‘Cult of Chucky’ is (currently) the final cinematic outing for our unkillable rubber renegade and it feels very much like the end of an era, and the beginning of something much more exploratory. The ‘Childs Play’/’Chucky’ series has always had a vague continuity, but it never really went much beyond carrying a character over into the sequels, possibly referencing an event from a previous movie…really minor nods to fans who had stuck out 5 of these movies and earned a little treat for paying attention.

‘Curse of Chucky’ was the first entry to really stop and properly look back at the journey that this franchise has been on. FINALLY mining the world that Don Mancini has curated over the years to help build a more sturdy and interweaving narrative that makes all the films in this series feel much more close knit and interesting to me.

Of course, the risk a franchise has when it mines itself for content is it does rather run the risk of becoming a bit TOO self referential. callbacks and nods to previous entries are fine in small doses. But you really dont want to turn your franchise into a ‘Remember this KER-RAZY moment from ‘Childs Play 3?!?!’ WOW!!!!” type picture, or it runs the risk of going stale VERY quickly.

Mercifully, ‘Cult of Chucky’ for me, finds the perfect balance of bringing new elements into the series, while continuing to push the series forwards.

The film picks up 4 years after the events of ‘Curse’ with Nica committed to a mental hospital for her (alleged) involvement in the murdering of her sister and all of that side of her family. Of course, Nica didnt do it…Chucky did. But, who’s going to believe that a doll from the 80s suddenly came alive and murdered a bunch of people?! Well…Andy Barkley for one.

In the last 4 years Nica has slowly managed to work down from a high security facility to a more open one, and has been doing therapy thats aim is to gaslight her into believing SHE murdered her family and that Chucky isnt real. Andy (who’s mother ended up in the same situation) recognises whats happened and heads out to the facility to try and free Nica.

But when the doctor brings a Chucky doll into the facility to try and help Nica, it sets in motion a series of events that will bring terror to the clinic in greater ways than any other entry in this series has depicted before.

And what we have here is a really solid continuation from ‘Curse’ the script benefits from being a near enough direct continuation, meaning we dont have to build up ‘is Chucky real or not?’ or any of that kind of stuff. The film establishes he definitely IS real in the opening moments and from there, it just hops straight into the good stuff.

Probably the biggest addition to the series in this entry is the introduction (and mild spoilers here) of ‘Multiple Chuckys’ which is a real game changer honestly, it was teased to be the case in ‘Curse’ but ‘Cult’ more formally introduces the idea and begins to get the initial framework for it in place. Unfortunately, it stops short of really fully utilizing the concept (slowburn introducing it for most of the films runtime, before fully realising it about 15-20 minutes off the end credits.) But for the time its onscreen it really establishes a whole new layer to the world building and I believe this is really, fully developed even further in the spin off TV series.

Outside of that the scripts really solid in my opinion…Depictions of mental hospitals and mentally ill people aside, the pacings rock solid, it never gets dull or slows down too much. The act structuring is solid and given the amount of plotlines, subplots and other interesting bits going on, im surprised this thing is half as well balanced as it ended up being. The references and tie backs to the older films hit just the right level that it feels meaningful, without just fully going into pandering, the characters all are very well developed, though I am starting to notice Chucky is appearing less and less in these movies….which is a bit of a bummer. The slow reintroduction of several characters who were largely missing from the last 2-3 films was welcome and it didnt feel all that forced either, it felt like a natural progression of the narrative.

Tonally we’re still in the realm of Horror/Comedy, heavy emphasis on the horror this time around with some excessive gore scenes which felt like a development on the tone of ‘Curse’. I feel like they’ve really finally nailed the exact level of humour to scary ratio needed to make these films work best. and while I personally still lean more towards ‘Bride’ or ‘Childs Play 2’ for my specific favourite blend, this one really does a pretty solid job all things considered.

The direction was probably my least favourite aspect of this film if im being completely honest. ‘Curse’ embraced the early 2010s trend of grimey, dimly lit and overly simplistic, and ‘Cult’ almost inverts that, going for cold, semi grimey icy white ‘liminal space’ vibes that really didnt gel well with me. an increasing over-reliance on not particularly well done CGI also really pulled me out of the action…HOWEVER! BY contrast, I think the design of the puppet Chucky doll in this film looks a lot better than the puppet iteration from ‘Curse’ though, equally, I feel like the prop doll somehow looks even worse here.

Its just a fairly flat and ‘Void’ esq picture to me…I just wish there was more to it than that, but apart from an opening scene in a restaurant with Andy, and Andys log cabin sequences. everythings WAY to cold and minimalist for my taste.

I do feel however like direction of the cast saw a big uptick here, the actors all seem to understand the remit and tone pretty decently and have clearly been guided carefully through what they need to do within the scenes, while also being given just enough leighway to work with tone of delivery or set spaces. it results in a decent blend that for me, very rarely failed to deliver the goods.

The cine, as mentioned I personally felt was a little overly flat, the CG elements didnt really help, sequence structuring is solid, but a little basic and the edit was a bit wobbly at times too. However, the practical effects and particularly the ones that used CG more to smooth over the cracks than to be the center piece) I felt worked very well, composition was unremarkable for the most part, but did have at least one or two interesting moments. On the whole, I just found it a little to skittish to really truely appreciate it. But that doesnt mean I disliked it.

As for the performances? Brad and Fiona Dourif are back and on full form, with some superb Chucky deliveries and Nica now really getting into the swing of things. Im still amazed that 7 films in Dourif is SO easily able to make Chucky as a charcter work as effectively as he does. I sincerely believe he’s probably the most cohesive horror villain to make it out of the ‘Slasher’ era. The supporting cast were a little dry in terms of character and physicality. But their deliveries were generally fine and the whole thing felt believable enough. Very much an ‘It’ll do’ on that front.

And the soundtrack had moments, but for the most part felt like a fairly by the numbers horror score. Nothing I could particularly point to as a shining example of the genre, and fairly unremarkable (if not decent enough) for me.

‘Cult of Chucky’ is a flawed film, but a very enjoyable one non the less. Its rare to see a series get so deep into its entries and STILL have core characters who are still so switched on, engaged and entertaining, and seemingly only continue to get better as time goes on.

Switching things up from making this a self contained story, to bedding this installment into a more interwoven narrative I feel here, if anything, didnt get tapped into enough and leaves a LOT of scope for future development, especially given some of the revelations near the end (Which I wont spoil here). If ‘Cult of Chucky’ was the last entry in this franchise, it would have left me wanted even more. which…7 films in, is no mean feat.

Does this work as a standalone film? Im not 100% sure it does, it may work if you watched ‘Curse’ up front for the added context, but this is very much a film that picks up in the middle of the action, so I dont think I could recommend this to people who are new to the franchise. But if you’ve watched and enjoyed other Chucky movies? this is absolutely worth your time.

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