Movies: Horror Movie Discussion

[shadow1]

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.

 

[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.

Re: Tales From the Darkside/Creepshow 3 ... so my curiosity got me and I did look it up. The Darkside movie is only Creepshow 3 in a spiritual sense. Never officially, though Cat from Hell was originally supposed to be part of Creepshow 2.

BUT the Tales from the Darkside TV show did result from an attempt by George Romero to create a Creepshow TV series in the wake of the first movie. There were rights issues that stopped that so the horror anthology show became the newly christened Tales from the Darkside instead.

So, in conclusion, a little from column A, a little from column B.

 

[shadow1]

Re: Tales From the Darkside/Creepshow 3 ... so my curiosity got me and I did look it up. The Darkside movie is only Creepshow 3 in a spiritual sense. Never officially, though Cat from Hell was originally supposed to be part of Creepshow 2.

BUT the Tales from the Darkside TV show did result from an attempt by George Romero to create a Creepshow TV series in the wake of the first movie. There were rights issues that stopped that so the horror anthology show became the newly christened Tales from the Darkside instead.

So, in conclusion, a little from column A, a little from column B.

Interesting history, I didn't know that. Fortunately, we still got a Creepshow 3, which is a masterpiece(ofsomething)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478125/

 

[PB37]

Just finished the new Salem's Lot remake.

I'm trying not to come at this as a fan of Stephen King but Salems Lot is one of my top 3 books of all time so it's really hard.

I think overall, the movie is enjoyable if you've never read the book. But if you have, it's hard not to overlook the lack of layering in world building the book has so well. The sense of impending doom you feel reading the book only comes in brief spurts in the movie. The acting is a little wooden and sometimes goofy - they didn't really sell me that they were into their characters. I liked the depiction of the Mark Petrie character but everyone else felt shallow. Of course, there's the factor of condensing a near perfect book into a 2 hour movie that limits what they can do but damnit... I wish this movie was more than it was.

I think it's worth the watch in your spooky season playlist but go into it with the mindset of being entertained and not a page for page adaptation.

 

[shadow1]

Child's Play (2019) - 5/10

A 13-year-old is tormented by a malfunctioning doll.

Gabriel Bateman stars as Andy, a young loner who, along with his mother Karen (Aubrey Plaza), has just moved into a new slightly rundown apartment building. As Andy struggles to make friends, Karen gets him a futurist "Buddi" doll named Chucky (Mark Hamill) to cheer him up. This works immediately, not only giving Andy a close companion, but also helping him make friends in the building. One problem - an overworked employee turned off all of Chucky's safeguards before it left the factory, meaning the doll will do anything to be Andy's friend 'till the end...

Child's Play was directed by Lars Klevberg and written by Tyler Burton Smith. A remake of the 1988 film of the same name, this film had some production drama behind the scenes. Universal, which owns the rights to the Child's Play sequels, had already greenlit a TV series, Chucky (2021-2024), led by series creator Don Mancini. However, MGM owns the rights to the original 1988 film, and proceeded with the remake without Mancini's involvement, causing the long-time series writer-director to be concerned the film would negatively impact the TV show if it flopped. How does Child's Play fare?

It's decent, but a mixed bag. Going with an AI Chucky doll (which isn't a spoiler, by the way - it's established before even meeting our characters) is a change that I think works on some levels. Chucky's origin story has never been a strong point of the Child's Play franchise, so redoing it for this modern remake is a concept with potential. With the understanding that this Chucky is not Charles Lee Ray, I thought Mark Hamill did a good job replacing Brad Dourif. I also think the movie is shot well and looks more expensive than its budget would suggest.

The execution is off, though. Chucky feels like a mixture of the T-800 in Terminator 2 (1991) and Lennie from Of Mice and Men (1992). The doll takes everything Andy says literally and is incapable of nuance. Parts of the film try to make Chucky into a sympathetic character that's only acting out of love for Andy, but as things wear on the writing gets lazier and the doll becomes more stereotypically evil. Speaking of which...

Child's Play '19 doesn't know what it wants to be. As Osprey pointed out, much of the film feels like a Stranger Things (2016-2025) rip-off, or a clone of the recent It films (the producers behind It (2017) and It Chapter II (2019) made this movie). The first 30 minutes or so feel like a coming-of-age story, with things shifting abruptly into horror during act two. Except, it's never remotely scary. For the most part, no one you ever care about is in any significant danger, and the film introduces a number of characters who were fitted for their toe tags before filming began. Gee, I wonder who's going to die: Andy, Andy's teenage friends, or the creepy perverted janitor who's installed hidden cameras to spy on the tenants naked?

The change to horror is abrupt enough, but something feels even more off when most of it is horror comedy. The opening act tries to establish real themes, but seemingly in the blink of an eye, Chucky is killing in humourous fashion while barking one-liners. I couldn't get into it, but even if you can move past that, the writing still holds the movie down. For Andy's part, he makes multiple unbelievably stupid decisions throughout the course of the film, and they're so significant that had he done the logical thing, the movie would be over. Additionally, at some point Child's Play '19 tries to mirror the whole "Andy is crazy" angle of the first movie, but it doesn't work at all. The doll is so advanced that there's no reason to doubt what Andy is saying. There's even a scene where his friends privately question "maybe Andy is lying about the doll?" despite previously witnessing evidence to the contrary. Then, literally two minutes later, before confronting Andy or unearthing any new evidence, they change their tune and are like "no, Andy must be telling the truth!" What the heck is the point of scenes like these?

Overall, Child's Play 2019 has interesting ideas but a mixed execution. I think it's a decent movie, but no where near strong enough to spawn sequels of its own. As mentioned, the original Child's Play continuity has carried on in the wake of this film in the form of a three season TV series called Chucky. Child's Play 2019 earned $44.9M against its $10M budget.

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That wraps up the Child's Play series. Comfortably the best series I've watched in a while, and I'm intruiged about the TV show. It's very clear that Don Mancini is beloved by his cast because the number of performers that return for later sequels is pretty remarkable. Here's how I'd rate the movies:

1. Child's Play (1988) - A rock-solid cult classic
2. Curse of Chucky (2013) - The spiritual successor to the original
3. Bride of Chucky (1998) - The Metallica Black album, makes dramatic changes that work
4. Child's Play 2 (1990) - A decent sequel that feels like a watered down version of the original
5. Child's Play 3 (1991) - Awful beginning, meh middle, good ending
6. Child's Play (2019) - Meh remake that potential to be better than it was
7. Cult of Chucky (2017) - Good beginning, meh middle, awful ending
8. Seed of Chucky (2004) - The Metallica St. Anger album, except even St. Anger isn't this bad

 

[Osprey]

Is it me or does that even look a little like Mark Hamill? I'm not sure what's creepier, Chucky 2.0 or Hamill, himself, in the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Your appraisal of the movies ended up being pretty similar to mine, with all of your scores being equal or just a point off from mine.

As much as I'm fond of the franchise, I haven't watched the TV series yet. Your reviews have been reminding me of that fact, though, and I'm toying with maybe starting that up this month.