Curse of Chucky

Curse of Chucky

Blu-ray / DVD combo pack art
Directed by Don Mancini
Produced by Don Mancini
David Kirschner
Screenplay by Don Mancini
Based on Characters
by Don Mancini
Starring Fiona Dourif
Danielle Bisutti
Brennan Elliott
Maitland McConnell
Chantal Quesnel
Summer H. Howell
A Martinez
Brad Dourif
Music by Joseph LoDuca
Cinematography Michael Marshall
Edited by James Coblentz
Production
company
Universal 1440 Entertainment
Distributed by Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Release dates
  • September 24, 2013 (2013-09-24)

(VOD)

  • October 8, 2013 (2013-10-08)

(DVD/Blu-ray)

Running time
 97 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $5 million[1]
Box office 3.2 million (Domestic dvd sales)

Curse of Chucky is a 2013 American slasher horror straight-to-video film, and the sixth installment of the Chucky franchise. The film was written and directed by Don Mancini, who created the franchise and wrote all films to date. It stars Brad Dourif as Chucky, as well as Fiona Dourif, Danielle Bisutti, A Martinez and Brennan Elliott. The film was a box office hit, with DVD sales recovering it's 5 million budget.

The film sees the return to the franchise's source material and bringing back the straightforward horror elements found in the first three Child's Play films. The film, which went into production in September 2012, is the first direct-to-video installment of the series. Curse of Chucky is distributed by Universal Studios Home Entertainment, and debuted via VOD, September 24, 2013. This was followed by a DVD and Blu-ray Disc release, October 8, 2013, in the United States. The film was also turned into a scare zone for 2013's annual Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood and Orlando theme parks.

Plot

Set twenty-five years after the first film, the Chucky doll (voiced by Brad Dourif) mysteriously arrives in the mail of the home of paraplegic Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif) and her mother Sarah (Chantal Quesnel). Later that night Sarah is found dead from a stab wound, and her death is ruled a suicide.

A short while later, Nica is visited by her older sister Barb, accompanied by Barb's husband Ian, their six-year-old daughter Alice, live-in nanny Jill, and Father Frank. Alice finds Chucky and, since everyone thinks that he's just a doll, is allowed to keep him. That evening, while Alice and Nica are making soup, Chucky secretly pours rat poison into one of the dinner bowls. Father Frank eats the poison and, after leaving the house, is decapitated in a car accident.

Later that night, after everyone else has gone to sleep, Nica investigates the Chucky doll on the internet, and finds news articles of the unsolved Chucky murders and the doll's link to serial killer Charles Lee Ray. Elsewhere, Chucky kicks a bucket of rain water onto the floor's power outlets, electrocuting Jill and causing an electrical blackout. Barb gets up to check on Alice, and is attacked by Chucky with a kitchen knife. Nica hears Barb's cries but has to crawl up the stairs with her hands due to the blackout making the elevator unusable. By the time Nica gets there, Barb is dead with her eye gouged out, and Nica sees for herself that the Chucky doll is alive. When Chucky flees, Nica wakes Ian up in a panic. He takes Nica to the garage before going back into the house to look for Alice.

Ian cannot find Alice, so he returns to the garage and disarms Nica, believing her to be responsible for the murders. Nica insists that Chucky is alive, but Chucky acts like a lifeless doll when Ian looks at him. Ian decides to review the footage from a hidden camera that he planted on Chucky earlier (to get evidence of Barb's affair with Jill) and learns that Alice is locked in a closet and that Chucky truly is alive. Before Ian can act, Chucky kills him with a hatchet. Nica manages to break out of her restraints and tries to kill Chucky, but she fails and Chucky pushes her over the balcony onto the ground floor.

When Nica asks why Chucky is doing this, he explains through flashbacks that as Charles Lee Ray, he was a friend of her family and in love with Sarah. Ray killed Nica's father and kidnapped Sarah while she was pregnant with Nica. When Sarah betrayed him, he stabbed her in the stomach (which resulted in Nica being born paraplegic) and escaped. Ray's flight from the police ultimately lead to his death as a human, which is why he came back to Sarah for revenge. Before Chucky can kill her, Nica fights back, leading to an extended scuffle. A police officer then arrives at the house, but when he enters he only sees Barb's body upstairs and Nica holding the bloody knife. Chucky watches, unmoving, from a nearby chair.

Some time later, Nica is sent to a mental asylum for the murders. Chucky has been retained by the police as an exhibit for the trials, and afterward the arresting officer takes Chucky away. The officer gets in his car and sees Chucky breathing in the bag. Before the officer can inspect the bag, he is killed by Tiffany, who has been hiding in the back seat and slashes his throat. Tiffany collects Chucky and asking, "Who's next?"

Alice, now living with her grandmother, comes home from school to find Chucky waiting for her. Chucky persuades Alice to play "Hide The Soul", starting a chant to transfer his soul to Alice's body. The grandmother, who had been tied up and strangled with a bag over her head but is not dead, sits up suddenly, shortly after Chucky begins the chant.

In a post-credits scene set six months later, Chucky is delivered to the now-adult Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent). When Andy turns his back to answer a phone call from his mother, Chucky cuts his way out of the package with a knife. Having anticipated Chucky coming after him again, Andy holds a gun to Chucky's head and quotes, "Play with this!" before pulling the trigger.

Cast

Production

Development

In an August 2008 interview, Don Mancini and David Kirschner spoke of a planned reboot of the Chucky franchise to be written and directed by Mancini. They described their choice of a remake over a sequel as a response to the will of the fans, who "want to see a scary Chucky movie again", and "want to go back to the straightforward horror rather than the horror comedy." They indicated that Brad Dourif would return as the voice of Chucky.[2]

In a subsequent interview, Mancini described the remake as a darker and scarier retelling of the original movie, but one that, while having new twists and turns, will not stray too far from the original concept.[3] At a 2009 horror convention, Brad Dourif confirmed his role in the remake.[4] At a reunion panel at the Mad Monster Party horror and sci-fi convention, the cast and crew from the original film confirmed both a remake and a spin-off are in development. Writer Don Mancini and producer David Kirschner were working on a sequel titled Revenge of Chucky.[5]

In June 2012, it was confirmed that a sequel would enter production, entitled Curse of Chucky and be released direct-to-video.

Filming

The film began production in early September 2012 in Winnipeg, Canada and ended in mid-October. In November 2012, Don Mancini announced that filming for Curse of Chucky had been completed and he planned to release it Halloween 2013.

Release and marketing

In May 2013, Fiona Dourif released the first image of Chucky through her Instagram. The image is from the film's soundtrack cover and shows Chucky looking more like the doll from the first three films rather than the previous last two films.[6] The official trailer was released on July 8, 2013.[7] The film's official Red band trailer was released August 1, 2013.[8] The film received its world premiere on August 2, 2013, at the 2013 Fantasia Festival[9] in Montreal. The film also received its European premiere at the London FrightFest Film Festival on August 22, 2013, accompanied with a screening of the original trilogy of Child's Play films.[10]

Reception

Curse of Chucky has received mainly positive reviews from critics. The film currently holds a 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 16 reviews).[11] An early review posted on Bloody Disgusting on August 2, 2013, was very favorable of the film. Brad Miska stated, "Curse of Chucky may just be the best home video sequel since Wrong Turn 2. It's alarmingly good, which puts pressure on Universal to answer as to why they didn't let Mancini shoot this for theaters". He continued to say, "Chucky fans should rejoice, though, as Curse of Chucky is clearly going to re-ignite the franchise for years to come."[12] Ryan Larson of Shock Till You Drop also had mostly positive things to say about it, stating that "the movie does so much right that it’s easy to overlook the very few flaws it has. The pacing and writing coincide to create a fun blood-soaked jaunt that never gets boring or dull. He goes on to praise the director, pointing out that "Mancini (pulling double duty as writer as well as director) does a great job at introducing and ushering off characters in a fashion that doesn’t bog the film down with a bunch of characters who get three minutes of film time before getting the axe, or butcher knife in this case. The kills are kitschy, but in the best way possible, waxing nostalgic of the slasher films of the late eighties and early nineties."[13]

At the film's world premiere at the Montreal Fantasia Festival, it received a Gold Award for Best International Feature.[14]

Halloween Horror Nights

Curse of Chucky received its own scarezone in the 2013 lineup at Universal Studios Hollywood's Halloween Horror Nights.

This is not the first time Chucky has been featured at Halloween Horror Nights. In 2009, the franchise received its own maze, entitled Chucky's Fun House in Hollywood, a seasonal re-themeing of Universal Studios Hollywood's year-round attraction Universal's House of Horrors and Chucky: Friends Till the End at Universal Studios Florida, themed around the Good Guys factory and scenes featuring Chucky and other childhood toys gone bad. Since 1992, Chucky has starred in his own shows Hollywood, Chucky's In-Your-Face Insults and Chucky's Insult Emporium. In 2010, Chucky was featured in the "20 Years of Fear" scarezone in Florida.

Sequel

On December 2, 2013, it was confirmed that there would be a sequel to Curse of Chucky. Mainstream news and quotes from cast and crew via Twitter say that filming will take place in South Africa.[15] In February 2015, Mancini confirmed that the script was being written.[16] A year later, Mancini, Jennifer Tilly and Fiona Dourif confirmed that shooting would begin soon for the film.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Curse of Chucky at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ↑ "Quint chats up Don Mancini, David Kirschner and Michelle Gold about the CHILD'S PLAY REMAKE and the new DVD!!!". Ain't It Cool News. August 19, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Child's PlayMancini&Kirschner". ShockTillYouDrop.com. CraveOnline Media. September 8, 2008. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  4. ↑ "MGM Gets Rolling On A ‘Child’s Play’ Remake". 25 March 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  5. ↑ "The Cynical Optimist: Child's Play spin-off Revenge of Chucky in the works!". March 28, 2012. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  6. ↑ Orange, B. Alan (May 28, 2013). "First Look at Chucky in Curse of Chucky!". MovieWeb. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  7. ↑ "I'm Your Friend to the End! The Trailer for CURSE OF CHUCKY is Here!". Ain't It Cool News. July 8, 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  8. ↑ Miska, Brad (August 1, 2013). "Exclusive: ‘Curse of Chucky’ Red Band Trailer Will Slice You Into Silence!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  9. ↑ "Curse of Chucky". Fantasia Festival. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  10. ↑ "2013 Film4 FrightFest-Curse Of Chucky". London FrightFest Film Festival. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  11. ↑ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/curse_of_chucky/
  12. ↑ http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/3246893/fantasia-13-review-curse-of-chucky-brings-the-old-school-wrath-of-childs-play/
  13. ↑ http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/reviews/176329-review-curse-of-chucky/
  14. ↑ fantasia-13-curse-of-chucky-wins-audience-award-big-bad-wolves-for-best-film
  15. ↑ Barton, Steve (December 2, 2013). "Don Mancini Confirms Seventh Chucky Film on its Way!". Dread Central. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  16. ↑ Barton, Steve (February 18, 2015). "New ‘Child’s Play’ Still In the Works!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  17. ↑ Gallagher, Brian (February 23, 2016). "‘Chucky 7’ Is Shooting Soon, Jennifer Tilly Will Return". MovieWeb. Retrieved February 24, 2016.

External links

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