significantly go on to direct the long awaited Freddy vs. Jason five years after Bride of Chucky. Yu may not be the best filmmaker ever and his movies aren't exactly what you would call high art but, of the ones I've seen, I'll say that he does know how to make stylish-looking, entertaining stuff. His hyper-kinetic style of filming action scenes, well-executed and eye-pleasing visual flair, and the over the top gore he puts in both this movie and especially in Freddy vs. Jason are a lot of fun. Say what you will about the actual quality of his movies (and in interviews, he does tend to come across like he has no clue what he's talking about) but he knows how to have fun and make you have fun in the process.

Chucky's girlfriend Tiffany is, of course, played by the very sexy Jennifer Tilly. Tiffany is interesting in that, both in human and doll form, she's just as twisted and prone to murder as her beau, and yet still expects to be treated like a lady by Chucky. The obvious question is does she really love him? Well, she went through the trouble of tracking down his remains and resurrecting his soul, so I guess so, and she even says that she'll kill anybody but she'll only sleep with someone she loves, which she clearly did with Charles Lee Ray. Of course, that said, the minute he starts acting less than appreciative towards her, her psycho side comes out and she crazily attacks him, so she's just about as insane as he is. And like him, she comes up with creative and brutal ways of killing people (even more so, since she thinks Chucky's methods are old-fashioned), like sending a bunch of nails right into someone's face or smashing a glass ceiling, sending big shards down at a couple, tearing them to pieces, and enjoys every minute of it. Plus, even as a doll, she has to look sexy and stylish, dying her hair blonde, putting on makeup, eye-liner, lipstick, and nail polish, as well as putting her signature tatoo back on her chest, and wearing a small, leather jacket over the bride doll's wedding dress. But, despite what you can say about her, she does have a little bit more of a heart than Chucky, though. She kills the couple who take Jesse and Jade's money because she thinks a thief like that woman doesn't deserve to have a wedding ring. What's more, when she realizes that what they're doing is wrong, she decides to kill Chucky and, one would assume, herself, since she tells Chucky that she'll see him in hell, and let Jesse and Jade live. Granted, that change of heart does kind of come out of left field but it is there (although it was rescinded completely in the next movie), and that leads into a brutal fight between her and Chucky that ends with Chucky stabbing her right through the heart and shoving her to the ground, ending their quest to become human again on a tragic note, or so you're led to believe.

Since this is a horror-comedy, Brad Dourif is able to ramp up Chucky's sense of humor ten-fold, with more one-liners and macabre jokes than there ever were before and they're great. I find the running joke about Martha Stewart between him and Tiffany to be particularly hilarious, as does my mom: "I don't know, what would Martha Stewart do?" My favorite scene between him and Tiffany is actually when he first comes to life and attacks her geeky, Goth wannabe boyfriend. After ripping out his mouth piercing, putting a pillow on his face, and sitting on it, all while the guy is screaming blood-murder underneath, Chucky just looks up at Tiffany and says, "Hi." When she asks how he's been, he says, "Peachy! Actually, to tell you the truth I've been kind of out of it." I especially love when he sees a fake death picture the boyfriend took to try to impress Tiffany and says, "That is sick." I also like the way Chucky laughs in this movie. He's always had a loud, cackling laugh but here, like everything else, it's really over the top and funny, and speaking of laughing, I can't help but do that whenever he himself gets scared and screams in fright, like when Warren pops up with nails in his face or when he falls into the grave on top of his own human corpse. Some may find that to be an insult to the Chucky they grew up with but it kills me. As for his relationship with Tiffany, I think that, deep down, Chucky really does love her because, in the scene in the RV when Jade shoves Tiffany into the stove, Chucky screams "No!" and shoots at her. He also trades Jade for her when Jesse is threatening to shoot her in the head. In the end, he does fatally stab her when she turns on him but, before then, she was going along with his plan and he seemed to truly want to live with her as humans. He not only apologized to her for everything that he did but even proposed to her the night before and it did seem sincere. So, he does probably care for her in some way, but his killer instinct and desire to be human again overrides that when she's about to spoil his plan. Let's just say that it's complicated.

Katherine Heigl and Nick Stabile play Jade and Jesse, the eloping couple who almost end up losing their souls to Chucky and Tiffany, and while neither of them are the best actors in the world, they are likable all in all. They're two kids who desperately want to be together but Jade's asshole uncle won't allow it, so they have no choice but to, as their friend David tells them, get the hell out of Dodge and never look back. Their relationship isn't exactly rock-solid since they turn on and accuse each other of being a killer when the bodies begin to pile up, including after they're married in a very tacky wedding chapel/hotel, but when they discover the truth, they're determined to save each other. While Chucky and Tiffany's relationship definitely won't work out because they're both too insane, a fact that Jesse and Jade use to their advantage at one point, there is hope for these two kids and it's quite possible that this experience brought them closer together. Ironically, Tiffany herself may be the reason why it could work out because, before Chucky kills her and turns her into a doll, she tells Jesse not to take Jade for granted and to treat her right. Although, Jesse already seems like the kind of guy who would do so and Jade's also a likable girl, so it probably would have worked out for them no matter what happened.

Normally, I like John Ritter a lot and I miss him to this day but here, he plays a thoroughly unlikable character. Chief Warren Kincaid is the worst kind of authority figure imaginable, refusing to allow Jade, his niece as well as his ward since her parents are dead, to see Jesse because he's a piece of trailer trash to him and he even threatens to rig evidence to make Jesse look like an untrustworthy person, such as making it seem as though Jesse is a drug addict or a drunk, and says that because he's the chief of police, no one would question him. He's similar to Geoffrey Keen's loathsome William Hargood in the Hammer film, Taste the Blood of Dracula, who was similarly cruel to his daughter and refused to allow her to see her boyfriend. While Kincaid isn't quite as abusive as Hargood, he's still just as hateful, making it clear to Jade that he doesn't care about her but rather his own  reputation, saying, "When you're 18, you can go to hell, for all I care, but until then, I'm stuck with you, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let you embarass me by ending up on Jerry Springer with some trailer trash lowlife." He'll even go as far as to plant marijuana in Jesse's van so his subordinate will have a reason to arrest him later. Fortunately, he's not in the movie long enough to become annoying, as he's killed by Chucky and Tiffany fairly early on. (Chucky was originally supposed to say something like, "Sorry, Jack, but three's a crowd," an obvious reference to Three's Company, before killing him.)

I really like Gordon Michael Woolvett as David, Jesse and Jade's gay friend, who acts as the voice of reason between the two of them. He's the one who gives them the idea to elope in the first place and encourages Jade when she's depressed about the way things are, telling her she has to grab a chance to be happy while she has the chance. And when both of them call him with thoughts that the other may be a killer, he decides to track them down and set them straight because he knows that there's a huge misunderstanding going on. I like that he's such a nice, dependable friend who does everything possible to help them, and while he does briefly think that they are indeed killers when he finds Kincaid's body in the back of Jesse's van, he finds out about Chucky and Tiffany right before he dies by being hit by a truck.

Alexis Arquette at first seems like a stereotypical, over-done Goth guy, with piercings and tattoos galore, but when you find out that he was really a geek named Howard Fitzwater rather than the tough rebel Damien Baylock whom he pretended to be, it's really funny. It's actually kind of sad when you think about how much he tried to get Tiffany by pretending to kill someone and win her over, being too blind to see that this psychopath cares nothing about him. You can also tell he's a wimp when Tiffany's pet tarantula crawls over his face and he melodramatically wipes his face like a girl after she takes it off. His biggest mistake is not taking Chucky seriously and making fun of him, which leads to him getting smothered, which, like I mentioned earlier, is darkly funny when Chucky and Tiffany are having a conversation while he's under the pillow, screaming his head off before finally dying, and they're acting like it's nothing. Finally, I have to mention Michael Johnson as Officer Norton or "Needlenose", Chief Kincaid's weaselly subordinate. He's so slimy with the way he tails Jesse and Jade, knowing that what he's doing isn't right but he does it for the money, even mocking Jade when she calls him on it, and that condescending smile of his can make you want to punch him. He's such a prick, knows it, and just doesn't care.

Thanks to Ronny Yu, this is one of the best looking entries in the series. As you can tell from all of these images, the movie is very well shot, with a stylish, glossy look that doesn't bely the fact that it had the biggest budget of the franchise ($25 million) and very rich colors, including lots of blue, which I like, and shadows. The production design in and of itself isn't anything as noteworthy as some of the locations in the previous films, save for the enormous parking garage where Tiffany murders the cop who brings her Chucky's remains, the overly tacky and cheesy-looking Honeymoon Suites Hotel where Jesse and Jade tie the knot, and the wind-blown, Gothic cemetery where the climax takes place, but Yu makes them look so good in his photography that you often forget that what you're looking at is a pretty ordinary place. In fact, none of the sets feel that unpleasant because of the film's look, including Tiffany's trailer, even though it is a little cluttered and full of voodoo and satanic stuff. Yu also manages to come up with some interesting-looking shots, such as the image of Tiffany holding up Chucky's remains with a shaft of light in the background framed between them, Chucky's eye looking into the gas tank of Needlenose's car, the reflection of that couple screaming as the wine bottle smashes into the glass ceiling, a shot of Jesse cocking a handgun with the burning trailer framed behind him, and the numerous overhead shots of stuff like Chucky being placed in the middle of a pentagram on the floor of Tiffany's trailer, a push-in to the roof of Tiffany's trailer, Chucky standing over the bathtub after he's killed Tiffany, and his and Tiffany's battle in the cemetery at the end.

While the animatronic effects in these movies have always been top-notch, they're better than ever here. Chucky and Tiffany both come across as nothing less than living, breathing, and thinking creatures and the fact that they were able to give such distinct personalities to not just one doll but two this time around is quite an accomplishment by Kevin Yagher and his crew (this would be the last film where he would do the effects). One of my favorite moments with Tiffany is when she's putting on clothes and makeup to Blondie's Call Me and, after she's finished, she lights a cigarette, takes a puff (which looks very believable), turns to Chucky, and says, "Barbie, eat your heart out." Not only is that line hilarious but it's amazing how much she comes across like a living being there. The facial expressions in each doll are particularly good. Not only are they able to run the broad spectrum of emotions, going from mean and attacking to happy and even sad, but there's such an amazing amount of subtlety in the facial movements that, if you blink, you won't see all of them. It astonishes me that they were able to build such amazing mechanisms into something as small as a two-foot doll. If I have anything negative to say about this film's conception of the dolls, it's that I miss the classic Chucky. His scarred look isn't bad and it's pulled off well here, but after this film and the following one, I found wishing Chucky would get back to looking the way he used to (which he kind of did in Curse of Chucky but that's a discussion for another day). Someone else said it best: even though I personally have always found Chucky to be ugly even when he was acting like a normal doll, his best strategy was that he looked like an innocent child's plaything and could use it to kill any unsuspecting person. When he looks like a stitched up monster, it's not going to be that surprising when he comes to life and attacks. In this film, he doesn't even try to look cute when he acts like a normal doll and always has this sadistic grin on his face. No one would want to play with a doll that looks like that and, indeed, everybody who sees him in this film shudders in disgust. Another nitpick that I have is Chucky's doll voice. I know Edan Gross, the kid who did the voice in the original films, was probably too old by this point to do it again but, couldn't they have at least found someone who kind of sounds like him? I'm just saying. In any case, those are my only two bones of contention with the movie.

In keeping with the film's comedic tone, the kills are very over the top in the amount of gore, which is far greater than in the first three films. A slashed throat with blood pouring out, a suffocation, an electrocution in a bathtub (Tiffany's death; Chucky's death is really lackluster, though, as he just gets shot a bunch of times), Needlenose getting blown up when Chucky stuffs a rag into his car's gas tank and lights it, Warren getting nails thrown into his face and later stabbed repeatedly in the back, David getting hit by an eighteen-wheeler and his body exploding into chunks all over the road, etc., Bride of Chucky is definitely a splatter-flick. The most amazing death is when Tiffany murders a criminal couple who steal money from Jesse and Jade by throwing a champagne bottle at the glass ceiling above their bed and the huge shards rain down on them and slash them to pieces, causing the waterbed to explode in a geyser of wine, water, and blood that turns a bearskin rug red. It's incredible, and that's when Chucky, as awestruck as the audience, asks Tiffany to marry him. The scene then goes even further with the film's morbid comedy, some great, early examples of which are Tiffany lying in bed next to Damien's still handcuffed body and her attempting to hide his body in a trunk that she has Jesse put into the back of her car, explaining that it's, "A little of this, a little of that. Stuff that's gone out of style." Chucky is unable to pull the wedding ring off the woman's severed finger and has to bite it off in order to give it to Tiffany and then, they have sex in front of the room's roaring fireplace. You only see it in shadow but you certainly hear it and, as ridiculous as it is (and the outcome is even more so), I'd take it over the disgusting thing Chucky does in the next film any day of the week (and if you've seen that movie, you know what I'm talking about). Plus, I do laugh at Tiffany's question if he has a rubber and Chucky goes, "Tiff... look at me! I'm all rubber!", to which she replies, "I thought you were plastic." Other examples also include when Tiffany, while baking cookies in the back of the RV for Chucky, opens up a door to reveal the bodies of the old couple who used to own the couple and who Chucky killed by shooting them in the head and her reaction is, "Oh! Excuse me," and when Jade, while trying to move the amulet from Charles Lee Ray's corpse, accidentally snaps the neck and Chucky goes, "Oh! Bitch! You broke my neck!" My favorite bit of humor in the whole movie, though, is when Chucky turns on the van radio and the first thing he hears is a woman ranting about how violence in movies and television is corrupting America's youth and his comment is, "What is this shit?" I wonder if that was Mancini's response to the controversy that Child's Play 3 found itself caught up in England? Regardless, being against that dumb argument myself, I can't help but think, "Chucky, you're the man," when I see that scene.

Since it was made after the success of Scream and its first sequel, this movie has a bunch of horror movie references and often points the finger at the cliches of the genre. Sometimes, it's very blatant in doing so, and other times it's more subtle. The more blatant ones come during the first act. The opening scene in the evidence section of a police station shows Michael Myers' mask, Jason's hockey mask, a chainsaw (meant to be Leatherface's, no doubt), and Freddy Krueger's glove, suggesting that all these franchises take place in the same universe, an idea that I like myself. Even more blatant than that is when Tiffany is watching Bride of Frankenstein right before Chucky kills her, as if we couldn't guess what the inspiration for this movie's title and plot was. (I do like how generally moved she is by the scene where the monster's bride rejects him, as if she's seeing Chucky's rejection of her in it.) There's also a more subtle reference to The Omen (one of Don Mancini's favorite horror films and one of mine too) in Tiffany's boyfriend, Damien Baylock. Damien, obviously, is the name of the Antichrist child in that film, whereas Baylock comes from Mrs. Baylock, the disciple of Satan who became his nanny and protector. When Chucky and Tiffany kill Chief Kincaid by launching nails into his face, Chucky comments, "Why does that look so familiar?" If you didn't get it, and if you're a real hardcore horror fan, there's no reason why you shouldn't, it's a reference to Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies. And then, when Jesse asks Chucky how he and Tiffany ended up the way they are, Chucky says that it's a long story and that, "If it was a movie, it would take three or four sequels just do it justice." Need I say more?

Graeme Revell, who did the music score for Child's Play 2, returns to do the music for this film but, as with most of his scores, while it serves its purpose, it's not exactly memorable. In fact, other than the eerie main theme that plays over the very beginning, and is repeated throughout the movie, and a sort of romantic piece for Chucky and Tiffany, which starts out as a low, twanging guitar and becomes lighter and more poignant, I remember very little of the score. The actual songs on the soundtrack, however, are far more memorable, although not always in a good way in my opinion. I'm not a fan of Rob Zombie's music, or that kind of music in general, but I do like Living Dead Girl and I think it goes with the opening credits sequence, where you see Tiffany stitching Chucky back up with the camera pans across shots of dolls and newspaper clippings about Charles Lee Ray and the story about the killer Good Guy doll, very well. I also really liked Boogie King by The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies, which is a nice, fun, upbeat song, and See You In Hell by Monster Magnet has a melancholy rock sound that I also dig. However, there are other songs on the soundtrack that I don't care for at all. I don't mind Blondie's Call Me but I'm not big on Kidneythieves' cover of Crazy (I don't like the original by Patsy Cline either but that's another story) and White Zombie's Thunderkiss '65 is the definition of what I meant when I said I don't care for that kind of hard rock and metal stuff. And Static-X's Bled for Days, which I think is what plays over the latter part of the ending credits, is okay but it's not something I'd ever listen to out of choice.

To the really pure Chucky fans, Bride of Chucky is a joke and, to this day, many have not forgiven it for turning the series from straight-up horror to horror-comedy. While I do feel that this movie and especially the following one did kind of hurt the legacy of the original, this one is still just a bloody good time all in all. It's funny, gory, moves at a brisk pace, has a polished look to it as well as a nicely dark sense of humor and interesting references to other horror films, and Jennifer Tilly and Brad Dourif are at the top of their game in their respective roles. Whether fans like it or not, it's the most successful film in the series, grossing over $50 million from its original budget of $25 million, and before it even became a huge hit, the ending, with Tiffany giving birth to a baby living doll (which is both silly and freaky at the same time), let us know that there was going to be another film. But all those fans who thought Bride of Chucky made the series a ridiculous farce had no idea what was in store, because the next film would make it nigh irredeemable.

2 comments:

  1. This movie may be more goofy and comical in contrast to the first movies which were dark and scary but despite that it's not bad considering that it's still dark and scary with a bit of dark humor in it. Add to the fact that this movie's got Chucky's new design makes this movie okay in my opinion.

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  2. While this movie's got a more goofy and comedic tone to it in contrast to the previous movies despite that it wasn't bad considering that it was rather fun and entertaining for a goofy horror comedy! Add to the fact that this was the first appearance of Tiffany makes this movie not a bad movie despite being much more goofy and comedic than the previous movies.

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