Curse of Chucky

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Curse of Chucky
Curse of Chucky.jpg
Home video release poster
Directed byDon Mancini
Written byDon Mancini
Based onCharacters
by Don Mancini
Produced byDavid Kirschner
Starring
CinematographyMichael Marshall
Edited byJames Coblentz
Music byJoseph LoDuca
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Studios Home Entertainment
Release dates
  • August 2, 2013 (2013-08-02) (Fantasia Festival)
  • September 24, 2013 (2013-09-24)
(VOD)
  • October 8, 2013 (2013-10-08)
(DVD/Blu-ray)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2.8 million[1]
Box office$3.8 million

Curse of Chucky is a 2013 American slasher film and the sixth installment of the Child's Play franchise. The film was written and directed by Don Mancini, who created the franchise and wrote the first six films. It stars Fiona Dourif as Nica Pierce, as well as Danielle Bisutti, A Martinez, Brennan Elliott, and Brad Dourif reprising his role as the voice of Chucky. The film grossed $3.8 million in DVD sales.

Curse of Chucky sees a return to the franchise's source material, bringing back the straightforward horror elements found in the first Child's Play film, as well as Chucky's classic appearance. The film, which went into production in September 2012, is the first direct-to-video installment of the series. In the U.S., it premiered via VOD on September 24, 2013, followed by a DVD and Blu-ray Disc release on October 8, 2013. The film was also turned into a scare zone for 2013's annual Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. Though Curse of Chucky was made with a direct-to-video release in mind, it was also seen theatrically in several countries, like Brazil. The film was followed by Cult of Chucky in 2017.

Plot[]

In 2013, a Good Guy doll called Chucky mysteriously arrives in the mail at the isolated home of paraplegic Nica Pierce and her mother Sarah. Sarah repeatedly and compulsively paints pictures of the same flowers. Later that night, Sarah is found dead from a stab wound and her death is ruled as a suicide.

Nica is visited by her sister Barb, accompanied by her husband Ian, their daughter Alice, live-in nanny Jill, and priest Father Frank. Alice finds Chucky and is allowed to keep him. That evening, while Alice and Nica are making chili for dinner, Chucky secretly pours rat poison into one of the dinner bowls. Father Frank eats the poison. After he leaves, he gets sick and ends up in a car accident that decapitates him. That night, Nica wonders where the doll came from and investigates Chucky on the internet; she finds news articles about the murders tied to both the doll and Charles Lee Ray.

Elsewhere, Chucky comes to life and electrocutes Jill, causing a blackout. Searching for Alice, Barb goes to the attic clutching Chucky and finds Sarah's large collection of paintings of the same flower. She finds a knife inside Chucky's shirt and peels some of Chucky's now-loose plastic skin, revealing the stitches created by his ex-girlfriend Tiffany hidden underneath. Chucky springs to life and stabs her in the eye. Nica hears Barb's scream and crawls up the stairs, discovering her body and the doll alive. When Chucky flees, Nica wakes Ian up in a panic, who is unable to find Alice. He disarms Nica, believing her to be responsible for the murders.

Nica tries to explain that Chucky is alive, but Chucky acts lifeless. Ian decides to review the footage from a nanny cam that he planted on Chucky earlier (to get evidence of Barb's suspected sexual affair with Jill) and learns that Alice is locked in a closet and that Chucky truly is alive. Exposed, Chucky kills Ian by chopping off his lower jaw with a hatchet. Nica manages to break out of her restraints and avoids the hatchet by blocking it with her numb legs. It gets stuck, allowing Nica to grab it and behead Chucky. As Nica covers her wound, Chucky reattaches his head and pushes Nica off 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 obsessed with Sarah. Ray killed Nica's father and kidnapped Sarah while she was pregnant with Nica. Charles brought dozens of flowers to the captive Sarah-- the same sort of flowers that Sarah compulsively painted. When Sarah betrayed him, he stabbed her in the stomach (which resulted in Nica being born paraplegic) and escaped. Ray's escape from the police ultimately led to his death as a human, which is why he came back to Sarah for revenge. Nica, after stalling by taunting him about his inability to kill former target Andy Barclay, manages to retreat into her home elevator, disarm Chucky and plunge the knife into his back. Chucky remains motionless for a while before springing back to life.

Officer Stanton, the same officer who found Father Frank's body, arrives at the house and sees Barb's body. Nica holds a bloody knife alone in the elevator while Chucky sits motionless in the corner of the room. Sometime later, Nica is blamed for the murders and sent to a mental asylum. Chucky is retained by Stanton after being used as an exhibit at her trial. Stanton is ambushed and killed by Tiffany, still in Jennifer Tilly's body. She collects Chucky and later goes to a packaging center to ship him off to a new victim. Meanwhile, Alice, now living with her grandmother, comes home from school to find Chucky waiting for her. Chucky starts the voodoo chant to transfer his soul into Alice's body while the grandmother suffocates in another room.

In a post-credits scene set six months later, Chucky, still in his doll body, is delivered to Andy, now an adult. When Andy turns his back to answer a phone call from his mother, Chucky cuts his way out of the package with a knife. Chucky looks around the house, only to have Andy shoot him with a shotgun.

Cast[]

Live action[]

Chucky puppeteers[]

  • Tony Gardner
  • Peter Chevako
  • Lilo Tauvao
  • William Terezakis
  • Christopher Sigurdson

Production[]

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... to go back to the straightforward horror rather than the horror comedy." They indicated that Brad Dourif would return as the voice of Chucky.[3]

In a subsequent interview, Mancini described the remake as a darker and scarier retelling of the original film, but one that, while having new twists and turns, would not stray too far from the original concept.[4] At a 2009 horror convention, Dourif confirmed his role in the remake.[5] At a reunion panel at the Mad Monster Party horror and sci-fi convention, the cast and crew from the original film confirmed that both a remake and a spin-off are in development. Writer Don Mancini and producer David Kirschner worked on a sequel then titled Revenge of Chucky.[6]

In June 2012, it was confirmed that a sequel would indeed enter production, entitled Curse of Chucky, and intended for a direct-to-video release.

Filming[]

The film began production in early September 2012 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, which ended in mid-October. In November 2012, Don Mancini announced that filming for Curse of Chucky had been completed, and a release was set for around Halloween 2013.

Marketing[]

In May 2013, Fiona Dourif released the first image of Chucky in the film 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 than the previous two.[7] The official trailer was released on July 8, 2013.[8] The film's official Red band trailer was released August 1, 2013.[9]

Release[]

Curse of Chucky had its world premiere on August 2, 2013, at the Fantasia Festival,[10] in Montreal, and its European premiere at the London FrightFest Film Festival on August 22, 2013, accompanied by screenings of the original trilogy of Child's Play films.[11] The DVD/Blu-ray was released on October 8, 2013 and domestically grossed $3,821,602 in the first month.[12]

Reception[]

On Rotten Tomatoes, 76% of 21 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The site's critics consensus states: "The franchise hex of disappointing sequels is broken by going back to basics in this chilling entry, restoring a sense of playfulness to the Chucky saga."[13] According to Metacritic, the film received "mixed or average reviews" based on an average score of 58 out of 100 from 5 critics.[14]

An early review posted on Bloody Disgusting on August 2, 2013, was very favorable of the film. In it, 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... Curse of Chucky is clearly going to re-ignite the franchise for years to come."[15] Ryan Larson of Shock Till You Drop also wrote a mostly positive review, saying, "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."[16]

Accolades[]

At the film's world premiere at the Montreal Fantasia Festival, it received a Gold Award for Best International Feature.[17]

The film also received a nomination for Best DVD or Blu-ray Release at the 40th Saturn Awards.

Halloween Horror Nights[]

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

Chucky had previously 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, with 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.

Sequels[]

The film was followed by Cult of Chucky in 2017, and the TV series Chucky in 2021.

References[]

  1. ^ DVD Commentary
  2. ^ "Actress Debbie Lee Carrington, 'Total Recall,' 'Bride of Chucky' Dies at 58". 25 March 2018.
  3. ^ "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.
  4. ^ "Child's PlayMancini&Kirschner". ShockTillYouDrop.com. CraveOnline Media. September 8, 2008. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
  5. ^ "MGM Gets Rolling On A 'Child's Play' Remake". 25 March 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  6. ^ "The Cynical Optimist: Child's Play spin-off Revenge of Chucky in the works!". March 28, 2012. Archived from the original on March 31, 2012. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  7. ^ Orange, B. Alan (May 28, 2013). "First Look at Chucky in Curse of Chucky!". MovieWeb. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  8. ^ "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.
  9. ^ Miska, Brad (August 1, 2013). "Exclusive: 'Curse of Chucky' Red Band Trailer Will Slice You Into Silence!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  10. ^ "Curse of Chucky". Fantasia Festival. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  11. ^ "2013 Film4 FrightFest-Curse Of Chucky". London FrightFest Film Festival. Archived from the original on July 1, 2013. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  12. ^ "Curse of Chucky (2013)". The Numbers. Retrieved February 27, 2020.
  13. ^ "Curse of Chucky (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 28, 2020.
  14. ^ https://www.metacritic.com/movie/curse-of-chucky
  15. ^ "[Fantasia '13 Review] 'Curse of Chucky' Recalls Old School Wrath of 'Child's Play'! - Bloody Disgusting". bloody-disgusting.com. 3 August 2013.
  16. ^ "Review: Curse of Chucky - ComingSoon.net". 26 September 2013.
  17. ^ fantasia-13-curse-of-chucky-wins-audience-award-big-bad-wolves-for-best-film

External links[]

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