La Malédiction de Chucky

A family gather together for a funeral, only a killer doll has an old score to settle; and blood & mayhem ensue.

Opening in a creepy large house (with its own Diamonds are Forever type lift), a mysterious death occurs in the first few minutes after a revamped 'Good Guy' doll is delivered. From the outset there's an updated excellently designed Chucky doll and Joseph Loduca's melodic eerie music score which sets the tone.

There's plenty of atmosphere in this installment from series veteran Don Mancini, with Curse sharing much with the Psycho films in design and pace. Brad Dourif again voices Chucky. The great one liners are fewer, a bit more poignant and cutting. There's a few relationship surprises and story twists. Web-cam moment, stitches reveal and closing are particularly memorable, also there's a great scene after the credits.

Some of the cast are debatably too polished, nevertheless, the horror elements are there and include the original mix of Nanny, young child and a killer doll. The child actor Summer H. Howell is strong and wheelchair bound Fiona Douif (daughter of Brad) is notable as Nica.

Many scenes are effective with inbuilt tension and jump scares, notably the shower encounter and dinner gathering. With lingering camera movements and interesting angles, Mancini also leaves plenty to the imagination as some of the set ups take place off screen, that said there are lots of effects, blood and gore on display - decapitation, an electrocution, an empty eyeball socket and an axe attack to name a few.

There are lots of nice touches that are fitting to the modern Chucky doll, that mirror today's toys, making him all the more menacing when he comes to 'life'. Pupils dilate, his eyes are bloodshot, walking and running - Chucky is back better, creepier and badder than before. For die hard Child's Play fans Dourif appears briefly in his serial killer Charles Lee Ray guise, some old photos and newspaper clippings feature Andy and scene's link direct to the first outing.

What the production has saved on the lack of locations, to it's credit, the money has been put into the excellent special effects. Mancini returns it to its Child's Play roots while making references to the rest of the series including a great cameo from one of it's most colourful characters.

It delivers with its back to horror basics approach, updated effects, Mancini's Hitchcockian execution and links to its previous counterparts. With this in mind Curse of Chucky is less likely to date than some of its predecessors. Recommended.

Having been on a roll watching and reviewing gradually over time films belonging in horror film franchises, the Chucky/'Child's Play' films were the most recent to get this treatment. Part of my want to see them was my fascination to see if killer doll Chucky deserved his horror icon status. My conclusion seeing the films is that he does deserve it and a hugely entertaining and creepy character, that is quite a bit better than the films.

The 'Child's Play'/Chucky films vary in quality, some decent to good, others not so good. Don't consider any of them unwatchable though. 'Curse of Chucky' is one of the good ones despite its faults, not a film that blew me away and will never be a favourite but it both scared and entertained me, as the main objective for the franchise that is a very good thing. As far as the 'Child's Play'/Chucky films go, the best will always be the first one. 'Curse of Chucky', for me and quite a number of others, is though one of the best of the series. Would go as far to say that it beats 'Bride of Chucky' as the best since the first and it vastly improves on the disappointing 'Seed of Chucky' which along with 'Child's Play 3' is my least favourite.

Really appreciated that 'Curse of Chucky' returned to its roots and the closest of the sequels to capture the tone of the first film. Although there may not be an awful lot of surprises in the surprises, this return gave the sense that the franchise had been revived and been brought new overdue life. There is far more of a reliance on horror, and genuinely scary and suspenseful horror film, than the comedic approach adopted by most of the sequels, which varied greatly. The opening sequence is truly foreboding and the kills are imaginative, gloriously gory and freaky, without veering on being too tasteless.

Yet 'Curse of Chucky' doesn't take itself too seriously as a result, the wickedly funny one-liners and dialogue remain still. Chucky is as frightening and entertaining as ever, plus used much more and better than he was in 'Seed of Chucky' and Nica is a likeable protagonist that one roots for. Brad Dourif continues to voice Chucky with relish and his daughter Fiona is both cute and spirited. The film looks great, very stylish and haunting with terrific effects, even in the lesser films the production values were always among the good things. The music is suitably eerie and the direction is skilful.

Not that 'Curse of Chucky' is perfect, but the good things far outweigh the cons. The rest of the cast are on the bland side. There are pacing issues here and there, momentum does sag.

The ending felt anti-climactic and rushed.

Otherwise, pretty good and one of the best in the series. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Chucky was always my favorite of the many serial killers that sprouted from the 70's and 80's slasher films. Sure, Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, Pinhead, Leatherface and Freddy Krueger were all instrumental in my fascination and divulgence into the horror genre - but the possessed Good Guys doll by the name of Chucky was always my favorite of the tentpole franchises.

It is hard to fathom that it was 25 years ago when Chucky was first launched into our pop culture references with Child's Play. Directed to Tom Holland on a story by Don Mancini, the 1988 horror surprised most everyone with a $35 million box office gross against a paltry $9 million budget.

Sequels ensued with Child's Play 2 (1990), Child's Play 3 (1991), Bride of Chucky (1998) and Seed of Chucky (2004). Through each film, the horror seemed lessened by the increasing use of black humor scattered amongst the bloodshed.

This is not to suggest that the Child's Play franchise lost its way, but it did veer off the original path. This deviation was not lost of creator Don Mancini who takes charge behind the camera for Curse of Chucky now available on VOD.

In this sixth edition of the evil doll's murderous exploits, Chucky is shipped from a police evidence lockup to a home of a young woman, Nica, confined to a wheelchair since birth. Chucky's first victim alienates the young woman and when other family and friends arrive at the house to comfort Nica, it allows for a higher body count and a night of mayhem. Nica is able to put the pieces together to eventually figure the doll at the centre of the bloodshed, but her limited mobility will be both a benefit and a hindrance on her ultimate survival.

We've come a long way since 1988 and Mancini has more digital tricks up his sleeve to bring the doll to life. Some might balk at the idea of a CGI motioned doll, but take our word for it, the added computer detail only adds to Chucky's evil looks. There are a few scenes where our villain gets to show real emotion using his rubber face and it is the technology that a lot of horror enthusiasts despise that is at the root of the improvements.

Mancini did go back to the roots with the story that focuses more on the development of the horror rather than the slapstick funduggery that overly consumed Bride and Seed of Chucky. Replacing much of the pop culture referencing in-jokes are some tense moments of horror and some valued kills that value quality over quantity.

Curse of Chucky goes places unexpected for a fifth sequel and it betters any of the films that preceded it in the series. Chucky is meaner, nastier and more patient which allows for better horror. There are some good scares in Curse and Chucky's evil might never have been better punctuated on screen. A solid story – one with flashback ties that support Chucky's choice of family terrorizing and some after the credit scenes that tie in the rest of the series – compliments the action and sets the stage for what we hope is the continuation of the franchise.

www.killerreviews.com

From the first couple of minutes it's easy to tell that Don Mancini is treating Curse more as a horror film than the previous couple of entries in the series. The movie is shot and edited to build suspense and is a world apart from the sitcom trappings of Seed.

A girl in a wheelchair (Brad Dourif's hot daughter Fiona) living in a rural home with her troubled mother receives a mysterious package one afternoon. It's Chucky, and he's somehow managed to get himself in the mail again. He's arrived to settle a score, and soon enough he has brainwashed a child into keeping his secret and is sneaking about in the shadows offing unsuspecting victims.

Many people are saying that this movie is a return to form, and that it retcons Bride and Seed out of existence. Er...no, the film very much DOES acknowledge the events of Bride and Seed. Even if you paid the bare minimum of attention it would be hard to not to realize this. But I guess that expecting the movie to go in a different direction only led to further surprises when it eventually did tie in to the previous movies as well as giving us more back-story to Charles Lee Ray.

I was worried that Chucky would be all CGI as Kevin Yagher has not been involved with the series since Bride, and while there IS some CGI, he's anamatronic for the most part. Instead of hogging the camera though he keeps quiet watches the humans interact for about half the movie before unleashing toy terror. Horror composer Joseph LoDuca delivers a pastiche of the Renzetti, Revell, and Donaggio's efforts without giving Curse a signature sound of its own. Not really a complaint, but more of a missed chance.

It's certainly a worthy sequel and a can be viewed as a genuine horror film without any of the guilty pleasure of Seed. Keep watching to the end of the credits for a further surprise that ties the series together even more (though it does contradict the closing scene before the credits actually roll).

It kind of annoys me that such a modest, but brilliantly executed, film like this goes STDVD when pretentious piffle like Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby gets sharted over every screen in America.

I got the sense that everyone involved in this movie committed 100% to making an exciting piece of clever and entertaining genre filmmaking. The lighting, production design and music were fantastic and the cast equally superb. Fiona Dourif is an impressive new scream-queen/final-girl and Danielle Bisutti did a wonderful job as the somewhat-sympathetic bitch.

I very much doubt that Don Mancini will be winning a Director's Oscar any time soon, but IMHO he ranks higher than many of the past winners because I feel he believes in value-for-money entertainment - and some of those fancy directors could learn a lesson from him.