Movies: Horror Movie Discussion

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Cult of Chucky (2017) - 5/10

Kill doll Chucky invades a mental institution to finish off an old adversary.

Fiona Dourif returns as Nica, who following the traumatic events of the previous film is now a patient at a mental institution. As she tries to regain control of her sanity, the institution is shipped a Good Guys doll, which Nica is convinced is Chucky (Brad Dourif). Her doctor, Dr. Foley (Michael Therriault) thinks keeping the doll around will be good for her treatment, but Nica sets out to prove the doll is Chucky. Elsewhere, Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent), the childhood survivor of Chucky's initial reign of terror, sets out to free Nica. He knows she's innocent and can prove it, as he has possession of Chucky's severed - but living - head...

Cult of Chucky was once again written and directed by Don Mancini. The follow-up to Curse of Chucky (2013), Cult of Chucky brings to life some concepts and ideas Mancini originally had for Chucky 3 (1991), but was unable to do at the time due to that film's tight development schedule. How does Cult of Chucky fare?

It's a mixed bag...which irritates me more than it should because the first half of this movie is legitimately good. Setting a horror movie in a mental institution is far from an original concept, but it fits like a glove for a series about a killer doll. I think it would be the most realistic outcome if the average schmoe survived an encounter with Chucky and then had to explain the pile of dead bodies in their vicinity.

I think Cult of Chucky uses the setting well. The film throws some curveballs the audience's way, at times taking things a more psychological route and even introducing mystery elements at one point in the movie. Unfortunately, towards the middle of the film, things start to run out of steam. The main events start coming to a crawl, instead replaced by a new subplot or two that do not further the story...or accomplish anything at all really, aside from padding the run time. And frankly, this movie has a massive flaw: the film would be over if anyone checked the security cameras. There is a throwaway line towards the end that implies there aren't any security cameras, but that makes absolutely zero sense.

You can probably tell from the synopsis, but Cult of Chucky has "A" (Nica) and "B" (Andy) plots. The Nica plot gets the overwhelming majority of the screen time, which makes the Andy plot feel tacked on. The two storylines inevitably intersect, but meshing the two together doesn't accomplish a whole heck of a lot. I've used this analogy before, but this film is this meme. The end of this movie is an unsatisfying mess, and is only partially saved by strong gore. I find it a little ironic that Cult of Chucky's concept was originally intended for Child's Play 3 considering the films are inverses of each other in terms of quality (with the latter having a strong ending after an awful start to the movie). It's also worth noting that the film starts off as a straightforward horror piece, but progressively becomes more comedic towards the end of the film. It's like a microcosm of the series.

Seeing how crappy the end of this movie is, I'm going to complain about the lighting again. It insists upon itself. The nighttime/dark scenes look amazing, but the daylight scenes look amateurish, which is counterintuitive. There's one scene in particular where two people are driving (separate cars) and talking to each other on the phone which looks like Youtube video quality. Also, being vague, there's one major acting performance which is pretty rough. To be fair to the performer, they don't get many scenes with actual people (i.e. talking on a phone, or to Chucky). But nevertheless, it's a distractingly wooden performance.

Overall, Cult of Chucky is one of the weaker entries in the Child's Play series. It's the Lost (2004-2010) of Chucky movies: it starts out well and generates intrigue, only to do nothing interesting with its concept. Word to the wise: Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky both have post credit scenes, and both are cut out by Netflix. If you don't watch the Curse of Chucky scene on Youtube, you'll have no clue what's going on at the start of this film. Cult of Chucky, the final film in the main Child's Play continuity, was released direct-to-video and earned $2.3M in its first month of sales.

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Kicked off the month with an anthology of anthologies.

Tales from the Darkside. I could research this to check, but I BELIEVE this was originally intended to be Creepshow 3 but somehow morphed into this (probably because of rights issues or something?). Vibe is essentially the same so that story checks out in my mind. I also think Tales from the Crypt was up and running at this time and these really feel like they could've easily been episodes from that series too. Makes sense too. Since Creepshow was directly inspired by the old EC Comics. Fun to see pre-fame Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore though I probably like tales two (cat) and three (gargoyle) the best. The wraparound has the benefit of staring Deborah Harry who'd I'd let her chain me up in her kitchen any day, but it's so lazy they actually just call it "The Wraparound Story."

Tales from the Crypt (1972). Interesting attempt to take the dark humor of EC Comics, but infused with a little Brit-horror class. Mixed bag. I liked this early take on And All Through the House, though it's done much better in the series' first season. Peter Cushing turns in a really effective performance as a kind, poor old man whose rich neighbors are trying to run out of town. It really hit me. There's enough classic EC Comics comeuppance but it still tries to be a bit too tony for me to fully love it. And I understand it was a different time but the dead-serious bastard in this is #NotMyCryptKeeper.

Trick r' Treat. Thought this is a delightful take on a horror anthology story. You get five stories set in one town on Halloween night but instead of the normal format of "now we tell this tale" they all sorta weave in and out of each other in fun ways. Time shifts forward and back so random early moments make more sense later. I also love how there are rules at play, but it doesn't beat you over the head with it and I think Sam is a fun creation that I'd be happy to see more of.