Cult of Cucky - Back on (crazy) form

I’ve been a fan of the ‘Chucky’ franchise since its first ‘Child’s Play’ films which depicted a murderer transferring his soul into a children’s toy doll, only for the doll to continue his foul deeds.  Along the way the franchise obviously decided to concentrate on the doll himself (Chucky – perfectly voiced by Brad Dourif), rather than the – no redundant – ‘Child’s Play’ aspect of the series.  The first three films were ‘straight’ horror, whereas the fourth and fifth then changed to more black comedies, part 6 tried to go back to the horror roots and emulated some sort of weird 'who-dun-it' (even though by the sixth instalment we know full well who's doing the killings!) so I had no idea in which direction part 7 would go.

With other horror franchises, you may be forgiven for thinking that by the seventh outing the formula would simply be reproduced ala ‘Friday 13th’ and ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ brands.  However, one of the main things I like about Chucky’s killing sprees is that they are quite different from each other (whether they work or not is down to personal taste!).  Now, with the ‘Cult of Chucky’ we’re treated to a bit of a hybrid of everything that’s gone before.  We have everything from throwbacks to almost all the previous instalments to humour, to gore to… well, a story that goes in completely new directions.

If there’s one word to describe this film it’s ‘crazy.’ I really had no idea where it was going as it bounces around with characters and narrative.  Now, you could also call that sort of story a ‘mess’ – if you were being cruel.  However, I have to confess for enjoying the sheer ‘not knowingness’ of this horror movie.  Normally, with the genre, you’re introduced to a bunch of (mostly forgettable) characters, then they’re gradually whittled down to just one (girl?) for the final showdown.  Not here.  And the film is all the stronger for it.

Brad Dourif is, as usual, on form as the murderous doll, but, once again, he’s ably assisted by his (real life) daughter Fiona Dourif as the lead.  And, once you know they’re related, you’ll find it impossible not to see her father in every expression she pulls (she’s also got his maniacal laugh down to a tee!).  I suppose if the film has a bit of a weakness it’s that it’s a direct follow up to ‘Part 6’ and you really should have seen that one to fully ‘get’ everything that’s now going on (although, saying that, you really need to watch everything that’s come before it to FULLY get every last little reference).

A lot of people (even those who worked on the franchise!) said that Part 3 was the weakest of the franchise.  Personally, I thought Part 6 was – mainly because there wasn’t enough Chucky in the first half for my liking.  Luckily (for me) in Part 7 we have more Chucky than I could cope with!  I loved it, but perhaps my only gripe was that it’s clearly a ‘middle chapter’ of a story that the producers want to add more to.  Therefore, things are set up which don’t get resolved here and left me wanting to see what comes next.

I hear the story is going to be continued on TV (maybe?), but at the same time more films are in the works.  I don’t know whether either of those online rumours are definitely true, but I do hope they continue this story rather than finishing it all here and going for some (completely unnecessary!) reboot.  The Chucky saga is evolving and each instalment is different enough to attract new audiences while hopefully not alienating its core fans.  If you’re looking for a cheeky, darkly-comic and pretty sick horror movie, you’ll definitely find it here (just don’t expect to get every last reference if you’re not totally up on all things Chucky-related).

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that