Review of Seed of Chucky
Year: 2004 Reviewer: Chris Docker
Seed of Chucky
Do you like dolls? Do you like particularly evil looking ones? Ones that are possessed by a serial killer, and want to ensure their progeny by artificially impregnating Jennifer Tilly with their seed ? (Or just want to do horribly depraved things to Jennifer Tilly for the sake of it . . .)
Chucky is an example of survivor tosh. Most of the films are incredibly badly made - but who cares? Do you complain that your popcorn isn't the correct shade of burnt phlegm? No, you just stuff it more-ishly into your mouth. And so with Chucky.
Chucky's success may have a connection with something a bit darker though, and account for its cult status rather than just being another slasher sequel. Chucky is a doll. Being non-human gives him a sort of licence for any sort of badness. No moral explanation is required, no final retribution, just identify your darkest most shameful instincts with Chucky and you can remain guilt free cos a) he's only a doll and b) like any other film character, he's not real. No-one will accuse you of wanting to be a psychopathic doll for goodness sake!
There's cinema (and art) that raises our awareness, often which involves a certain amount of effort on our part (like a good wholefood salad), and there's cinema that just entertains; and having Oscar-nominated Jennifer Tilly in two starring roles (as herself and as the voice of doll-bride Tiffany) does nothing to detract from this. Chucky is firmly in the latter camp of gratuitous tosh that audiences will keep going back to see. And who's to say there's anything wrong with it? Let go of all those base instincts and get them out of your system . . . Most of the great populist authors played on similar instincts (even Shakespeare and Mozart) even if they offered the intelligentsia something more at the same time. If Chucky is your cup of tea (and you'll know without reading reviews if it is) then go watch him chuck his load and be thoroughly nasty.
What gives films like this breathing space when ordinary tosh simply fails without even being worthy of comment? It has been said that the "cult film draws on a (hard)core of audience interest and involvement which is not just the result of random, directionless entertainment-seeking, but rather a combination of intense physical and emotional involvement" - in other words a sort of mild obsessiveness. Part of the cult appeal may even include the abandonment of things that are valued by the mainstream (whether it be good acting or solid plot). Chucky makes little pretence of even covering the plot holes - who cares - we're there to see a mindlessly psychopathic doll (the main thing that makes it stand out from other slasher movies - the rest is detail.
Rating: 6/10
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