Franchises: Child's Play. Cult of Chucky (2017)

I think everybody knew, especially after how well-received Curse of Chucky was, that there was more killer doll mayhem to come. I know I certainly did, and since I did indeed like Curse quite a bit, I was more than open to another go-round with the Chuckster, especially after the movie ended with some unanswered questions and teased the return of Alex Vincent as Andy Barclay. And then, four years later, I learned that this film was coming completely out of the blue, unlike how I knew for a while that Curse was on the way. I'm not sure, but I think the first time I even heard of Cult of Chucky was when Cody Leach on YouTube decided to do a series of reviews on the franchise leading up to its VOD and home video release that October. Regardless, it was a surprise, but not an unwelcome one, and the plot, about Chucky terrorizing Nica inside a mental asylum, sounded promising. And like Curse, when it was released, it got generally good reviews from critics, although fan reception seemed more mixed this time around. I knew something was wrong when Cody's review for it dropped and the thumbnail for the video showed him facepalming, while his more in-depth, spoiler review showed him giving a thumbs down. But, as per usual, I decided to reserve judgement until I saw it for myself, which ended up being that November, when I picked the Blu-Ray up at Wal-Mart... and yeah, I wasn't the biggest fan of this one. I don't think I dislike it as much as Cody, and I would say that Seed of Chucky is still my least favorite, but I am quite mixed about Cult. On the plus side, I really like the setting and think the movie is, again, very well-shot, Fiona Dourif kills it in her second performance as Nica, there are some impressive kills, and Chucky himself, as always, is a delight to see onscreen, even if he doesn't have the best lines this time around. But, at the same time, I don't find the story or much of the supporting cast to be as compelling, I feel the characters of Andy and Tiffany aren't utilized as well as they could be, there are some other issues I have with the writing in general, and, despite maintaining the darker tone from Curse, Don Mancini falls into the same trap he did with Seed and gets a bit too crazy for his own good, especially in regards to the mythology.

Four years after he foiled Chucky's attempt to finally kill him, Andy Barclay has been keeping his still-living, severed head at a log cabin out in the woods, and one night, after a date falls apart, he goes back there and proceeds to torment him with a blowtorch. Meanwhile, after having been charged with murdering her family, Nica Pierce has spent the last four years at Lochmoor Asylum, undergoing therapy from psychiatrist Dr. Foley. Now convinced that she was the murderer, that she's schizophrenic, and Chucky was something she imagined to help her cope with her crimes, Nica is transferred to Harrogate Psychiatric Hospital, a medium-security facility. Upon arriving, she's seen to by Carlos, a polite but not entirely sympathetic male nurse, and meets other patients such as Angela, a true schizophrenic; Claire, a pyromaniac; Madeleine, a severely deluded but meek woman; and Malcolm, a young man who initially seems well-adjusted but turns out to have multiple personalities. During her first group session, Angela claims that Chucky talked to her on the phone and said that Alice, Nica's orphaned niece, isn't okay and that he's coming for her. Foley, in an attempt at exposure therapy, presents the group with a Good Guy doll that just happens to call itself Chucky. Madeleine immediately takes to the doll and starts carrying it around, treating it as if it were her deceased baby. Nica is then visited by Tiffany Valentine, who claims to have been Alice's legal guardian, and tells her that Alice has died. Before leaving, she gives Nica another Good Guy doll named Chucky, claiming it was used in Alice's therapy and that she thought it might help her as well. It turns out that this second doll is indeed possessed by Charles Lee Ray and, that night, goes to Nica's room, only to find that she attempted suicide in despair. The next morning, Nica awakens to find her wounds stitched up, and Angela is then found dead in her own room down the hall, with the message, "CHUCKY DID IT," written in her blood on the floor. Now knowing that Chucky is real and has come for her, Nica futilely tries to get someone to believe her, as more people fall victim. Meanwhile, Andy, learning about the murders, heads to Harrogate to try to help Nica, unaware of Chucky's ultimate plan and the extent of his newfound abilities.

Don Mancini began teasing another Chucky movie not long after Curse's release, and began working on the script the following summer, though he got momentarily sidetracked when he joined the writing staff for Hannibal and wrote two episodes of the show's third season. He also worked on Channel Zero, a horror anthology series produced for the Sci-Fi Channel, in 2016, before really setting to work on writing Cult. When he was doing promotion for Curse, Mancini said he would like to potentially set the next one onboard a train (and I still think that would make for a good one) but, in the end, opted to continue on from Nica being put away in an asylum. He also decided to bring together the three major storylines that had developed over the course of the series by including Andy Barclay, Tiffany, and Nica in the film. While I think it could've been done better, I do appreciate the effort to tie those three separate sections of the series together. And as I mentioned up above, I think Mancini continues to show off a knack for nicely stylized and impressive direction, as well as visual flair. But, while he did prove capable of restraining himself when he made Curse, especially after the lackluster response to Seed, I think the previous movie's success emboldened him to get really crazy again with ideas, some of the imagery, and especially the very core of this particular story. And for my money, the movie suffered as a result.

In her second shot at Nica Pierce, Fiona Dourif again proves to be more than capable in following in her father's footsteps. She also really gets to stretch her acting chops, as this time, Nica is at her absolute lowest point. Even though she survived Chucky, she still got blamed for his crimes and was committed to a mental institution, where she's spent the last four years undergoing extensive therapy (the opening credits sequence gives us glimpses at the torment she's been put through). When we first see her, she's being put through electroshock therapy, and has also been convinced by Dr. Foley that she was the one who killed her family, and that Chucky was nothing more than something she dreamed up to take the blame. She's also come up with a reason why she did it: she was jealous of Barb and possessive towards Alice. Due to the progress he feels she's made, Foley has her transferred from the very severe Lochmoor Asylum to the medium security Harrogate. Upon arriving, she meets Carlos, a male nurse who's nice enough and asks her to come to him if she needs anything special, but also tells her this isn't going to lead to a friendship. Once in the day-room, she meets, among other people, a seemingly well-adjusted young man who calls himself Michael and appears to be someone she can talk to and depend on (they even have sex afterward). Then, in her first group therapy meeting, Nica meets Claire, who is very confrontational about her having supposedly killed her family, and Angela, who claims to have gotten a phone call from Chucky and tells Nica that he's coming for her; Nica can't help but laugh at this. Next, she comes face-to-face with her "delusion" when Foley whips out an actual Good Guy doll that calls itself Chucky. Though initially shocked to hear its voice, Nica manages to be pretty calm in its presence. and goes along with Madeleine's acting as though it's her baby. But then, she's visited by Tiffany, claiming to be Alice's guardian, and tells her that Alice has died of a "broken heart." She also gifts Nica with another Good Guy named Chucky, saying it was used in Alice's therapy and that she wanted her to have it. Completely distraught, Nica attempts suicide that night, only to wake up the next morning with her slit wrist sewn up and, "NOT SO FAST," written in her blood on the floor. And then, Angela is found dead in her room, with the message, "CHUCKY DID IT," written in her blood. Now, Nica starts to suspect that Chucky is real and is in the asylum, plotting to kill her.

To prove her point, Nica has Foley burn the hand of the doll that Tiffany left, but when he does, the doll doesn't react at all. She then theorizes that Chucky may have put his soul in the doll that Madeleine is carrying around, and tries to get "Michael," whose name is actually Malcolm and has multiple personalities, to take the doll from her while she's outside. Her worst fear is confirmed when, unbeknownst to Madeleine, the doll flips her off as she watches from the window. On top of that,

Malcolm gets knocked into Angela's open grave, Chucky is dropped in with him, and when he emerges, his demeanor and calling himself "Charles" suggests that Chucky may have possessed him. And then, Claire is murdered in a horrific fashion. Now believing that Chucky has found a way to possess multiple dolls, Nica tries to warn Foley of this, but he, of course, refuses to believe her. Foley next reveals just what kind of person he is, as he puts Nica under hypnosis and uses her suggestive mindset to make her

think that she is the killer, saying there are hidden cameras that recorded her in the act but that she erased the footage. More than likely, this is how he first got her to believe that Chucky was a delusion, and he also takes this opportunity to kiss her, as well as creepily allude to past sessions like and what he did to her then. Chucky knocks Foley unconscious and tries to get Nica to murder him. She next has a bizarre dream, one full of surreal imagery involving herself, Alice, and Chucky, and when she awakens, she's initially fearful that she may have killed Foley.

It turns out that she didn't, though. She also continues trying to get the one doll away from Madeleine, but is unsuccessful, and Madeleine is killed just like Claire and Angela. In the end, Nica is sedated by one of the Chuckys, put into a straight-jacket, and rolled into Foley's office, where it's eventually revealed that she was right about his soul inhabiting multiple dolls. And after the dolls murder Carlos, Nica learns that Chucky has a plan for her that's much more horrific than simply killing her.

Shortly after arriving at Harrogate, Nica seems to have found a confidant and trustworthy friend in "Michael" (Adam Hurtig). As opposed to the diplomatic but stern Carlos and the schizophrenic Angela, he comes off as friendly, welcoming, and, most importantly, well-adjusted, if kind of awkward. During their first group session, he stands up for Nica when Claire gives her a hard time, even saying, "Chucky did it," in apparent attempt to make Nica feel better and that it wasn't her fault. In general, he seems to try to squash any discord among the patients, again standing up against Claire when she chastises Madeleine for acting like the Chucky doll that Dr. Foley produced is her deceased baby. However, it's during this latter scene in the commissary that Michael suddenly acts like he's never met Nica before, and introduces himself as Mark now. That's when Madeleine tells Nica that the guy's name is actually Malcolm and they call him "Multiple Malcolm" because of his different personalities. Moreover, his personalities are based around real people, as he longs to be someone important: Michael turns out to be Michael Phelps, the former swimmer, and Mark is Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg. Despite how bummed out Nica is to learn this, Malcolm does still prove to be something of an ally. He believes Nica when, after Angela's murder and her own thwarted suicide attempt, she insists that Chucky is real and among them. After the one doll doesn't react at all to Foley burning its hand, Malcolm opts to help Nica get rid of the other one that Madeleine is carrying around. But when he goes outside to do it, he seems to also become possessed by Chucky when, after Madeleine drops the doll into a freshly dug grave, she pushes him in with it. He smiles evilly at Nica after he's helped out of the grave, and starts going by the name Charles and acting much more mean-spirited and sadistic. But, in the end, the real Chucky calls him out on how this is another example of him being a deluded poser. Malcolm indeed confesses that Charles was just another personality he came up with to be someone important, even if it's a well-known murderer, and is then promptly killed himself.

Among the other patients whom Nica has group therapy with, Claire (Grace Lynn Kung) is an aggressive pyromaniac who burned her own house down and, during the first session, demands to know why Nica killed her family. None of Nica's explanations make her any less hostile towards her, and she becomes even more angry when Madeleine starts acting like the one Chucky doll is her deceased baby. And after Angela's death, who was something of a friend to Claire, she promptly blames Nica due to the message about Chucky being the culprit that was written in her blood. Following this second group session, during which Nica begins to insist that Chucky is real, Claire attempts to throw the one doll away. But she learns the truth when he bites her arm before she can send him down the trash chute, only for her claims that it was the doll to fall on deaf ears when Dr. Foley and Carlos believe she deliberately injured herself. She doesn't help herself when she starts raving, and she's dragged into a room, strapped to a table, and sedated, leaving her a sitting duck for Chucky.

Angela (Marina Stephenson Kerr), the first patient whom Nica actually speaks with, turns out to be a true schizophrenic. When she first talks with Nica, she claims to be the ghost of someone who died in the day-room, only to get mad when Malcolm calls her out on her delusion and run off. Then, during the first group session, she suddenly claims that she talked with Chucky on the phone and tells Nica that Alice is dead and he's coming for her. It turns out that she wasn't lying, as when Chucky arrives at the asylum that night, he comes across Angela outside of her room and learns from her where Nica's room is. However, he gets frustrated when she's not only not afraid of him but thinks he's one of her delusions, right down to when they talked on the phone the night before. He gets so irked that he threatens to kill her when he finishes with Nica, and he makes good on his promise, as her body is found the next day.

The patient with the darkest backstory turns out to be Madeleine (Elisabeth Rosen), a meek woman who, the minute Dr. Foley reveals the Chucky doll he has, is taken with it and acts as though it's her baby, who is long dead. She goes through all the motions: trying to feed it actual food in the commissary, surprised when it talks because of how "young" it is, and doesn't recognize that the second Good Guy doll that ends up there is exactly the same as her "baby," calling it an ugly doll. Once Chucky possesses her doll, he manages to easily manipulate her into doing what he wants, and Madeleine will not allow anyone to harm him. During the third act, she takes him back to her room, actually breastfeeds him (never noticing that he bit her nipple hard enough for it to bleed), and then "smothers" him, just as she did to her actual baby. When she does, she goes back to referring to him as just a doll, but Dr. Foley forces her to face what she did and she has a breakdown over it, saying her baby wouldn't stop crying and that she was a terrible mother. To placate her delusion so she can move on from it, Foley holds a mock funeral and has the doll buried. However, Chucky literally rises from the grave that night, makes his way back to Madeleine, and, wanting to be with her child but unwilling to do it herself because she doubts she'd go to heaven, she allows him to kill her in an act of altruistic suicide (which also turns out to be a very disturbing death, in general).

Continuing in the series' tradition of authority figures either being disbelieving, corrupt, abusive, or just sleazy, Dr. Foley (Michael Therriault) turns out to be a real piece of work. He seems reasonable enough at first, trying to help Nica come to terms with "the truth" of what happened, and his theory that Chucky was simply something she dreamed up to take the blame for her murders seems like a believable stance for a psychiatrist to take on something this crazy, and he also appears like he's genuinely trying to help her accept it. Upon having her transferred to Harrogate, Foley begins holding group sessions with her, Malcolm, Claire, Angela, and Madeleine, where he assures everybody that Nica is not a danger but that they need to talk about her crimes and the "reasons" for them. In an attempt at exposure therapy, he produces a Good Guy doll named Chucky to gauge how Nica reacts to it. He's surprised when Madeleine takes to the doll the way she does but allows her to take it and act like it's her baby. And when he and Nica meet Tiffany and learn that Alice is dead, Foley is genuinely shocked to hear this and says he wishes she'd told him beforehand to soften the blow to Nica. However, the first hint that Foley isn't as noble a person as he seems comes when he doesn't just dispose of the Chucky doll that Tiffany leaves with Nica. Instead, he takes it into his office, leaves it there, and in the next group session, it's sitting on the couch, even though Madeleine's doll would've been enough for continued exposure therapy. It's also revealed that, shortly after Nica was first committed, Andy Barclay visited Foley to prove that she wasn't crazy, and brought the still-living, severed Chucky head with him. Even with that evidence right in front of him, with the head yelling in pain whenever Andy shot it with a nail-gun, Foley still didn't believe it, instead dismissing it as a special effect. When Nica again begins claiming that Chucky is real and among them, Foley attempts to placate her fears by burning the one doll's hand, but refuses to do the same to Madeleine's doll, and is clearly growing frustrated with how Nica appears to be backsliding. Shortly afterward, Claire discovers that Chucky is real and, when she starts raving about it, Foley, thinking the bite mark on her arm was her own doing, has her strapped down and sedated. Once they've gotten her relaxed, Foley says her actions are, "Disturbing," but then adds, "But it's fascinating to see this kind of mass hysteria in action." And he also leaves the one doll in the room with her, resulting in her murder later on.

Foley really shows just how despicable he is in the scene where he puts Nica under hypnosis, ostensibly to find the truth but, in reality, plants the idea in her head that she murdered Angela and Claire, and that there are hidden cameras in the asylum that could prove it but she erased the footage. Not only does this suggest how he got her to believe that Chucky was a figment to begin with, but when she's completely hypnotized, he goes in and kisses her, saying, "I've missed these little sessions of ours. Haven't you?"

Nica answers, "No," and Foley responds, "No, of course not. You can't remember them. Probably for the best." Said past sessions were hinted at during the opening credits and, if your skin's not crawling yet, it should. Even Chucky, who knocks Foley unconscious, is taken aback by how depraved he is, but also says he's kind of jealous. In any case, while he doesn't get Nica to kill Foley while he's unconscious, when Foley shows up the next day, he's convinced that she's the one who hit him... even

though she was right in front of him and completely spaced out at the time. Either way, he threatens her into silence and goes about his day, forcing Madeleine to face the truth of what she did to her baby after she "smothers" her Chucky, going as far as to have the staff bury the doll in an attempt to make both her and Nica bury the past. But then, after the doll emerges from the grave and kills Madeleine, Foley rationalizes it as her having dug it up and used it to mutilate herself. When he goes back into his office, he's

surprised to find Nica there, wearing a straight-jacket, and with one of the dolls lying on his desk. At first not in the mood, when she, again, says it was Chucky's doing, he laughs and comments, "Why do I always fall for the crazy ones?" Telling her what happened to Madeleine, and still refusing to believe it was Chucky, he adds that he doesn't care anymore if she's the killer or not, "Because either way, it's gonna make a hell of a book." Going even further in his creepiness, he takes out a shoe-box, tells her, "But now, you're gonna have to go back to Lochmoor. It's

too bad, because here, I could've given you... so much more personal attention," opens the box to reveal some red high-heels, kisses one of her paralyzed feet, and then puts the shoes on her. Not only is this unsettling in and of itself, but it also makes you wonder what else he did to her during their personal "sessions" in the past, as well as how many other patients he's assaulted, given what he said about "falling" for the crazies. And when Nica threatens to reveal the truth after Chucky has murdered him, Foley says, "You're a diagnosed schizophrenic, and a

murderess of five people, that we know of." Putting his hand behind her head, grabbing her hair, and wrenching her head back, he adds, "No one's going to listen to you." Nica proceeds to spit in his face and Chucky, again, knocks him out from behind, again admitting that he's flabbergasted by how disgusting Foley is (the venomous look on Foley's face after Nica spat at him heavily suggested that he was going viciously retaliate if Chucky hadn't knocked him out). In the end, Foley is killed, and rather brutally... by both Chucky and Nica.

The first person who Nica meets at Harrogate, Nurse Carlos (Zak Santiago), shows her to her room and points out where everything else, and tells her to call on him if she needs anything. She thanks him for being nice and he tells her, "Don't misunderstand, I'm not a fan. We're not gonna be friends. Just doing my job." But, before he leaves the room, he asks her about her paraplegia and she tells him that she was born with it. To that, he sympathetically says, "My husband has MS... I don't let it keep him from living his life," and leaves her a pack of chewing gum, something that Malcolm tells her is a rarity. Throughout the movie, Carlos is always on hand to help those in need, and as things start to go wrong, while he doesn't blame Nica the way Claire does, he does seem to think there's something strange about the doll. After Madeleine's death, Dr. Foley has him throw away the one doll, but shortly afterward, when he walks in on Nica and the multiple Chuckys in Foley's office, they completely butcher him.

Nurse Ashley (Ali Tataryn), like Carlos, is mostly a peripheral character who's just seen doing her job in the background, but when she's first introduced, it's revealed that she slips Malcolm, who credits her for getting him out of detox, some cigarettes now and then. She does have a major moment near the end of the movie where, after Madeleine's Chucky has been buried, Ashley forces her to give her the shoe he left behind, as Madeleine is currently on suicide watch. Clearly disgusted with her having murdered her infant son, Ashley tells her, "I just know I have two children of my own and I'd do anything to keep them safe." Madeleine then asks, "Would you kill for them? If it was for their own good? Do you love them that much?", but Ashley doesn't answer the question; instead, she tells her that she's going to check on her every fifteen minutes. Shortly afterward, as her Chucky is brutally killing her, Ashley seems to sense that something's wrong and runs back to Madeleine's room, where she finds her horrific corpse. Having already been shaken by Angela's murder, Ashley tells Dr. Foley that she can't take it anymore and quits. However, she doesn't get the chance to leave the building, as one of the other Chuckys kills her, and Malcolm, still pretending to be possessed himself, tries to take credit for it.

Unfortunately, after successfully reintroducing Andy Barclay to the franchise in the previous movie and bringing back Alex Vincent, Cult of Chucky drops the ball in its utilization of him. It starts out strong, opening with Andy on a date, talking about gun regulations and saying that, while he's not a fanatic, he would like to be able to defend himself if need be. When his date brings up his past, admitting that she did a Google search on him, he tells her about Aunt Maggie's murder, then adds, "Along with my teacher and my caseworker and... 37 other people over the years, that I'm aware of." When she asks if the killer was ever caught, Andy says, "Justice was done," referring to when he blew Chucky's head off at the end of the previous movie. Even though he left out that the killer was a supernaturally-possessed doll, his date finds it to be too much to take and leaves, with Andy saying, "I get it," in a tone and with an expression that says he's been through this song-and-dance before. With that, he drives out of the city and to his secluded log cabin, where he keeps Chucky's still-living head. And while we can guess, it's quickly confirmed that Andy doesn't just kill him so he can pay him back for the torture he put him through when he was a kid and teenager. After lighting a cigarette, blowing the smoke in his face, and commenting, "I guess it's just me and you again tonight, pal," Andy, after Chucky bites at his finger and mocks him for losing his date, decides it's time to "play." Opening a drawer of wicked-looking torture devices, he opts for one of several small blowtorches in the drawer next to it, and puts it to his face, commenting, "Sometimes it's nice just hangin' out on a Friday night... with your best friend." This is great stuff, showing how, as stable as Andy's life seemed when we saw him at the end of Curse, and as well-off as he appears to be in order to have a nice cabin like this (according to Don Mancini, it's because of all the insurance money from Chucky's murders), things are hardly peachy keen. Since he never mentions her, we can assume that things didn't work out between him and De Silva, and we don't know if he's still in contact with his mother, as he never talks to or mentions her here. And like I said, his dark past has clearly cost him a lot of dates. It seems that Chucky is right when he says Andy has nothing meaningful in his life but him.

But after the opening, things start to unravel for Andy. I've heard some criticize Alex Vincent's acting, saying you can tell he hasn't acted since he was a kid, but I think he does just fine (although, in just about every scene, he drops at least one F-bomb, and it feels like they're trying too hard to make Andy come off as much more harsh and bitter than he once was). Rather, he's not utilized as much as you'd like. You learn he's been interested in helping Nica ever since she was first committed, and tried to prove to Dr.

Foley that Chucky is alive by shooting the severed head with a nail-gun in front of him, only for Foley to dismiss it as an elaborate hoax. And when he demanded to see Nica, Foley had him removed from the building. This still eats at Andy, and Chucky only makes it worse by suggesting that he's as crazy as Nica and belongs in the asylum, too. Then, when he later learns about Angela and Claire's deaths at the asylum, and sees an article that says Chucky is seemingly involved again, Andy is shocked. The head

gives him an inkling of what's going on when he asks, "You thought I was the only one?", and Andy leaves for Harrogate, taking another Good Guy doll and a bag full of weapons with him. On the way, Andy gets a cellphone call from Tiffany, who mocks him, while Andy tells her that he's coming for both her and Chucky. But when he arrives at Harrogate and we gradually learn what his plan is, it makes Andy look like an idiot. Demanding to be let in to see either Foley or Nica, the guard turns him down since visiting hours are over, and he then demands to be

committed. When the guard tells him to get lost, Andy punches him and is promptly locked up (wouldn't you just get arrested and sent to jail rather than immediately institutionalized?). Shortly afterward, Foley receives the Good Guy doll that Andy brought with him in the mail, and that doll later becomes possessed and goes after Andy in his cell (something specific that he was just counting on happening). During their fight, Andy tears open the doll's torso and rips out a handgun he had hidden inside him in order to smuggle it into the building.

(Just the one weapon, though, so I don't know what he was planning on doing with all those others.) He then kills the doll, wasting all of his bullets, when he knows there are multiple Chuckys running around, and is promptly locked inside the cell and left there. Yeah, real good plan, Andy.

Though she does get more screentime than her cameo at the end of Curse, Jennifer Tilly doesn't have much to do as Tiffany this time around, either. She first appears when she visits Nica, breaking the news to her that Alice has died and further rubbing salt in the wound by suggesting she died of the grief Nica caused from "killing" her parents. She puts on a performance of being devastated and cries fake tears, before rather cheerfully gifting Nica with the Chucky doll she claims was used in Alice's therapy, saying she wanted her to have it and commenting, "Oh, that's so sweet," when she sees Nica holding the doll. (Yeah, Tiffany is a lot more overtly evil here than she was before, helping in Chucky's mental torture of poor Nica.) Also, when she calls Andy while he's heading to Harrogate, she mockingly asks if he wants to join the growing cult, then adds, "I have a message from Chucky. He said you'll know what it means. It's just a single word. He said, 'Dis-em-bowl. Now, what do you suppose that means, Andy?" During the third act, while Chucky enacts his plan for Nica and Andy in the asylum, Tiffany parks her car up at the main gate and kills the security guard when he walks out there to find it running while unmanned. Once Chucky emerges in his new body, the two of them reunite, having apparently gotten over the deadly spat they had at the end of Seed of Chucky (their relationship has always been off again, on again anyway), and prepare to hit the road. Before they do, Tiffany, once again showing that she has a bit more humanity than Chucky, laments what became of Alice, saying, "It was... kind of nice having Alice around, you know?" Chucky, however, just responds, "Nah, fuck that kid," and the two of them start laughing before driving off together.

As opposed to his rather low-key, genuinely menacing, and despicable portrayal in Curse, Cult gives Chucky more of the one-liners and dark humor he'd become known for over the years, but, as Curse reminded us, also keeps him an undeniably evil little bastard. Whether it's the severed head mocking Andy for what his life has become, rubbing it in that his date dumped him and suggesting that he's just as crazy as Nica and is just imagining him, the way he emotionally tortures Nica, or how he plays on Madeleine's deluded mindset to manipulate her, Chucky is still an unapologetic, sadistic monster. Upon first arriving at Harrogate and finding his way to Nica's room, he finds that she slashed her wrists and is waiting to bleed out. Not willing to let her off that easy, he sutures her wound up and leaves the message, "NOT SO FAST," in her blood on the floor, letting her know he's there and that she's not going to escape him that way. Then, he murders Angela and writes, "CHUCKY DID IT," in her blood, throwing some suspicion onto Nica, manipulates Madeleine in helping him mess with Nica's head by making it seem as though he possessed Malcolm, and kills Claire after she learns that Nica is right. Speaking of manipulation, when he knocks Dr. Foley out while Nica is hypnotized, Chucky tries to take advantage of her suggestive state by getting her to kill Foley while he's unconscious. While that doesn't work, he has an easier time with Madeleine. After she "smothers" him and he's buried, he emerges from the grave and returns to her, continuing to act as if he's her baby. Madeleine says, "A mother's love never dies," and Chucky adds, "Not even when she kills it," before embracing her. She allows him to kill her in an act of altruistic suicide, telling her, "I'll do my best," when she asks if it will hurt. Instead, he ends up giving her one of the slowest and most disturbing deaths in the series. And after incapacitating Nica and taking her into Dr. Foley's office, he, again, tries to entice her to kill Foley when he knocks him unconscious again. She refuses, saying she's not a killer, and Chucky says, "Not yet," eventually showing her what he means.

While I said that they brought back the dark humor and one-liners, I didn't say they were all good. Chucky's interaction with Angela when he first arrives at the asylum is kind of funny, as he's genuinely annoyed when she's not only not afraid of him but thinks he's one of her delusions. After asking, "You fuckin' with me?", he tells her, "Okay, let me explain something to you. I am a vintage, mass marketed children's toy from the '80s, standing right in front of you, holding a very sharp scalpel." She,

again, doesn't believe it, and he gets all the more frustrated when she blames it on her schizophrenia, finally telling her, "Okay, lady, you know what? You're next. I'm gonna be right back," before walking off, grumbling to himself. (That said, I don't care for him saying, "Fucking cuckoo's nest,", as it's way too easy of a reference. I've also heard that Brad Dourif himself was reluctant to say it but they, unfortunately, talked him into it.) Where things get weak is when Chucky pops up to surprise Claire when she's

strapped down and sedated. Holding a bottle of compressed air, he says, "Compressed. Does that mean what I think it means?" Claire just looks at him in terror and he says, "Seriously! I'm not sure." I don't get what exactly is supposed to be the joke here. And Chucky's one-liner after he kills Claire, "Sometimes, I scare myself," is delivered in a very indifferent manner from Dourif. Chucky's shock over how twisted Dr. Foley is comes off better, as he exclaims, "Holy shit! Heh, heh, heh! And they call me sick?! This guy is... is... is... diabolical! I mean, what a piece

of work. I'm actually a little envious." And when he later knocks Foley out again, he exclaims, "I just... can't with this guy! I don't know whether to kill him or just take notes!" But the biggest instance of humor comes after the big revelation.

It turns out that Chucky learned of a spell that allows him to split his soul into fragments to possess multiple hosts at once. Thus, in addition to the still-living severed head at Andy's cabin, we have the Chucky that Tiffany delivers to Nica, the one that Dr. Foley bought whom Madeleine became attached to, and the one that Andy smuggles into the asylum with the gun inside him. Initially, only the first two Chuckys are active, but when they find Andy's in Foley's office, they bring him to life as well. In order

to differentiate the dolls, Don Mancini and Tony Gardner made sure they all had distinct looks, with Tiffany's Chucky dubbed "Clawhand" due to the way his hand melts into a claw-like shape when Foley burns it; Madeleine's doll was named "Raggamuffin" as, after he crawls out of the grave, he looks really dirty and unkempt, and is missing his right arm from when he killed Madeleine; and the one that Andy sent was called "Buzz-cut," for obvious reasons. Brad Dourif also attempted to voice them differently, with

Buzz-cut having a higher voice that often cracks, while the other have slightly different takes on his typical Chucky voice. In any case, as Mancini intended, the three of them have a camaraderie about them akin to brothers, as they talk about how much they delight in killing people and watching their terror before they die. And when Carlos has the misfortune of walking in on them, the three Chuckys attack and brutally slaughter him with different tools, after which they delight in what they just did, especially Buzz-cut, who comes off like an excited child. The

best part is when they argue about who gets to kill Andy, with Raggamuffin and Clawhand having this respective back and forth: "I wanna kill Andy. I earned it. I've been through a lot today." "You got to suck titty today. Look what happened to me." But when Buzz-cut points out his awful haircut, the others are in total agreement, with Raggamuffin saying, "Oh, shit. You win!", and Clawhand, being sincerely apologetic, says, "Absolutely. Sorry, pal. You go fuck him up real good."

Despite the inherent humor that comes from multiple Chuckys arguing with each other and enthusiastically talking about how much they love murder, the true fact of the matter is that this leads into Chucky having an even more definitive victory than he did in Curse. After breaking Nica firrther by telling her that he successfully possessed Alice but she did indeed die when one of his would-be victims fought back, Clawhand Chucky adds that he has plans for her outside of merely killing her, saying, "Believe me,

there's worst things than death." He shows her what he means by using his newfound abilities to possess her, and once he does, he stomps Foley's head in using the very high-heel shoes he put on Nica's feet (before doing so, he says, "This is for Nica," suggesting that he was, in his own way, disgusted by what Foley did to her), confronts Malcolm and calls him out on wanting some attention by pretending to be possessed by him, before Raggamuffin kills him, and locks Andy in his cell, walking out of the asylum and escaping with Tiffany. Once again, he's left behind a bunch of murder and mayhem that Nica is likely going to be blamed for.

The best part about this climax is getting to see Fiona Dourif play Chucky herself, and she's awesome at it. She not only manages to capture her father's inflections and cadence whenever he talks as Chucky, and gives her own great take on his cackling laugh, but comes up with her own facial tics, mannerisms, stance, and way of moving that you could totally see Chucky himself doing. From the first moment, when you see Chucky getting used to being in an adult human body again for the first time in nearly thirty

years, and the way he looks over his shoulder at Foley, who starts to regain consciousness, and says, "Hiya, doc," as well as feeling Nica's breasts and commenting, "There's definitely perks to being supernaturally possessed," it's clear that Fiona is already owning the role. It gets even better when you see her walking around wearing a dark overcoat and red scarf, similar to Charles Lee Ray's outfit in the first movie's opening. He then confronts Malcolm, who's taking credit for one of the other Chuckys

murdering Nurse Ashley, saying it's because he's Charles. Chucky tells him, "In your dreams, asshole. I'm Charles, but everybody calls me Chucky... You're a fuckin' poser. You're sick, and not in the fun way, like me." Malcolm, confused and scared, asks, "Nica?", and Chucky tells him, "Nica's takin' a nap... and I'm gonna make sure she never wakes up." Malcolm breaks down and goes through the different personas he's put on to be someone important, with Chucky remarking, "Sounds like it's gettin' pretty crowded in there," before Raggamuffin kills Malcolm

from behind, as Nica-Chucky cackles delightedly. Before leaving, he confronts Andy, who turns around and trains the gun on him, and tells him, "You kill me,you kill her. Think about it." Andy actually pulls the trigger, regardless, only to find he's out of bullets. Chucky says, "Yeah, thinking is for losers," and, before locking him in, tells him, "Tag, you're it, pal." That's when he goes out, meets up with Tiffany (the way Fiona says, "Ya look great, Tiff," is just perfect), and the two of them hit the road.

In my review of Curse of Chucky, I said that I liked the way the inert, Good Guy doll looked but felt that, until his scars were exposed, Chucky himself looked really weird. Well, in Cult, the opposite is true. I'm not a big fan of the way the normal Good Guy looks, with the chubbier cheeks and the design of the mouth, and I especially hate the voice they went with this time. I didn't mention it in Curse, but I thought the Good Guy voice there was alright, as it sounded like a real kid, which this voice does not at all. Since

Chucky never says anything other than the three pre-recorded lines in that voice, I don't know why they didn't just reuse the one from the previous movie. As for the look of Chucky himself, I think it's an improvement over Curse. It's still not as great a design as when Kevin Yagher was doing the effects (they were trying to go for the look he created way back in Child's Play 2 but didn't quite get there), but I don't think it's as bad as some say it is. I also think it's really nice to be completely back to the classic, scar-less design, which only exists here as the severed

head that Andy keeps alive. And as I've already talked about, I like how the filmmakers came up with distinct looks for the multiple Chuckys during the third act. Finally, you get a bit of a bonus in that you see the Tiffany doll in the car during the third act, and she's clearly inhabited as well (likely by Tiffany using the same spell that Chucky now knows), as she laughs along with Chucky and Tiffany when they drive off at the end.

Although she was killed off in-between films, Summer Howell does appear briefly as an older, pre-teen Alice during a freakish dream that Nica has after being hypnotized. And just like how Curse ended with a post-credit scene that brought back Alex Vincent as Andy, Cult ends with one where another series alumnus returns: Christine Elise as Kyle from Child's Play 2. Showing up at Andy's cabin, where the severed Chucky head is still sitting around, she produces a pair of pliers and says, "Andy sent me. We're gonna have some fun." She then takes the pliers to the head, as Chucky screams. Although it wasn't quite as novel as it was before, and was a tad predictable, it's still great to see, as Kyle was such an awesome character in that movie.

Curse and Cult are the two Chucky movies that feel the most connected to each other, and not just due to the return to the darker tone of the original movies and because both involve the character of Nica. A lot of the same crew actually worked with Don Mancini on both, including cinematographer Michael Marshall, and just like Curse, Cult is a very visually-striking film; in fact, I would say it's even more impressive on that score. While the color palette is, again, rather desaturated due to it being shot digitally, what's most notable is how utterly white it is, due to

the constant snowfall outside and the very clean, clinical interiors of Harrogate. It gives off an incredible feeling of both literal and emotional coldness, one the series hasn't reached since the original Child's Play and its setting in the freezing cold streets of Chicago in the dead of winter. In fact, it reminds me a lot of a Stanley Kubrick film, with the cold, snowy isolation, naturally, hearkening back to The Shining, while the interiors are akin to the visual aesthetic he often went for. And because of all that whiteness, any instances of color, like Chucky's outfit

and red hair, Tiffany's bright red fur coat, and, of course, the red from the gory kills, really stand out. Filmmaking-wise, Mancini continues to show progression in his skills, coming up with some truly memorable imagery, like the big, wide shots of the snow-covered landscapes and many scenes inside Harrogate. Some of my favorites come during the night where Chucky arrives there. Besides the expected shots from his POV, there's also a nice close-up of Carlos working at the main desk, framed

in the center of two corridors behind him that gradually become dark as the lights shut off (they do a similar shot of Nurse Ashley as Madeleine is murdered). At the same time, when Chucky gets a hold of a scalpel, he looks at it and you can see his reflection in its blade, and after that, there's a blurry shot of him walking down a hallway, towards the camera, and coming into focus when he reaches it. When he goes into Nica's room, the movie evokes one of Curse's major visual motifs by having it lightning

outside (which makes no sense, given how it's a cold, snowy night), leading to some great shots of his shadow on the floor and the sight of him being constantly illuminated by the flashes. And before Madeleine "smothers" her Chucky, Nica rolls down the hallway towards her door, with a shot both directly in front of her and then behind her, and both times, the other side of the image irises, making it look as if she really isn't moving. Then, it cuts to an overhead shot of her from the ceiling and pans across, over the door and into Madeleine's room, kind of like a shot I remember from the original Evil Dead.

There are also some very creative instances of editing, such as during the sequence where Nica watches Malcolm confront Madeleine out on the front lawn and seemingly get possessed by Chucky. Here, Mancini makes use of split-screens and, in fact, the transition from the previous scene is done via a swipe from the center of the screen, and as Nica watches the scene unfold outside through the window, both screens cut individually, with the camera getting closer on Nica's horrified face while, on the other, the camera cuts to a close-up of the open grave, as the

Chucky doll is pushed out and handed back to Madeleine. Then, when the orderlies run outside to assist Malcolm, the screens, which show the action from two different angles, switch to being stacked on each other horizontally rather than situated vertically against each other, before briefly becoming vertical again for when Malcolm is helped out of the hole. I'm sure this is yet another tribute to Mancini's love for Brian De Palma, and he does the split-screen again when Andy has his phone-call with Tiffany. Claire's death scene is set up with a lot of low angle shots as

she's strapped to the gurney, looking at the skylight above her, then panning over to show that Chucky is no longer sitting in the chair he was placed in. And when he shatters the skylight above her with the bottle of compressed air, the shot of the shards falling towards her as he watches are done in slight slow-motion, making it come off as dream-like and rather beautiful, in a way. Shortly afterward, Nica finds Claire's decapitated body, with the snow from outside slowly falling towards her from the broken skylight,

and it cuts to her silently screaming, with the snow falling in front of her. Late in the film, after Andy has been placed in a white padded cell, the scene slowly transitions with Nica's face fading in on the left side of the screen, while the image of Andy on the right fades out to the grave of Madeleine's Chucky outside, as Nica waits for him to emerge. Nica's image then fades out, leaving only the grave in the frame, followed by several fade-ins towards it, culminating with the doll's hand breaking through the dirt (an image straight out of a classic zombie movie), before Clawhand Chucky suddenly sedates Nica.

Mancini gets downright surreal with the nightmare that Nica has after being hypnotized by Dr. Foley. That scene itself is already kind of weird, with the flashing light, the effect it has on the characters' movements, Nica being totally zoned out (there are a couple of times in this movie where you see a close-up of her pupils dilating after she's injected, akin to a recurring visual you see in Requiem for a Dream), and the audio becoming echoing due to her hypnosis. But after it fades to black when Chucky tries to tempt her into killing Foley while she can, it cuts to her

crawling down a hallway and eventually reaching someone who turns out to be a pre-teen Alice. She says, "We've been waiting for you," and Nica hears this stomping in the hallway behind her, with an all-too familiar, knife-wielding shadow moving along the right wall and getting progressively bigger as it approaches. Alice, smiling evilly, is suddenly sucked away, and it cuts to a shot of a giant Chucky standing over Nica, laughing crazily, as the image flickers and flashes wildly, and even appears to deform. Nica then

suddenly seems to awaken, only to find herself on the same gurney where Claire was killed, with snow falling down from the smashed skylight. And this is suddenly inter-cut with shots of Chucky's sliced face from the ending of Child's Play 3, when he's falling towards the fan, before Nica wakes up for real in her room. It cuts to a shot of a freakish drawing of Chucky that Madeleine is making before finally getting back to the story.

Save for the exterior of the restaurant where Andy has his disastrous date in the opening, which was in Atlanta, Georgia, Cult, like Curse, was again shot entirely in Winnipeg, with said restaurant's interior actually being the inside of one found up north. Before we get to Nica and Harrogate, we get another memorable location in Andy's cabin in the woods outside of the city. It's a really cool setting, and I especially like the image of it just sitting out there in the snow-covered woods. The place proves to be a really nice pad, decorated on the inside with various

animal trophies, a cool, big stone fireplace, a fridge in the kitchen area under the  second-story loft that's stocked with plenty of beer, a huge, backlit weapons cabinet, and a safe in the wall, hidden behind a framed sweatshirt from Kent Military School, where he keeps Chucky's severed head. And rather than a mere vacation retreat that he goes to from time to time, it seems like Andy has now permanently moved into the cabin from the apartment he was living in at the end of Curse. (If I were to try to come up with some head-canon as to why, I would imagine it's so he can torture Chucky without his screams drawing any suspicion.)

Before she's transferred to Harrogate, we see a little bit of Lochmoor, where Nica is initially kept and put through hideous electroshock therapy. In contrast to the sterile, clinical interiors of Harrogate, Lochmoor has a much harsher feel, as well as a slightly less clean look. Harrogate, like Andy's cabin, is a very isolated facility, out in the middle of the countryside, and what's really cool is that the big, wide shot of its exterior when Nica is first transferred (the second one you see here) was created through visual effects, with them taking the Public Safety Building in downtown

Winnipeg and digitally placing it in the middle of a stretch of land outside of the city, and adding on the front yard, cemetery, and perimeter fence. The interiors were built on the same soundstage as those for the Pierce house in Curse, with production designer Craig Sandells returning from the previous film as well. As I've already gone into, and as you've already seen, this place is incredibly cold-feeling, being almost completely pristine white, save for the room where the group therapy sessions are held and Dr. Foley's office. Everything else, from the hallways,

the patients' rooms, the room where Claire is strapped to a gurney and sedated, to even the common areas, are so white that it's not just depressing but disorienting (apparently, the production design did have that effect on the cast and crew). The main desk, where we see Carlos working late at night at one point, has a white facade in front of it of a forest, as if the place wasn't white enough already. And when Nica meets Tiffany in the one sitting room, the only objects in there that aren't white are black, making it

seem as though the film itself has become partially monochrome. Finally, the front yard and small cemetery, which is covered with snow, offers no respite from this feeling of cold sterility, and it makes you wonder how the patients don't go even more insane than they already are from being surrounded by this lack of color.

But, as much as I praise Cult for its characters and performances, as well as its technical filmmaking, I feel that Don Mancini's writing is where the film hits its biggest snags. Chief among them is the multiple Chuckys concept, something that Mancini has had in mind since Child's Play 3, and which he finally got to do here, at least in a prototype version of something he would expand upon in the TV series. While it is, admittedly, fun seeing several Chuckys, each with his own distinct look and take on the personality, talking and arguing with each other, and as awesome as Fiona

Dourif is when Chucky possesses Nica, I feel this concept severely dilutes what makes the character special. Yeah, a bunch of killer dolls that are constantly growing is a scary idea, especially since it'd be harder fight to off a bunch of them at once, but it takes away from how genuinely unnerving it was in the best of the series whenever there was one doll lurking about. Moreover, the way we get multiple Chuckys, by having him learn a spell that can split his soul into fragments to possess numerous hosts at once, makes him so omnipotent and unstoppable that

it now feel pointless to watch any other characters from here on out attempt to fight back against him. Obviously, we've long since reached the point in all of these slasher franchises where we know the killers are never going to be put down for good, and that, at best, they can only be beaten to a standstill until they get revived some other way, or until their franchises get rebooted. But making it to where Chucky is now this all encompassing entity who's inhabiting multiple dolls and people, like Nica, just makes it feel like

there's no hope for anybody who's unlucky enough to cross his path. Plus, it renders all of the struggle he went through in trying to become human again from the original Child's Play up to Seed of Chucky, as well as his decision in the latter to stay a doll, completely pointless if, all along, there was this spell he didn't know about that would allow him to do this simply by substituting one word in the Damballa chant for another. And if he can, as he says, possess, "Anyone or anything with two legs and a hand for stabbing," why he doesn't just try to do so to a big strong man, whose body he could then use to easily kill anyone in his way?

I know I've said this so many times throughout my reviews of all the Chucky movies that it's become tiresome but, regardless, this is definitely the most Mancini has messed with the voodoo mythology. He's bent and twisted the rules that Tom Holland created regarding how Chucky can transfer his soul into other vessels and how the possession affects his Good Guy doll body numerous times, and in many ways, from the moment he started writing each successive sequel, but here, he just chucks it all out the window with this spell that basically makes him invincible. And not

only does it work simply by having Chucky say, "Ade beaucoop Damballa," but he found it on VoodooforDummies.com, one more example of how little Mancini thinks of this whole thing. As for the biological aspects of the spells, Chucky's head still being alive after Andy blasted it off is nothing new (although I don't know how he's able to take a hit off a cigarette when he has no lungs), and this time, the dolls have human innards again, as Mancini has said he did regret the tweaks he made to it in Curse. But

even this is inconsistent, as Raggamuffin Chucky's arm getting ripped off from his killing Madeleine is done through it popping off like a normal doll's arm rather than a flesh-and-blood human one. Also, Buzz-cut Chucky's innards immediately become real human organs despite him having only been brought to life for a fairly short amount of time, whereas in the past, this didn't start happening until a day or so after Chucky's revival. And I don't know how Clawhand was able to keep from screaming when Dr. Foley put

a lighter to his hand to prove to Nica that he wasn't alive. I initially thought that Nica was right and he transferred from that doll into Madeleine's, but that turns out to not be true since he bites Claire when she tries to throw him away and kills her shortly afterward. Finally, it seems like soul transference also means the transfer of physical mobility, as Chucky is able to walk perfectly once he's inhabiting Nica's body.

The film is also filled with one too many callbacks and references to other movies, both within and outside the series. This is telegraphed virtually from the beginning, with the opening credits consisting of a montage of mostly clips from previous movies, particularly Curse, as well as some shots from the original Child's Play. Some of these references aren't so bad, like when the three Chuckys talk about how they love it when their victims realize a toy is murdering them, either by, "Beating them to death with a yardstick," "Setting them on fire," or,

"Eviscerating them," with Clawhand then adding, "All actual examples," or when Nica notes how Tiffany looks exactly like Jennifer Tilly (though a bit on the nose there), and one of the kills makes for a nice, if not as amazing, callback to an earlier one. But others are just groan-inducing. Besides the aforementioned moment where Chucky himself references One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, there's an early moment where Nica shares some of the chewing gum that Carlos gave her with Malcolm, who takes it and comments, "Oh, Juicy Fruit."

Others include when Madeleine tells her Chucky that, "A boy's best friend is his mother before "smothering" him, and, when Raggamuffin uses the word "behooves," Clawhand notes that he sounds like Hannibal Lecter, adding, "Can't believe they cancelled that show," (I get that Mancini hated that he lost such a great gig, and fans of the show hated that it got pulled altogether, but the idea of Chucky himself being such an ardent fan is a bit much for me). Getting back to the series itself, Claire and Madeleine have a brief discussion about the difference between

"mass" and "multiple" murderers, hearkening back to Bride of Chucky. When Andy tears the gun out of Buzz-cut, he yells an adult variation of his line to Chucky before setting him on fire in the original movie: "This is the end, fucker!" And at the end, when Chucky, possessing Nica, reunites with Tiffany, he notes how she murdered the security guard by slashing his throat from behind and she says, "A true classic never goes out of style. You said that to me once... after stabbing a man 39 times." I was already

groaning with Tiffany, yet again, killing someone in the manner she killed Officer Bailey, as well as filing her nail and then licking the blood off it (it was a cool callback when she popped up in Curse, but it's getting old by this point; and no, I'm not contradicting myself, as that's not the throwback kill I'm talking about), but that statement pushed it too far. Not only was it just cringe, but I can't get much enjoyment out of them making light of a brutal killing that involved the late John Ritter.

Other things I don't care for in the screenplay include this random sex scene between Nica and Malcolm immediately following their introduction. She shares some Juicy Fruit with him, next they're suddenly banging beneath this stairwell, and after that is the first group session and their little carnal romp is never mentioned, nor is there ever anything else romantic between them (likely because his multiple personalities completely killed Nica's interest). Talk about pointless; you could've removed that and Nica realizing that this person she thought she could trust

has dissociative identity disorder would've played just as well. Also, Chucky-possessed Nica and Tiffany passionately kissing at the end just feels like an attempt by Mancini to shoehorn in another lesbian love scene following Barb and Jill's affair in the previous film. I have no problem with Mancini putting LGBT elements in his movies, like Carlos casually admitting that he's a married gay man, but that felt forced. And finally, the reason why I don't enjoy Cult the way I do Curse is because I don't feel

that the story builds to the climax as effectively. While it attempts to do something similar with its plot, with even the structure being a bit of the same, rather than an onion slowly being peeled like in the previous movie, Cult just feels like a random sequence of events that culminate in the insane revelation of Chucky's new abilities and him winning. And as I've already gone into, despite what Mancini set out to do with the disparate plot-lines from the series' history, they don't come together in a way that's at all satisfying.

The animatronic effects, again the work of Tony Gardner and his company, Alterian Inc., are, once more, improved upon from the previous movie. There are more shots of Chucky, or the multiple Chuckys, walking around or standing freely, with the puppeteers digitally removed, and, for the most part, they come off quite well. There are still some shots that look a bit off, like that one of Chucky standing in the hallway when he's talking with Angela or that high-angle shot of the Chuckys moving around Nica, but for the most part, it's good stuff. Not only do I

think the design is an improvement from the previous movie but, yet again, Chucky feels much more expressive, with his changing facial expressions coming off as more fluid than they've ever been (the severed head at Andy's cabin is especially impressive in design and articulation). I also think this might be the first time where they were able to make a puppet that could go from the static Good Guy doll to the evil Chucky face without it becoming clear that you were looking at two different props. And, like before, a little person, this time Linden Porco (who would later go on to play the Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns), played Chucky in some shots, notably when he's running around Claire's gurney before killing her.

This is definitely the goriest Chucky movie up to this point, and is up there with the 2019 remake in terms of sheer bloody carnage. The severed Chucky head, which we first see less than five minutes in, is quite gnarly-looking, with a huge chunk of the right side blown off, with lots of red, meaty innards, and there's a chain that seems to be all that's keeping him from falling apart. He's also got some nails jammed into him, and is mounted on a small wooden board. After the opening credits, we see Nica getting electroshock therapy and one of the orderlies sticks a needle into

her foot to prove to another that she's completely paralyzed, and you see some blood stream out. Things really start to get bloody when Chucky, upon arriving at Harrogate, goes into Nica's room and finds she's slashed her arm open using a spoke from one of her chair's wheels, with a lot of blood having collected on the floor. The next morning, she wakes up to find her wound crudely stitched together, and while Chucky's actual murder of Angela happens offscreen, it's revealed that he killed her in the same manner that Nica attempted to kill herself, then made it look as if

she did it to herself but blamed it on Chucky in order to cause discord among Nica's fellow patients. The first truly gory death is Claire's. After she tries to throw the one Chucky doll away, only to get bitten on the arm and realize that Nica is right, she's strapped to a gurney in a room, wherein Chucky grabs a bottle of compressed air. He blasts it up to the skylight directly above Claire, shattering it and sending the large shards down at her, with one decapitating her. It's a pretty good setpiece, with the head falling off the

gurney and rolling over to Chucky's feet, as blood sprays from the neck, but it's basically a less amazing version of Russ and Diane's death in Bride of Chucky (although, I think Don Mancini has said he intended it to be a tribute to David Warner's death in The Omen; as much as I love that movie, I honestly didn't catch it).

Madeleine's death, which she allows to happen, is, as I said, probably the only death in this franchise up to this point that's genuinely upsetting. Chucky sticks his hand in her mouth, jams his arm in all the way to the elbow, and pulls her fucking tongue out! Moreover, when Nurse Ashley finds her body, Chucky's hand and arm are sticking out of her bleeding mouth, and it's genuinely horrific. Carlos gets attacked by all three Chuckys in Dr. Foley's office, with Buzz-cut stabbing him in the leg, causing him to fall to the floor, as Raggamuffin takes a power-drill to his chest,

Buzz-cut stabs him repeatedly with a scalpel, and Clawhand slices open his stomach with a broken bottle and his guts emerge... steaming, like Redman's in Seed of Chucky (what is Mancini's obsession with randomly steaming innards?). Outside, Tiffany slashes the security guard's throat open, while Nica, after Clawhand possesses her, stomps Foley's head into a bloody mess using the very high-heel shoes he put on her feet. When he then confronts Malcolm, who claims to have killed Ashley (although the drill

sticking out of her confirms it was actually Raggamuffin), Malcolm himself gets the drill through the back of his head and out his right eye, with blood gushing out of every orifice (that particular special effect makes me think of something you'd see in a Lucio Fulci movie). And like Foley, Buzz-cut gets his head stomped into a bunch of bloody pulp.

I could be wrong but this may be the Chucky movie that uses the most visual effects, although it's mostly done so well, like how they turned Winnipeg's Public Safety Building into Harrogate and the removal of the puppeteers and equipment in scenes with the dolls, that you wouldn't think that you're looking at any effects. Also, when Tiffany kills the security guard, blood splatters on the camera, but it's actually digital blood they used to cover up a malfunctioning makeup effect. However, some effects are more obvious, like the graphics for the skylight above Claire, the clearly

digital glass that cracks and comes down at her, some instances of CG snow, and the lightning in the sky above the building when Chucky possesses Nica (not that the latter is a bad image at all, though). Fortunately, there are no CGI shots of Chucky himself this time around, as Mancini knew how much people hated that one in Curse.

Yet another key person who returned from Curse was composer Joseph LoDuca, making him only the second composer to score more than one of these movies (and since he went on to do the TV show as well, and given how much Don Mancini says he enjoys working with him, I think it's safe to assume that he'll be sticking with the franchise for a while). But while he does bring back the main, toy piano leitmotif he created for Curse, he uses it sparingly, with the most notable instance being this awesome rock guitar version that plays near the end, when you see Chucky walking around in Nica's body after having killed Dr. Foley, signifying how much he's triumphed. Other than that, he goes for a completely different aesthetic, with his main title theme being this crazy, psychotic piece that, as some critics said, is very akin to the work of Bernard Herrmann, having a very similar feel to his main theme for Psycho, with lots of stabbing strings, crazed horns, and a brief section that's eerily calmer than the rest of it. LoDuca also really plays into the depressing visuals and mood of this movie, with really somber, melancholic themes for scenes like when Nica is transferred to Harrogate and her scene with Carlos when she arrives, and for when Madeleine tries to come to terms with what she did to her baby. Also, the hypnosis scene is scored with this constant electronic note that appears tuned to the flashing strobe light that Dr. Foley uses on Nica, the music for her nightmare afterward is as freakish as the scene itself, and there are some instances of unsettling percussion for some of the more emotionally intense scenes. And he especially gets to show off when Nica is watching the scene unfold on the front lawn, as that's almost like a silent movie, given the lack of dialogue, and he scores it in a twisted, childish-sounding manner.

All in all, Cult of Chucky, despite having a lot of things going for it, is a significant step down from how awesome of a movie Curse was and, for me, is on the lower end of the franchise. It's, again, well-shot and directed, has a very striking visual aesthetic in the cinematography, production design, and editing, Fiona Dourif gives another kickass performance as Nica, Michael Therriault manages to be remarkably sleazy and despicable as Dr. Foley, the animatronic effects on Chucky are still great and there are some visual effects here that are virtually invisible, there are a good number of memorable setpieces and the kills are the goriest we've yet had in this series, and the music score is, again, a highlight. However, the characters of Andy Barclay and Tiffany aren't used as well as they could be, their storylines coming together with Nica's isn't as cool as it may sound, and, among other writing missteps, Mancini twists around the mythology and lore until it just about irrecoverably ruins what made this core concept great in the first place. I'd still recommend the movie to fans, but don't be surprised if you're a tad disappointed this time around.