I was really looking forward to this. The first few films of the series (back when it was known as `Child's Play' were pretty damn creepy, whereas the new two (`Seed' and `Bride' of Chucky) took a more lighter note, but still had their merits in the `horror comedy' sub-genre.
Here, in `The Curse of Chucky' it tries to go back to its roots by being creepy. It doesn't work. Chucky (who - let's face it - is why we watch these films) is barely in it until the forty-five minute mark. Previously, all we're treated to is a `slasher' type film, i.e. where stupid people wander round a large, allegedly-spooky house, being picked off one by one. While, at the same time, a young girl gets to know Chucky... only to discover the `real' him.
Unfortunately, it's just dull. The `slasher' element is redundant as we know it's Chucky doing the killing. The characters are either bland or completely unlikeable, so we don't care whether they're chopped to pieces or not. And the whole girl-getting-to-know-Chucky sub-plot is just the same as the first film, only with a young girl instead of a boy.
There are some nice references to the original Child's Play movie and we get to find out a little more about the man who possessed the doll, i.e. serial killer Charles Lee Ray, but it's too little too late. I think the film-makers were trying to do `scary,' to move the franchise back towards `horror' over comedy. Sadly, after watching it, I'd rather they'd played it for laughs once again.
The second half kind of picks up a bit, so it's not all bad. And I enjoyed the ending (about the last 15 minutes) and make sure you watch AFTER the credits as there's an important scene you may miss that kind of changes things.
`Curse of Chucky' was the first of the franchise which was not released in the cinemas, only making a `straight to DVD' release. There's a reason for that.
5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back
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