Review: "Curse of Chucky" Surprisingly Really Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 68 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Curse of Chucky (2013)
Running time:  97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
MPAA – R for bloody horror violence, and for language
DIRECTOR:  Don Mancini
WRITER:  Don Mancini (based upon characters he created)
PRODUCERS:  Don Mancini and David Kirschner
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Michael Marshall
EDITOR:  James Coblentz
COMPOSER:  Joseph LoDuca

HORROR

Starring:   Fiona Dourif, Summer Howell, A Martinez, Danielle Bisutti, Brennan Elliott, Maitland McConnell, Adam Hurtig, Chantal Quesnelle, Candace Smith, and Brad Dourif (also voice) with Jennifer Tilly and Alex Vincent

Curse of Chucky is a 2013 straight-to-video horror film from writer-director, Don Mancini.  It is the sixth movie in the Child’s Play film franchise, and the first released since 2004’s Seed of Chucky.  The film follows a young woman who suspects that a mysterious talking, red-haired doll may be the key to recent bloodshed in her home.

As Curse of Chucky begins, Nica (Fiona Dourif) signs for a mysterious package sent to her mother, Sarah Pierce (Chantal Quesnelle).  After her mother’s gruesome suicide, Nica is forced to deal with her estranged sister, Barb (Danielle Bisutti), when she visits with her husband, Ian (Brennan Elliott), nanny, Jill (Maitland McConnell), and young daughter, Alice (Summer Howell).  There is clearly tension among the adults, so Alice comforts herself with a grinning, red-haired talking doll named Chucky (voice of Brad Dourif).  After a series of strange occurrences, Nica begins to suspect that Chucky has something to do with it, especially after the killing begins...

Unlike previous “Chucky” movies, Bride of Chucky (1998) and the previously-mentioned Seed of Chucky, Curse of Chucky is not comic horror.  There is some humor, but this is essentially a slasher film.  Like many slasher films, Curse of Chucky has elements of a mystery film, with at least one character trying to figure out, “What is going on?”  Of course, we know, as the audience, that Chucky is the instigator/murderer, but there is some fun in watching the character-victims be clueless on their way to gruesome deaths.  Horror fiction sometimes offers characters that are so self-absorbed or are so focused on the melodramas in their social circles that they do not see the killer in their midst.  In this movie, the characters illicit sympathy because their problems, conflicts, and obstacles make sense – even when their difficulties are funny.

It is quite a ways into Curse of Chucky before the filmmakers let Chucky go wild, so this movie is one of those scary movies that actually gets better as it gets closer to the end.  In fact, the film has an excellent ending, and what amounts to two epilogues – two killer epilogues.  So, dear viewer, you have to watch past the credits.

As usual, Brad Dourif does stellar work as Chucky’s voice, although, this time around, he sounds a little like Danny DeVito.  Having his daughter, actress Fiona Dourif, in this film is another good choice, especially as Curse of Chucky’s story has surprising ties to the original film and some of the sequels.  Fiona is intense, and she has just enough of a crazy vibe to give the film the edgy heroine it needs in order for the story to work.

Fans of the Child’s Play movies will like Curse of Chucky, and some, like me, will like it a lot.  As a direct-to-DVD movie, Curse of Chucky could have cursed the franchise.  Instead, this entertaining horror film reminds fans of why having Chucky back is a good and necessary thing.

7 of 10
B+

Tuesday, October 08, 2013


The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Seed of Chucky" Gleefully Trashy and Fun

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 139 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Seed of Chucky (2004)
Running time:  87 minutes (1 hour, 27 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong horror violence/gore, sexual content, and language
DIRECTOR:  Don Mancini
WRITER:  Don Mancini (based upon characters he created)
PRODUCER:  Corey Sienega and David Kirschner
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Vernon Layton, B.S.C.
EDITOR:  Chris Dickens
COMPOSER:  Pino Donaggio

HORROR/COMEDY

Starring:  Jennifer Tilly (also voice), Redman, Hannah Spearritt, John Waters, and Billy Boyd (voice) and Brad Dourif (voice), Keith-Lee Castle, and Steve Lawton

The subject of this movie review is Seed of Chucky, a 2004 comic horror film from writer-director Don Mancini.  It is the fifth movie in the Child’s Play franchise, and a direct sequel to 1998’s Bride of Chucky.  Seed of Chucky spoofs other horror films, trashy TV shows, and celebrity culture.  To date, it is the last film in the franchise to be released in theatres.

Seed of Chucky opens with a new character.  This is the now grown version of the infant creature born (at the end of Bride) of the unholy sexual union of the two killer dolls, Chucky (voice of Brad Dourif) and Tiffany (voice of Jennifer Tilly).  Six years after his birth, the doll-child is a slave to a sleazy ventriloquist named Psychs (Keith-Lee Castle), who might not really be a ventriloquist; Psychs has named the doll creature, Shitface (voice of Billy Boyd).

Trapped in Great Britain, the doll-child eventually escapes to Hollywood, where he finds Chucky and Tiffany dolls on a movie set.  He inadvertently recites the “voodoo” chant that brings Chucky and Tiffany’s spirits back to life in these movie dolls.  Tiffany and Chucky are surprised, but proud parents.  However, they discover that their doll-child is not anatomically correct.  In disagreement about Shitface’s gender, Tiffany names her Glenda, and Chucky names him Glen because he’s sure the child is a boy who will develop later.

The movie set upon which the newly formed family find themselves is a horror movie about Chucky and Tiffany’s infamous murder spree (from Bride of Chucky), and it stars Jennifer Tilly (as herself).  Tiffany is obsessed with being Tilly and thus a Hollywood star, so she hatches a plan to transfer her spirit into Tilly’s body and Chucky’s spirit Tilly’s chauffeur, Stan (Steve Lawton).  But the challenge of raising a child, especially a confused one like Glen/Glenda, stares the murderous pair right in the face and complicates their plans.  Chucky still wants to be a killer, but Tiffany wants to settle down (in Jennifer Tilly), although she must resist the urge to kill, especially when Tilly gets close to rapper-turned-movie director, Redman (as himself), to whom Tiffany takes an instant dislike.  All hell is about to break loose when Tiffany’s dreams of movie stardom clashes with Chucky’s need to kill, and Glen/Glenda is right in the middle, becoming more confused… and more dangerous.

The Child’s Play film series was, from the beginning, heavy with comedy, but the franchise turned solidly to comic horror with Bride of Chucky in 1998.  Seed of Chucky is a deliriously crazy gore fest.  Fake movie blood, steaming imitation intestines, severed limps, a blood-spurting, headless corpse, severed limps, Jennifer Tilly kissing a recently severed head, Chucky jerking off, Chucky holding a cup of his jizz, Tiffany holding a turkey baster full of Chucky’s semen while standing over Tilly’s prone body with the legs in the air, etc. all add up to a camp fest that is one of the few truly outrageously funny horror films outside of the Evil Dead series.  There is almost nothing in Seed of Chucky film that would qualify it as a scary movie, but with the explicit violence and troubling subject matter, Seed of Chucky could only be one of three things – a ghastly satire of the American nuclear family and America’s obsession with celebrity, an offensive horror flick, or a revolting comedy.  At different times in the narrative, the film tries on all three hats.

While I salute writer/director Don Mancini (who created the Child’s Play concept, while Seed’s co-producer Don Kirschner created the Chucky and Tiffany dolls) for being audacious enough to make this movie and while I also credit the studio and producers for letting Mancini put his insanity on the big screen, I am disappointed that the franchise has gotten away from Chucky as the sole antagonist.  I like Tiffany, and Jennifer Tilly’s voiceover work as Tiffany is superb played.  The fun Ms. Tilly has lampooning herself and her acting career (There are many hilarious mentions of the film Bound in which she and Gina Gershon played lovers) carries over to the viewer, but I want more killing.  Watching Chucky stalk victims excites me as much as it fills me with dread.  I root for victims – even the ones that are throwaway or underdeveloped characters, and I want more of that and less (faux) family drama.

In the final analysis, Seed of Chucky isn’t as good a horror movie as Bride of Chucky, but it’s a better comedy, and an outrageous thumb in the eye to taste and decorum.  Imagine this as a kind of underground film made palatable for a mass audience.  Think of it as a John Waters horror flick if Waters (who appears in the film as a paparazzi) made a “straight” horror movie.  I would answer the question of “is it good or bad” by saying Seed of Chucky makes me eager to see a sixth Child’s Play film.

6 of 10
B

Updated:  Monday, October 07, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Bride of Chucky" Revived the Franchise

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 130 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Bride of Chucky (1998)
Running time:  89 minutes (1 hour, 29 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong horror violence and gore, language, and some sexual content, and brief drug use
DIRECTOR:  Ronny Yu
WRITER:  Don Mancini (based upon characters he created)
PRODUCERS:  David Kirschner and Grace Gilroy
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Peter Pau
EDITORS:  Randolph K. Bricker and David Wu
COMPOSER:  Graeme Revell

HORROR/COMEDY

Starring:  Jennifer Tilly (also voice), Brad Dourif (voice), Nick Stabile, Katherine Heigl, Gordon Michael Woolvett, Alexis Arquette, John Ritter, and Kathy Najimy

The subject of this movie review is Bride of Chucky, a 1998 horror-comedy from director Ronny Yu.  This was the fourth movie in the Child’s Play film franchise, and the first released since 1991’s Child’s Play 3.  With Bride of Chucky, the franchise changed in tone, emphasizing black comedy and parody (of itself and other films).  The franchise also started to use the name “Chucky” in the film titles, instead of Child’s Play.

Chucky, the doll possessed by a serial killer, discovers the perfect mate to kill and revive into the body of another doll.  The fourth film in the Child’s Play series, Bride of Chucky, takes the inherent humor of the series and moves it up about three notches.  So how does Chucky (voice of Brad Dourif), the murderous doll, come back from the dead for a sequel after being killed again and again?

Chucky, of course, was once a human and the mass murderer, Charles Lee Ray, who used some kind of magic (voodoo) spell to transfer his spirit from his mortally wounded body into that of a “Chucky” doll.  Ray’s plan was to transfer his spirit into another body, but that failed over the course of three Child’s Play movies.  Now, in Bride of Chucky, Charles Lee Ray’s girlfriend, a wannabe killer named Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), bribes a policeman to steal the “Chucky” doll (from Child’s Play 3, in which is was almost completely destroyed) from the evidence room in which it’s hidden.  After dispatching the dumb pig, Tiffany uses voodoo to revive Charles Lee Ray’s spirit and bring the Chucky doll back to life.  However, Chucky isn’t showing Tiffany the love and respect she thought he’d give her as a reward for reviving him.  Pissed off at her antics, Chucky kills Tiffany and uses the same voodoo that transferred his spirit from his dying human body into the Chucky doll (as seen in the first Child’s Play) to transfer Tiffany’s spirit into a bridal doll.

After some initial disagreements, the murderous doll couple, Chucky and Tiffany, band together and coerce two teen lovers-on-the-run, Jesse (Nick Stabile) and Jade (Katherine Heigl) to transport them to the New Jersey graveyard where Charles Lee Ray is buried.  Jesse and Jade are unaware of Chucky and Tiffany’s diabolical plan.  The evil dolls want to use a Satanic voodoo amulet on Ray’s corpse to transfer their spirits in the young lovers’ bodies.

Bride of Chucky doesn’t take itself seriously, but the movie isn’t the kind of comedy that pokes fun of slasher movie conventions and clichés.  Bride of Chucky is less like Scream and more in the vein of something like The Evil Dead.  Chucky creator Don Mancini’s script is a funny and as sarcastic and caustic as Mancini’s earlier Child’s Play scripts.  However, it is director Ronny Yu who seems to take most delight in turning up the comedy even more and transforming this entry in franchise into a gleefully insane and mean-spirited delight.  He seems to go out of his way to offend the sensibilities of even the most tolerant horror movie fans.

It’s that “don’t give a fuck” attitude, probably best exemplified in the delightful voice work of Brad Dourif as Chucky and the special effects work on the doll that makes this film series unique, and Dourif, Mancini, Yu, and the effects crew raise their game for this film.  Although there are times that this film goes too far in terms of violence and seems a bit too bloody, Bride of Chucky is a slasher movie delight, and for this horror fan, damn fun to watch.

7 of 10
B+

Updated:  Monday, October 07, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: Original "Child's Play" Still Fun

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 67 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Child’s Play (1988)
Running time:  87 minutes (1 hour, 27 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR:  Tom Holland
WRITERS:  Don Mancini, John Lafia, and Tom Holland; from a story by Don Mancini
PRODUCER:  David Kirschner
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Bill Butler (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Roy E. Peterson and Edward Warschilka
COMPOSER:  Joe Renzetti

HORROR

Starring:  Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif (and also voice), Dinah Manoff, Tommy Swerdlow, Jack Colvin, Neil Giuntoli

The subject of this movie review is Child’s Play, a 1988 horror film from director Tom Holland.  It was followed by four sequels, the last being 2004’s Seed of Chucky.  In this first film, a single mother gives her young son his favorite doll for his birthday, and later discovers that it is possessed by the soul of a serial killer.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the first theatrical release of Child’s Play (specifically November 9, 1988).  It has not been that long since I last watched the movie, but it has been awhile.  I decided to watch it again because of the upcoming release of the sixth film in the franchise, Curse of Chucky, which is a straight-to-DVD movie.

Child’s Play opens on the streets of Chicago, where homicide detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) is chasing Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif), the serial killer known as “the Lakeshore Strangler.”  After Norris mortally wounds him, Charles uses a bizarre “Voodoo” ritual to transfer his soul into a “Good Guy” doll.

That doll, which is named “Chucky,” ends up in the possession of single-mother, Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks).  Karen gives Chucky as a birthday present to her six-year-old son, Andy (Alex Vincent).  After the murders begin, Andy is the only one who understands that his doll is the culprit, and that Chucky is planning more murders.

I’ve said for a long time that horror movies should be horrifying or horrible.  Horrible doesn’t necessarily mean low-quality.  An inappropriate joke could be horrible, but still illicit laughter.  Child’s Play is like some screenwriter’s drunken pitch for a horror movie.  It sounds horrible on the face of it, but it works.

I think Child’s Play works so well because of the efforts of the filmmakers, cast, and crew.  On the surface, at least, they take their work quite seriously.  Alex Vincent gives a fantastic performance, the kind of convincing horror movie acting that many adult performers cannot deliver.  As Andy, Vincent’s ability to sell me on Chucky as a genuine, first-rate horror movie villain is timeless.

The adult actors in Child’s Play are also good.  I love Catherine Hicks manic turn as a hysterical mother.  The best adult performance is delivered by Brad Dourif, giving voice to Chucky.  Dourif brings Chucky to life, creating an outrageous, shameless character that rises above the material.  The reason the Child’s Play franchise keeps coming back is because of Dourif’s voice performance.  Dourif makes the first Child’s Play film an evergreen, a perennial, and a classic in the history modern horror cinema.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, October 05, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Warner Bros.' "Run All Night" Begins Production

Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Run All Night” Begins Production in New York

Shooting underway on the crime thriller starring Liam Neeson and Ed Harris

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Principal photography has begun on Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Run All Night,” starring Oscar® nominees Liam Neeson (“Schindler’s List,” “Taken”) and Ed Harris (“Pollock,” “The Hours”), as well as Joel Kinnaman (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), under the direction of Jaume Collet-Serra (“Unknown”).

Brooklyn mobster and prolific hit man Jimmy Conlon (Neeson), once known as The Gravedigger, has seen better days. Longtime best friend of mob boss Shawn Maguire (Harris), Jimmy, now 55, is haunted by the sins of his past—as well as a dogged police detective who’s been one step behind Jimmy for 30 years. Lately, it seems Jimmy’s only solace can be found at the bottom of a whiskey glass.

But when Jimmy’s estranged son, Mike (Kinnaman), becomes a target, Jimmy must make a choice between the crime family he chose and the real family he abandoned long ago. With Mike on the run, Jimmy’s only penance for his past mistakes may be to keep his son from the same fate Jimmy is certain he’ll face himself…at the wrong end of a gun. Now, with nowhere safe to turn, Jimmy just has one night to figure out exactly where his loyalties lie and to see if he can finally make things right.

Shooting in and around New York City, primarily in Brooklyn and Queens, “Run All Night” also stars Vincent D’Onofrio (TV’s “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”), Boyd Holbrook (HBO’s “Behind the Candelabra”), Patricia Kalember (“Limitless”), Genesis Rodriguez (“Identity Thief”), and Academy Award® nominee Nick Nolte (“Warrior”).

Collet-Serra directs from a screenplay by Brad Ingelsby. The film is being produced by Roy Lee (“The Departed”), Michael Tadross (“Gangster Squad,” “Sherlock Holmes”), and Brooklyn Weaver (executive producer, upcoming “Out of the Furnace”), with John Powers Middleton (TV’s “Bates Motel”) serving as executive producer.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes director of photography Martin Ruhe (“The American”), production designer Sharon Seymour (“Argo”), Oscar®-nominated editor Craig McKay (“The Silence of the Lambs”), and costume designer Cat Thomas (“The Heat”).

“Run All Night” will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Review: Fun Never Ends in "This Is the End"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 66 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

This Is the End (2013)
Running time:  107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – R for crude and sexual content throughout, brief graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and some violence
DIRECTORS:  Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
WRITERS:  Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg; from a screen story by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (based on the short film, Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse, by Jason Stone)
PRODUCERS:  James Weaver and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Brandon Trost
EDITOR:  Zene Baker
COMPOSER:  Henry Jackman

COMEDY/FANTASY

Starring:  James Franco, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Emma Watson, Kevin Hart, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Paul Rudd, and Channing Tatum with Jason Segel

This Is the End is a 2013 apocalyptic comedy film from writer-directors, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.  This black comedy features a number of Hollywood comic actors and celebrities playing fictional versions of themselves.  The movie centers on actor James Franco’s house where a small band of survivors are forced to live together after a disaster that could be the end of the world.

This Is the End begins with Jay Baruchel arriving in Los Angeles to visit his old friend and fellow actor, Seth Rogen.  Seth convinces Jay to go with him to a housewarming party hosted by actor James Franco.  Jay is reluctant because he does not like Seth’s L.A. friends, especially actor Jonah Hill.  During the party, a catastrophic earthquake occurs, and L.A. falls to fire and chaos.  Jay, Seth, James, Jonah, and Craig Robinson survive the destruction, but they are not alone.  They slowly learn that the largest earthquake in California history may be more than just a natural disaster.

In his review of This Is the End for Maclean’s, critic Brian D. Johnson basically said that there could be worse ways to experience the apocalypse than with stoned celebrities (go here or http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/06/07/was-armageddon-always-this-complicated/ for the full review).  Other than spending it with my family, there is no better way to go through the end of the world than with fun, fictional versions of Seth Rogen and his friends.  Also, much of the middle of the film works like a comedy stage play that allows each member of the ensemble to fashion a character that engages the audience.

I like many of the films in which most members of the main and supporting cast have appeared.  For the most part, I also like their public personas.  They are all really funny in this film, and James Franco’s sardonic humor (which was too understated to work during his gig hosting the Oscars) shines.  Once again, Craig Robinson finds a way to turn a supporting comedy part into a co-leading role on the sheer strength of his underrated talent as a light comic actor.  Danny McBride steals the show; if any actor deserves an Academy Award nomination as a supporting actor this year because of a comedic performance, it is McBride in This Is the End.

This Is the End was made for me.  I liked what the actors did in this movie, and I liked how they were willing to savage their public personas and work in films.  This Is the End of the review but not of my love for this movie, which will go on...

8 of 10
A

Saturday, October 05, 2013


The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Poster for "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit" Debuts

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Based on the character created by bestselling author Tom Clancy, “Jack Ryan” is a global action thriller set in the present day.  This original story follow a young Jack (Chris Pine) as he uncovers a financial terrorist plot.

The story follows him from 9/11, through his tour of duty in Afghanistan, which scarred him forever, and into his early days in the Financial Intelligence Unit of the modern CIA where he becomes an analyst, under the guardianship of his handler, Harper (Kevin Costner).  When Ryan believes he’s uncovered a Russian plot to collapse the United States economy, he goes from being an analyst to becoming a spy and must fight to save his own life and those of countless others, while also trying to protect the thing that's more important to him than anything, his relationship with his fiancée Cathy (Keira Knightley).

Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Chris Pine, Keira Knightley and Kevin Costner
Written By: Adam Cozad and David Koepp

Coming Soon

Watch the Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit trailer only on Yahoo! Movies

To watch the trailer:
 http://movies.yahoo.com/video/jack-ryan-shadow-recruit-trailer-210023496.html

Official website: ShadowRecruitMovie.com
Official Facebook: Facebook.com/JackRyanMovie
Official Twitter: @JackRyanMovie
Official Hashtag: #ShadowRecruit