After ‘Childs Play 3’ failed to set the box office on fire it would be almost 7 years until Don Mancini would bring our favourite Rubber renegade back to the big screen. In that time a lot of self reflection was held about the direction and nature of the series and how ‘Chucky in the 90s’ would really take shape. And I for one was absolutely delighted with the end product that is ‘Bride of Chucky’

The plot is pretty straightforward, the film takes place in present day 1998, in universe a year or so has happened between this film and ‘Childs Play 3’ and we’re introduced to a bit of a curveball right out of the gate in the form of ‘Tiffany’, Chuckys love interest from before he was murdered the first time. After his Death in November 1988, Tiff went to Charles’ apartment and found a ring on his mantel and figured that he was about to propose to her.

She then spent the following 10 years following the news headlines about a *supposed* rampaging killer doll, while booking up on ‘Voo Doo’ practices, eventually managing to bribe a police officer into breaking into an evidence locker (complete with several homages to horror icons past) to recover the shredded remains of the fan blended Chucky Doll.

Tiff reassembles the doll, does the chant and within minutes Chucky is back in the room. But its not as harmonious as it first appears, when its revealed that Chucky never really intended to propose to her, and that the ring was basically just left there, having been robbed from one of Charles victims because it was worth ‘5-6 grand’.

Spurned, Tiff decides to trap Chucky and torment him…This doesnt end well, and long story short, Tiff winds up made of plastic too. While all of this is going on we’re also introduced to ‘Jesse’ and ‘Jade’. Jade is the adopted daughter of the towns police captain, and he’s got her on a VERY tight leash. Jesse lives in the same trailer park as Tiff and gets by doing odd jobs around the park.

When Jades guardians push her too far on the night of her prom, the pair decide to elope, get married and start a new life in a new town. Jesse gets a call from Tiff asking for a favour, instructing Jesse to take two dolls to Hackensack New Jersey, with $500 promised on collection, and $500 on delivery. Jesse bites her hand off at the offer and thus a roadtrip of carnage unfolds as Chucky and Tiffany hitch a ride across state lines in yet another attempt to regain their human bodies, all the while pinning several muders both accidentally AND intentionally on Jesse and Jade in the process…leading the couple to believe that the other partner is a mass murderer!

And, this review for me is a pretty open and shut case. I love, love LOVE this movie. the decision to pivot out of ‘Horror comedy’ into ‘Comedy Horror’ is just the right angle to really pull this feature kicking and screaming into the post modern era.

The script appears to be strongly influenced by the works of John Waters, which I feel compliments and contrasts the return to ‘Universal Classic Monster’ style horror last seen in ‘Childs Play 2’ perfectly. You end up with surreal moments of domestic disharmony being played out by two semi mutilated dolls. its camp, its bliss.

The pacing is breakneck, at an hour and 28 minutes, this feels like its an hour long in real time. the act structuring is clear, smooth and feels effortless in ramping up the stakes, the characters are largely enjoyable, the right side of trashy and barring Jesse and Jade themselves who, for me kind of feel a little flat as far as characters go, everyone else is running with a wonderfully aggressive snark thats just delightful to sit through.

The dialogue *feels* very ‘John Waters-esq’ (‘Fuck Martha Stewart’ is absolutely SCREAMING ‘Serial Mom’ to me…How Mink Stole didnt get a cameo in this thing I’ll never know) Some of Chuckys best lines of the franchise are in this movie, Tiff gets some rock solid dialogue to and the whole thing is VERY keen to let you know that while this is a continuation, it really isnt TRYING to stay in line with whats come before it, It experiments, and it succeeds for me in experimenting, which I really appreciated.

The directions largely flawless for me, Ronny Yu delivers a creatively defining picture for the franchise with some inspired kills and interesting scene setups that homage the old Universal Monster movies, without being TOO overt about it, its not afraid to be in your face, but for me, the best moments were the ones that spoke more through the cinematography than in the dialogue choices or the archive clips. In fact, the only wobble I had really on the direction front is really more a case of it being a victim of its time in the sense that there are some VERY wobbly early CGI sequences dotted throughout, which to 2024 eyes are painfully noticable.

The cines rich, colourful, gorgeous. Shots are well composed with a rock solid depth of field and apart from the aforementioned CG and a couple of less than steller ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ green screen moments, this is a really solid work, all tied together by a stunning edit that again chimes back to the freshness I first felt watching ‘Childs Play 2’ a LOT of the story is told through the cine, and to be able to pull that much emotion from a reaction shot of a plastic doll using only the cine and editing is really quite astounding for the time.

The performances are pretty solid too, Brad Dourif once again brings a flawless performance as Chucky, noticably, the performance here pivots more into self aware comedy with quips about him getting too old for this and clashes between 80s serial killer mentalities and 90s new wave killer techniques. Jennifer Tilly hits the ground running as ‘Tiff’ giving a performance that left me ASTOUNDED that we couldnt have had her sooner. It really is probably the strongest introduction to a new permanent character in Horror film history.

The weak links here are unfortunately Katherine Heigl and Nick Stabile as Jessie and Jane who…arnt inherently bad perse, they’re just too normal, they dont have any depth. Im guessing thats kind of intentional really with the film being a postmodern take on the horror genre as a whole, and while the story does focus on their eloping, the film seems much more interested in the contrasting parallels with Chucky and Tiffany’s demented blossoming toxic romance. It kind of suffocates the main plot in favour of the subplot…But given I really enjoyed the subplot, im okay with that.

Add to this a KILLER soundtrack featuring hits from Rob Zombie, Kidney Theives, White Zombie, Blondie, Billy Idol and Slayer that is PERFECTLY utilized across the board, and I honestly found myself with very little to dislike…

‘Bride of Chucky’ marks a shift in the franchise that would stay in place for the next entry…Or the next 15 years depending on which one helps you sleep at night. and I feel it was the kick in the pants the series needed to get it back on track. a clear labour of love, if you enjoy the likes of ‘Pink Flamingos’, ‘Polyester’ or ‘Female Trouble’ but you wished it had more goring and ‘Hellraiser’ references…’Bride of Chucky’ is an absolute must!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/bride-of-chucky/