SEED OF CHUCKY (2004)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
Years ago I argued briefly with a friend of mine that the "Lethal Weapon" films got
progressively worse after number 2 and became comedies. My friend felt that the
third entry was the best because of the humor. So it goes with sequels. The
original "Child's Play" was a first-rate thriller about a killer doll with the
mind of a psychopath (though "Trilogy of Terror" has the scariest doll ever
seen). Then came "Child's Play 2" and "3" and they were as bad as sequels get.
Director Ronny Yu injected new life into the series with "Bride of Chucky,"
which came on the heels of the "Scream" postmodernist horror trend. "Bride of
Chucky" was more funny than scary but it was at least entertaining. "Seed of
Chucky" is an aberration and an abomination, a movie so awful that I was more
sickened by it than anything else. I am no prude and I enjoy horror films.
Horror movie parodies is another matter but "Seed of Chucky" is wildly uneven
with its mix of blood splatter and bad Hollywood puns that went out of style
shortly after Robert Altman's "The Player" in 1992.
Consider what I thought this movie was going to be. I thought Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) and his bride, Tiffany (voiced by Jennifer Tilly), were going to have a baby (ick!) and discover that the baby was far more murderous and psychotic than they were (at least the teaser trailer seemed to hint that). But the movie begins with a sexually ambiguous doll (voiced by Billy Boyd, yes, from "Lord of the Rings") that runs away in E.T. style from an abusive ventriloquist. The Doll With No Name is looking for his parents and discovers they are Chucky and Tiffany, who are being used as props for a movie called "Chucky Goes Psycho." So the doll brings Chucky and Tiffany back to life thanks to an amulet. Oh, and for students of postmodernist horror, Jennifer Tilly plays herself and Tiffany, and there are precious few digs at Hollywood and at Tilly herself. Then we have rapper Redman as a film director making a movie about the Virgin Mary (a rap song about the Virgin would've been funnier) yet he prefers to cast Julia Roberts over Tilly (once again, the Julia phenomenon was more effectively used in "The Player").
Yes, "Seed of Chucky" has the requisite blood and gore. There's also a Britney Spears look-alike and John Waters as a determined paparazzi. But the movie is not even gruesome fun and stalls at truly mocking Jennifer Tilly and the Hollywood game. What I found were homages to Ed Wood and Brian De Palma, glorified gore, truly lame jokes and in-jokes, and a sickening feeling that the Chucky franchise is far from over.
