Curse of Chucky

2 Guys And A Chainsaw - A Horror Movie Review Podcast

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Eight years after the wackiness of Seed of Chucky, Curse of Chucky came out of nowhere and surprised Child’s Play fans with yet another tonal shift for the series, setting up a host of new characters and bringing the killer doll lore full circle with the first film.

After 5 films of an increasingly wacky, campy and jokey premise, this one managed to deftly bring Chucky back to his horror roots, with a more spooky edge, stylized visuals, and dark themes.

Whooo hooo, what a ride this is turning out to be!

Expand to read episode transcript

Automatic Transcript

Curse of Chucky (2013)

Episode 383, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

Todd: Hello and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig.

Todd: Well, we have plowed on through to the sixth in the Child’s Play franchise. Now it’s all about Chucky, Bride of Chucky, Seed of Chucky, and now this, Curse of Chucky. And, uh, we have gotten to this point. I’m just going to say it right off the bat, where watching all of these in sequence for the very first time is maybe going to color my feelings about this movie.

Craig: Oh no, that makes me nervous.

Todd: Well, you don’t need to be nervous. What do you care how I feel about it? I

Craig: do care because I love it and I want you to also.

Todd: So what, this movie came out in 2013 and Seed was out in

Craig: It was like seven years. I don’t know, but it was

Todd: long. Seven years between the two. So, I mean, I understand that, especially by 2013, there have been some really shitty horror remakes and sequels.

Right. Especially the Nightmare on Elm Street one. Uh Yes. God, like, people are a little divided on the Halloween one. The Rob Zombie Halloween one, it was It had no joy in it. It was just a very brutal and violent sort of, I think, mean-spirited kind of movie, which one could argue is perfect for displaying what should be the personification of evil.

But I, I, I, I liked it , I’m, I didn’t mind it, but I wasn’t motivated to the see the second one, and I don’t know, I think, I think a lot of people remain divided on how that one went. But anyway, so this, I can see why they needed to go in a different direction with this. Oh

Craig: Todd, I’m already disappointed. Ugh.

Because I like this movie so much. Don Mancini had wanted to do a remake. of Child’s Play for a really long time. And it was because of those movies that you just mentioned that he didn’t, because they sucked. Well, that’s not fair. I actually do like Rob Zombie’s Halloween movies. They’re different, and you’re right, they’re kind of mean spirited, but That, those are kind of the horror movies that he makes, and that’s fine.

Yeah. But like, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake, I didn’t care for at all. Like, you know, kudos to everybody who was involved with it, nice try. It just wasn’t for me. I also didn’t particularly care for the Friday the 13th remake. I just thought it was mediocre.

Todd: I didn’t even see it. No, it’s

Craig: mediocre. You don’t need to see it.

It’s, it’s, it’s dumb. So, he had wanted to make a remake for a long time, but after the, basically, the, kind of the box office failure of, of those, and, and the poor critical response that they got, he decided not to do a remake, because he didn’t think that it would be received well, and he went in this direction, and I love it, and I’m so sad that you don’t.

Because I think, because I think that it is such a cool, like, it is such a hard left turn. From the last two movies, you know, like not just

Todd: the last two, I would say everything up to this point. Maybe the first one, you know, was attempting to be something like this, but it was the eighties. Yes, yes. But then, like the second and particularly the second one.

The third one, we’re getting a more jokey, kind of fun, Chucky. And then, of course, he takes that huge lean into the comedy with the fifth, with the fourth and the fifth ones that we just finished watching. And it was just fun. It was kind of a fun romp. And by the seat of Chucky, horror was kind of a backseat to the comedy.

And so, this is very much bringing it back to these horror roots. I, uh, the point I’m trying to make is, as a movie, this is a great movie. It looks good. It’s, it’s suspenseful, it’s well paced, I think, maybe a little slow in the beginning, but well paced, and, you know, if this was the first Chucky movie that I’d ever seen, I’d be pretty impressed with it.

I think just having watched over the period of just like a week or two, you know? Yeah, I know. All of the, I was gearing up for at least a, I knew it would go in a slightly different direction, but I was gearing up for that fun Chucky that I knew, and this isn’t the fun Chucky. No. This is a mean, Angry Chucky, he barely quips in this movie, he barely talks in this movie.

He

Craig: doesn’t talk for the first 45 minutes. Yeah! Not Brad Dourif. You hear the doll Chucky voice, but you don’t hear Brad Dourif until 45 minutes in.

Todd: Yeah, and then even after that, like, there, I saw, I saw in the trivia, Brad Dourif recorded all of his lines in less than a day, and I’m like, well, no shit, there may, maybe Chucky’s got 20 lines in the whole movie, it wouldn’t have taken them that long, so, this just isn’t, and maybe I’d been used to also, he had people to play off of before, not only was he playing off of, Jennifer Tilly’s character.

Did I get it right, Tiff? Yeah, you did.

Craig: Thank God. Well, you didn’t, you didn’t actually say the name, but you got Jennifer Tilly right. Alright.

Todd: Tiffany? Wasn’t the name of her? Tiffany. Tiffany. Tiff, yeah. Yeah, so Tiff, Tiffany, the Tiffany character in the last two, they had this kind of thing, and then God, even in like the second one, he’s practically playing off of Andy, you know, I, I mean, there’s just so much back and forth.

And this one is the brutal, cold, calculated, mostly in the shadows, popping out, and then going back to doll form or just not being there at all, Chucky with the knife, and it doesn’t have the fun and the joy of the other movies, which is fine. It’s not bad. It’s just jarring. When I’ve been inundated, well,

Craig: see what you don’t like about it is specifically what I like.

about it because it, again, you have to keep in mind that we had, you know, I thought I thought the franchise, I thought the franchise was over. Like I thought it was done. I thought that seed had killed it. Like, you know, I’ve said before in previous podcasts, you know, initially I didn’t really like seed. I thought that they had leaned too far into the silliness and I just thought the franchise was over and I thought, you know, that’s fine.

It had a good run. You know, even Seed I liked it, so this came as a surprise and we didn’t know what to expect and I liked these first 45 minutes because the good guy doll looks I mean, it calls back to what, you know, it’s a pristine. When you see the first good guy doll, it’s a pristine good guy doll.

Gone are Chucky’s scars. Gone is Chucky’s scowl. We know what’s going on. We know this is a living killer doll movie. So we have these certain expectations. And the movie defies the expectations. It takes us back to part one. Like you’re not going to see the doll move very much initially. And you’re going to question what is going on because this is not our Chucky.

Our Chucky is an unhinged lunatic who just dribbles at the mouth all the time. This Chucky is still and silent and looks like a doll. And that happens for the first 45 minutes. And I had no idea what was going on. What is happening? Is this why now, after the craziness of. Seed and bride. What is happening?

And I didn’t understand what was happening and so I was very much on the edge of my seat. And then, when the coin flips, about halfway through, I was like, that was so clever. Because it is the Chucky we know and love, but you don’t find that out until much later. And this film is just shot so differently.

It is shot like A horror film. And Don Mancini said he felt like this was his first experience as a horror director because he felt like Seat of Chucky was a comedy. And this gave him the opportunity. The first, I mean, the first half is all like Dutch angles and weird lighting and I mean, it’s like Hitchcock.

Like, it’s shot like

Todd: Hitchcock. The whole movie takes place in a big gothic mansion. Right. It’s raining and thundering and lightning outside. It is Over the top like a classic Universal monster movie. Right. And I actually like that. I thought that was great. I love those movies. I like to see modern takes on it.

I’m perfectly fine with that. Yeah, it’s not like the colorful and kind of whimsical scenarios and scenes that we’ve seen in previous movies. Right. But I’m willing to go with that. That’s cool. It’s just jarring. That’s all I’m saying. It’s jarring to go from the whimsical to this. If I had had seven years in between and was hearing that they were rebooting, remaking, whatever’s going on with the franchise, and then I had been presented with this movie, I probably would have better feelings about it,

Craig: you know?

I warned you. I told you, I said, you have to go into this understanding that we had no idea what it was going to be. Yeah. And the fact I, the fact that it’s jarringly different, I think that’s the, the absolute best choice that Mancini and whoever was in charge could have made. Well, it probably is. I mean, Sure, sure.

You know, follow, you know, follow the formula, you know, yuck it up because Chucky’s funny and he is and I like funny Chucky. But, you’re coming back after so long, you’re in a whole, that’s another, such an interesting thing about this franchise is that it pops up every ten years or so, when the landscape of cinema has changed entirely.

Yeah. And if you, if you don’t come at me and surprise me somehow with this, I think you’re gonna lose me. And this one surprised me, and I liked it.

Todd: Well, I mean, it’s very true that the middle two, I guess I’ll call them the middle two Chucky movies, right? Yeah. They had a distinct sort of 90s vibe. Yeah.

Early aughts. Yeah. Yeah. But like kind of coming off of what was established in the 90s, like where everything was very meta and self referential and nobody wanted to take everything, anything horror seriously anymore. Yes. So we were playing with that. So it’s dated in that way, even though you can still watch it and it holds up just fine.

Sure. It’s fine. And this absolutely has a more modern sensibility to it. This is absolutely what the first Chucky movie would have been like if it had been made for the first time. Correct! Ten years ago. Correct! I get all that. And you know, this is what the 80s movie was trying to be, in a way. It was just Right!

80s version of this kind of movie, which in retrospect is cheesy. I’m going to get

Craig: you on board with this movie because like, you see, you know, like when the, the silly ones and I call them the silly ones lovingly, I really liked them, but bride and seed when they came out, that was so of the time. But I feel like after that things really diversified and you were getting a lot more variety in film.

Mainstream still exists, but there has been such an off branching that you’re getting more art house films and you’re getting more experimentation and right. And I feel like this followed into that trend. You know, like I’m thinking of that group of filmmakers who we talk about all the time. I can’t think of their names now, but like this movie reminds me a movie that you really liked.

Like the innkeepers. Do you remember that movie?

Todd: Oh yeah, oh god, I saw it like last month, again. The first

Craig: half of this movie gives me those kinds of vibes, like spooky, gothic, potentially like haunted kind of stuff. In Keywords is

Todd: very understated. This is way overstated. That’s true. I know what you’re saying.

I, I, you’re talking about it, it’s, it’s slow paced, it takes its time, but it’s interesting. Right. And it’s spooky.

Craig: Oh my god, I just feel like the way that it’s shot is so interesting. Nika, the main character, we’re going to get into this in a Like, immediately, but Nika, the main character, is paraplegic, and so she’s in a wheelchair.

And every time that the camera shoots from behind her at somebody else, it’s shot from her level. So you’re looking up at people. And anytime that somebody is talking to Nika, it’s shot at a sharp angle. All of the shots are really wide. It’s cinematic! It’s very cinematic. And I can’t believe this movie should have been released in theaters.

Yeah, that’s shocking. It is a crime that this movie was not released in theaters, because it deserves to be seen on a big screen. It looks Beautiful, and it’s shot in a big goth, like you already said, like a big, this big gothic mansion, like in the f ing woods. Like, that’s how the movie opens, you see this delivery van driving to this, it looks like a haunted house.

Basically or like monster house or whatever like in the middle of the woods And I immediately I made Alan watch this with me and I I turned to him and said I could live there I Want to live there bad, it’s

Todd: so Classically horror that it border. It just rides the line to parody. It’s not but it is Everything you mentioned, the extreme angles, the big wide screens, the lightning, the thunder, the color palette is practically black and white.

Yes.

Craig: Oh my god. And it’s so fantastic because the color palette is black and white that anytime anything is in color it stands out so harshly. There was one scene in this movie, I think it’s the title. It is the title. Okay, so there’s a whole pre title sequence. Which we should probably talk about. But when it finally pans to the title, like, Nika is in the background, like, way back, and she’s crying because her mother is dead.

We’ll explain why in just a second. The camera, like, pans. And everything looks like it’s in black and white. It’s not, it’s just that that’s the palette. And then it pans, and Chucky is sitting in a chair in the immediate foreground. In his colorful glory, his red hair, his blue overalls, his red and blue shirt.

And it just, it’s such a stark contrast. And then the title comes up, Curse of Chucky. Oh, Todd! I am so sad! I wanted to gush over this movie with you. You still can! I really thought that you

Todd: would love it. No, I, I don’t, I don’t think you’re hearing me. I said the movie is fantastic. I said it’s jarring.

Coming off of all of these, I mean, in a very short period of time, I’ve been riding down this path on this road with Jokey, Fun, Chucky, I’m getting into it. I’m settling down to have fun. And what I’m getting is a straight out classic horror movie that’s updated for the 2000s and made brutally violent. He acts as a guy in the mouth in one of these scenes, which is totally not any of the Chucky movies, and it shows it in all of its gory, you know, detail.

We’ve got Child mutilation. We’ve got, like, some really serious, heady stuff in here, which in a horror movie that, you know, again, If it wasn’t placed squarely in this franchise that I’ve been going down a path with this whole time, was great.

Craig: I get it. I get it.

Todd: Yeah, so, it just, I mean It just, it takes a little adjustment for me.

It wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s

Craig: so interesting because, you know, I waited forever for this. I really liked it. I thought, you know, they’re kind of going back to their roots. This was intended to be a horror movie, a legitimately scary horror movie. They’re going back to that. And I do find this movie very suspenseful and scary.

I wouldn’t say that Seed was scary at

Todd: all. No, neither was Bride. But it

Craig: wasn’t, no, but it was, there was gore and I really liked it, and I liked both of those movies, but they weren’t scary. I thought that there were legitimately scary moments in this movie. It was

Todd: like goofy gore. Like the guy’s head flying off and then his body sits down and it’s squirting blood out the top, you know, and then they’re making out in the blood.

Right. It’s goofy gore. This is not goofy gore. There’s nothing funny about

Craig: But it’s still, I mean it’s still really, like, It is gory. Like, I would argue even like, over the top kind of silly gory. In a serious context like it’s not a punchline It just so happens that this really violent stuff is going on There are so many things to talk about Another thing that I think is interesting about this movie is that it takes the story in a new direction Yes, we find out ultimately that it is connect everything’s connected, but this is a new direction We don’t know these people we don’t know What the f is going on?

Like, why is Chucky here?

Todd: Why? That’s Yeah, it’s a there’s a central mystery here. Yeah, the

Craig: whole first 45 minutes, I’m like, what is going on? What is he doing? I know who he is, and I know that, yeah, he’s acting differently than usual, but I don’t understand why. Yeah. And eventually it’s explained to you, but so it’s these new people, the central character is Nika, who is played by Fiona Doroff, who is Brad

Todd: Doroff’s daughter.

Craig: How f ing cool is that? Can you imagine being a part of a legacy with your talented, you

Todd: know, famous father, right?

Craig: You and I both have wonderful, amazing parents. So we already know what that’s like, but to have that kind of legacy. Spoiler alert, Neek is not going anywhere. She’s still around. So, like, she gets to share this with her dad.

What an amazing thing. And I said, you know, I made Alan watch this with me. He said I’d made him watch it before. I don’t remember. But he said at some point, God, she is so pretty. And she is. Yeah. At the same time, she looks just like

Todd: her dad!

Craig: So, like, take Brad Dourif and make him really pretty. She also, she plays a paraplegic in this movie, and I think that she does an excellent job of it.

And she’s just, she’s super endearing! Like, I just,

Todd: I love her. You have a lot of sympathy for this girl, but not pity, you know? Exactly, because her sister,

Craig: Barb, is I’m not allowed to say the c word, right? Her sister, Barb, is a real bitch. And she’s a total bitch. Like, I just have that Except I didn’t say the b word, I used the c word in my notes.

I just have that over and over again. Barb is, uh Not nice lady, like she’s just so nasty and she’s constantly condescending to and patronizing Nika just because she’s in a wheelchair and at one point Nika says to her I’m disabled, I’m not a child, I can take care of myself. Yeah. Which is so obvious and as the viewer we’re obviously thinking the same thing and Barb is obviously supposed to be A bitch.

Yeah. Again, that’s her only defining characteristic. The whole reason she’s there is because Nika and her mother, who is an artist apparently, live in this beautiful mansion in the woods, and one day, a cute delivery guy gives them a package and flirts with Nika momentarily, which was cute. Oh my god. Wait a

Todd: minute.

Oh my god, I know you. You do? Yeah, yeah, it was uh, City College. The psych department, right? That was me. When did you graduate?

Craig: I didn’t. I never completed my thesis. Oh, on what? Uh, Completion Anxiety. I thought only guys got that.

Todd: So is your mom home now or what? That was cute. The mom was kind of a bitch, too.

Craig: Nika’s like, was that guy flirting with me? Uh, I think so. And Nika’s like, well, maybe I should follow him. Maybe I should get his number. And she’s like, oh, sweetie, he was just being nice. What? Yeah. I know. Come on. That’s such a nasty thing to say.

Plus, again, Fiona Doroff is a beautiful woman. I’m not at all surprised that this attractive man would flirt with her. She’s gorgeous. Yeah. God. Okay. All right. So anyway, it’s a package, it’s delivered and they open it up and it is a pristine good guy doll. Now, this is one of the things that I want to talk about because the look of Chucky in this movie was very controversial and caused a lot of, a lot of fans were displeased, but it’s a pristine good guy doll.

They don’t know who it came from. And they basically are just like, well, that’s weird, and the mom throws it in the garbage. But, in the middle of the night, we see an exterior shot of the house, and we hear the mom scream. And then it cuts inside to Nika, who has been woken up by the scream, goes looking for her mother, finds her dead on the floor.

As though she has thrown herself over the banister onto the marble floor in the foyer. It was a beautiful shot, because you just see the marble floor, it’s black and white checkered marble floor. And you see the blood spreading, and as the blood spreads Nika’s reflection is apparent in the blood and I just thought oh my god.

Yeah, it’s gorgeous. This is a movie They care about what this looks like and I like it.

Todd: Oh, it’s good Serious style, yeah. Serious style.

Craig: Okay, so, I mean, where do you want to go from there? Because then, so, the mom’s dead now. Yeah,

Todd: the mom’s dead. The accident’s been ruled a suicide. Isn’t there, like, a pair of scissors?

Isn’t she stabbed, too? I

Craig: don’t remember. But it is established that she has had mental health Problems in the past and that potentially she may have tried to commit suicide. Yeah,

Todd: they they’re ruling it a suicide basically, right? So that’s what her sister Barb comes along along with her husband Barb’s husband Ian and they have a daughter Alice and a hot nanny Was she in Urban legends this this

Craig: I don’t think it was her but she looks I don’t know I don’t know what else she has been in but she does look kind of like the Nogzima girl She also couldn’t

Todd: have been she’d be too.

Craig: She was too young. Yeah, she’d be too young She also kind of looks like the blonde who makes out with the wolf and cabin at the end of the woods She’s just a very beautiful very beautiful thin Cute. Tall. I mean, she looks like a model. Yeah.

Todd: She’s, she’s stunning. Maitlyn McConnell. We might as well say her name.

Yeah, and I,

Craig: I recognize her name. She’s the stereotypical hot nanny. But they also do something really clever with this that caught me totally off guard and I had completely

Todd: forgotten. I was shocked. Because

Craig: they set it up. It’s so stereotypical the way they set it up. I don’t know that this is It’s consequential enough to worry about sequence.

They set it up that it totally looks like either the dad is f ing the nanny, or really, really wants to. Wants to, yeah. And, and maybe he does want to, who knows, but there’s this surprise, like smack in the middle of the movie, where the nanny and the mom end up in the kitchen together, and they start making out.

And I was so Uh, I just love the way that it, I’m, I feel like I’m not easily surprised. I feel like I’ve about seen it all. Yeah. And this genuinely surprised me. There

Todd: were a number of things that surprised me about this movie. You’re absolutely right. From the very beginning, you’re like, what is going on?

Because Like you said, Chucky doesn’t even speak until 45 minutes in. We have 45 minutes of just scratching our heads, going, What? Is this even Chucky? Like, what? Right! Bad things are happening, mysterious things are happening, The doll’s kind of alive, he’s speaking to the girl. So the girl, uh, the little girl Alice, she, you know, has, oh, oh, there’s a, there’s a priest there too.

Father Frank. Right. Random. Who came in to, to be the first victim, really. I knew that from the minute he came in. I was like, oh, here’s our first victim. The priest who’s here for no good reason. So they’re all in, and, and Alice, uh, is given the doll by Nika. There

Craig: is a lot of fun tongue in cheek stuff. Like this movie isn’t with Humor there’s Nico it, like you said, wants to give the daughter the doll and Barb, because she’s a bitch for no reason about everything’s like, I don’t know.

Uh, I think you already have enough dolls. And the dad Ian says, it’s a doll. What’s the worst that could happen?

It’s not without humor. There is It’s funny stuff. At another point, the dad is holding the doll and like, seeing all the things it can say. And one of the things it says is, life is short, ha ha ha. And but then it says, it says it’s classic line, like, hi, I’m Chucky, I’m your friend to the end. And the dad said, that’s a classic.

The 80s were awesome. Like, so there is tongue in cheek humor, it just doesn’t push it the way that it did in the. No, it’s not humorless. It’s almost

Todd: like Inside jokes kind of humor.

Craig: Yeah. But it’s far less, like, again, we’ve talked about this with the last two movies. With the last two movies, we said they leaned hard into the humor, and that’s fine.

We both enjoyed it. Here, they’re changing course. Yeah. They’re just leaning in the other direction. And I like it! And I like that They can get away with playing around and doing different stuff, and I’m still on board. 30 years later. Oh

Todd: my god. You’re a dedicated fan. I

Craig: am! I’m a diehard fan, apparently. Don Manini gimme a call.

Like I, like, I’ll do, I’ll do like a commentary on a documentary or something. . . I’m pr I, I feel like I’m kind of an expert. .

Todd: I’m sure he’s listening to this. Yeah. Well,

Craig: uh, yeah. I mean, his vibes out there, his people, his people will hear it.

Todd: I hear they’re big fans. Yeah, I’m sure Barb is trying to convince Nika to move out to sell the house and to take her half to live in an assisted living facility like, you know, she’s 70 years old, right? And really, it’s just about money. But Barb wants her money because apparently she’s financially doing poorly and her husband’s working at Starbucks.

Craig: Yeah. And Nika’s like, you have a livid nanny. That was one of my favorite lines. Like Barb’s complaining about how tough they have it financially. And Nika’s like, You have a livid, Nancy. Right,

Todd: and it turns out, because at one point the father asks her, So listen, how much is she paying you? 400 a week.

That’s more than I make. Like, he doesn’t know. Does this couple even talk? And she’s like, oh, like 400 a week. And he’s like, man, that’s about as much as I make. That makes a lot more sense later when you hear why. When you learn about their relationship. So, I mean Mancini is a really clever writer. I know.

One thing I have seen throughout this whole franchise is just, I’ve been blown away by how clever the writing is. It’s just really smart. Yeah. He can construct a story, even in the worst of them, you know, even in part three, I still thought the writing was really smart. You know, we had talked about how it was just, well, it’s a guy who had a very short period of time to do it, and he himself wasn’t very happy with the final result.

Right.

Craig: I, I, I think he’s about our age. I think maybe he’s a little bit older than us, but I think he’s about our age. It’s so funny being this age now because the people who are in charge of television and movies are our age. Right. And so there are so many references. Like, the soundtracks of television shows and movies that are coming out now, it’s all like 90s stuff, obscure 90s stuff, that I was super into.

Right.

Todd: You’ve gotta like, explain to the people around you, like, oh this is a reference to this thing, or whatever. Oh, I don’t have to explain.

Craig: Well, you don’t. No, right, the only person that I would have to explain it to is Alan, and he was there. So, like, I always just look at him, like when Tori Amos pops up, you know, in a contemporary television show, I just look at him wide eyed and he’s like, I know.

But that’s what I feel like this, the sensibilities and the sense of humor. I, I just feel like Don Mancini and, and again, you know, like I associate him with these movies, but I just feel like he, he gets us. I think we are the audience that he’s appealing to specifically, and it’s working for me, but yeah, so it just becomes a lot of this movie is just.

Because Chucky barely ever moves or talks. And when he does talk, it’s in the doll voice, not in the Brad Dourif voice. He just looks like a doll. So it’s a lot of just interesting angle shots at him as a doll. And it’s spooky. And they do a lot with lighting and shadow. It’s very dark in the house all the time, with the main sources of light coming from Ahem.

Like ambient light outside either. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be streetlights or just like moonlight But like beams of light coming in from high windows, and that’s oh yeah Yeah That’s how the whole thing is lit or or candlelight like they eat dinner by candlelight and like Nika makes everybody dinner She makes them chili Everything is shot as though.

This is an art film

Todd: Yeah, this, this in particular really impressed me. So, Chucky, you know, again, we don’t really see the whole thing happen. We see his hand, we see that he has poisoned one of the bowls of chili. Yeah, he’s

Craig: not entirely immobile. No, but We don’t really see him moving around, but like you said, it’ll just be, we see his arm.

Come into frame and pour rat poison into a bowl of chili. Yeah, exactly. It’s not, you’re not seeing him fully animated. For a long time. But there, but at the same time, the movie’s, at least at this point, and we may have seen, I mean, we know he’s moved before. Because he’s been in one location and then they’ve looked for him and he’s been somewhere else.

We haven’t actually seen him move. But he’s not where he’s supposed to be. I think maybe the arm pouring the poison is the first time we’ve actually seen him move. But again, we know what he’s supposed to be. The mystery is why is it different

Todd: now? Yeah, and why is it different and why is he involving himself with this family, right?

Like, what’s the point? Because we also know from the previous movie that he doesn’t care that he’s a doll anymore. He’s happy being a doll. So presuming they’re going to continue with that thread. His motivation is no longer to find some sucker to do the Aba, Dube, Damballa thing with, so. So anyway, this scene really, really impressed me.

In any movie, this scene is just golden. Now we see the very close up shots of each chili bowl being placed down. And as each one’s being placed on the table, I’m looking to see Which one is obviously poisoned and you can’t tell, this is a top down shot, and then the, the camera slowly spins, it’s a round table, and so the camera slowly spins as it comes up, and everybody one by one takes their seat at the table.

It’s just gorgeous! It’s so well shot! And then, the next scene does play a bit like a dark comedy, where we’re in on the joke. Because. We know one of the bowls is poisoned, and we’re just on the edge of our seat waiting to see who’s gonna get it. I thought it was gonna be

Craig: Girl. The kid. Yeah.

Todd: But then I was like, but that doesn’t make sense, they’re not gonna poison the girl, are they?

And then she does complain about the chili, the taste of the chili, and I’m like, oh, is it her? Really? And there are just a couple other little things that lead you to believe each person there might have the poisoned bowl. Again,

Craig: that’s another thing that I liked about it because you think, oh, that it surely won’t be the girl, but then the movie has already defied your expectations at every turn.

So you have no idea what to expect. It’s not her. Eventually the priest starts to visibly sweat and he excuses himself and leaves and then Immediately, we get another scene with cops at an accident scene and apparently the priest has had a head on accident with a family who are all dead. I had forgotten about that!

Right? Like, he killed, he killed an entire family. Or, I guess Chuckie did. This scene feels very typical to the Child’s Play series. It’s very gory, you know, there’s lots of cops in these movies. Yeah. They, they find the guy and The cops are talking about him. What happened? Lost control. He had him head on.

Probably drunk. No, no, this isn’t right. I know him. I’m in his parish. He doesn’t drink anymore. You sure about that?

Todd: He’s my sponsor.

Craig: Okay. And then they, like, the car is totally crushed, but the priest’s head, it’s like Visible? I didn’t really

Todd: understand! I don’t know what happened to the roof. Like, the roof flew off, but the hood of it got jammed way up against his neck.

Craig: I don’t know, but they’re like, he’s, he’s bleeding out, and one cop’s like, you have to get him out, and the other cop’s like, well, but we don’t know, like, how he’s injured or whatever. We can’t make that call. Yeah, he’s like, get him out! So, they pull the car apart, and the guy’s head just falls off.

And it is very gory and bloody, like, it’s, it’s still a nice. It’s R rated, horror, Chucky murder movie. All this stuff is in it, there’s just also the additional element of like, kind of the classic cloak and dagger, shadowy kind of thing going on too. Oh god. And then, okay, so then it goes back to the house, and this is at night,

Todd: and Well, it’s important that they’re watching old film strips, right?

What are they watching? I don’t remember. They’re watching like, old home movies. Oh,

Craig: right. Night! Night! That is important.

Todd: It’s very important. Yeah, it’s like some picnic or something like that. And there’s this kind of guy in the distance who gets zoomed in on, but he’s wearing dark sunglasses. He’s got long black hair.

And I think it’s, I don’t remember who it is, Barb, or maybe it’s the father. Who says something like, who’s that guy? And, uh, and, uh, Nika is like, Oh, it’s, he was a neighbor

Craig: back in Chicago. Did you notice that they retconned it

Todd: again? Moved it back to Chicago. I was happy with that. I thought it was dumb. They, they had it in Jersey.

I did too. I

Craig: did too. But it is, it’s Brad Dorff playing Charles Lee Ray, I think the first time since. The first movie, right? Yeah. Mm-Hmm. , like Brad Dwarf is in like the first five minutes of child’s play, and then you never see him again. It’s, it’s Chucky. Until this movie. Until this movie, and apparently, you know, obviously this is 30 years later, like they had to put him in like extensive hair and makeup and he doesn’t even look like himself.

lately. He really doesn’t. They do close ups, because he’s not only in these family movies, which was haunting. I, I, I, you know, I remember the first time I saw this, and I had no idea what was going on. And then they showed these home movies, and there’s Charles Lee Ray in the background. I was like, oh, f Like, like, here we, here we go.

Like, now I, I get it.

Todd: For those of us who’ve seen, you know, the other Child’s Play movies, that basically solved the mystery. Now, oh, okay. All right. So he has a history with this family. We’re just about to find

Craig: out what it is. Right. We don’t know what it is, but there’s history here. And I thought that, like, I was so excited.

I’m like, oh my God, what’s going on? Yeah. So many questions. But it was just, it was really cool to see him as that character again. And I love, you know, deep diving into backstory and lore. Yeah. Nothing that happens here contradicts anything. Oh, no. In fact, at one point in the movie, Chucky talks about all the other people that he’s dealt with.

Mm hmm. Twenty five years. Since then, a lot of The families have come and gone, the Barclays, the Kincaids, the Tillys. But, Nika, your family was always my favorite. And now, you’re the last one standing. So to speak. And the Tillys! Oh my god! I thought that was so funny!

Todd: And there’s even a shot where they’re in someone’s bedroom and you see the camera pan over and sitting on top of the Dresser is a whole bunch of photos, you know, it’s that classic shot again but there’s like a Kent military school graduation thing and next to that is a Picture of the girl, right, who helped What was this?

That’s that’s

Craig: at the very

Todd: end, right? Oh, that is the very end, shit. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, that happens, it’s at the very end. It does, it does! So we So it’s

Craig: all it’s it’s all connected! It’s linear. It acknowledges

Todd: everything.

Craig: Mm hmm. Right, exactly. Basically, over the course of the night, they don’t find out that there’s a killer doll running around for a while, but it the the mom and the nanny make out, and then they are having a very inappropriate online chat.

Todd: Oh my God. This was ridiculous.

Craig: Can you imagine? Like if you’re, if you’re cheating on your spouse, don’t video chat your mistress while you’re in bed with your spouse. And if you are the parent of nannying for, don’t video chat with them in your skimpy lingerie in the child’s bedroom while they are sleeping immediately behind you.

Todd: It’s silly because she’s, she’s either right down the hall or even right next to her in another bedroom. At first I was like, oh, she’s video chatting with her to be discreet, right? Instead of leaving the bed and the husband wondering why she’s leaving the bed. But that’s not discreet at all! All he’s gotta do is turn over and open his eyes and he’s gonna see her!

I know! It didn’t make any sense! In her underwear! It was just a way to have the babysitter away from them when shit goes down. Oh, well,

Craig: and I had in my notes My, my notes for this scene are male gaze Jill scene, like just for no reason have her take off all of her clothes and be in really cute underwear and like, she’s gorgeous.

I didn’t mind looking at her. She has an amazing body, but there, it doesn’t, come on, no need, right? She would not be in her. Little teeny panties and little teeny bra to go to bed in a strange house. Come on, come on, whatever. Okay, so she, this is funny because it’s been established long ago that there’s a bucket of water because the ceiling is dripping in this room.

And so all Chucky has to do is kick it over and it Flows into a outlet in the floor that then electrocutes the babysitter through her laptop. And I, I said to Alan, I said, that was an accident waiting to

Todd: happen.

But, you know what, I’ll give, I’ll give them some credit too. This is maybe one of the very few movies I’ve seen that gets electrocution right. You know, a lot of times when people are getting electrocuted in movies, they’re flopping all over everywhere and stuff. My understanding, when you get electrocuted, you’re frozen in place.

Yeah. And that’s what happens to her. She is just frozen there while her skin is burning and the area around her eye starts burning away. And it’s interesting because Ibarb can’t, because I think of the resolution or the darkness or whatever, she can kind of see something’s wrong, but she can’t really tell that anything’s happening.

Right. Plus the computer’s, y’know, fuzzing out on her, so. But, they couldn’t video chat, could they? Oh, I guess they have Wi Fi in there, I’m sorry. Cause the other thing you gotta understand, and I was like, what time did this take place? Cause why doesn’t anybody ever use a cell phone? It’s cause there’s, like, no service.

I guess this is way out in the middle of nowhere. Whatever. Nobody’s phone’s working. It’s a horror movie, of course they’re not. I don’t think places like this really exist anymore, but whatever. Oh

Craig: god. Okay, so a lot happens. Like, I feel like we’ve spent so much time talking about the beginning of the movie.

Eventually

Todd: Ian awakes, and he’s like, where you going? And he kind of reveals that he knows about their affair. And he placed a hidden camera

Craig: I love that! He put a nanny cam in Chucky! I love that! Because then he goes to look at the footage to, like, have evidence that she’s messing around with the nanny.

But I just thought it was funny that, for a while, they’re looking at that nanny cam footage and not surprised that it’s like running around

Todd: like I thought he was he was thinking that the girl was carrying I get that’s

Craig: what Alan said that’s what Alan said to but then it runs into the room where the girl is suddenly

Todd: it’s a live

Craig: feed yeah right God I don’t and so I don’t know so they eventually there’s a scene between there’s a scene between Nika and Barb where Barb is holding Chucky and Nika has done Research.

We forgot about this. Yeah.

Todd: She got her research

Craig: in. She does some internet research even though the phone lines are down and they have no service on their phones. Apparently

Todd: they stole the internet. The electricity is out by now too, isn’t it? God,

Craig: the electricity is out sometimes and not sometimes, like there’s a whole thing about it being out and somebody’s in the dark and then it cuts to the two, the mom and the nanny in the kitchen and there’s a light on.

I’m like, why, why is it out sometimes and not out sometimes? Chucky eventually reveals himself to Alice. It’s a dark and stormy night, and Alice puts her and Chucky under the blankets, and she says, Chucky, I’m scared. And he finally starts talking. And his face changes! Like, all of a sudden, he’s like, uncanny valley Chucky, and I don’t, like, That was weird, but she says, I’m scared, and he says, You better f ing be, or something like that.

And from that point, he’s basically Full out Chucky that we know. We’re skipping a lot and I feel bad about it. Like, there’s a very tense scene with Nika in her Victorian elevator with Chucky. And like, the lights go out and you hear a knife, but you don’t know what’s going on. And then it turns out later that she’s bleeding.

Like, Chucky had been cutting up her legs because she can’t feel it.

Todd: Mhm. Well, eventually Barb starts to I believe she’s looking for her lover, right? Yeah, I she doesn’t fully go into the room because the Chucky doll is sitting outside. I didn’t get this part. I’m like, why didn’t she walk in the room and discover the body?

But instead, she picks up the Chucky doll and goes into the attic to look for her. Why? Why did she go to the attic to look for Well, I don’t know. She can’t find her. Yeah. I don’t know. She’s looking for her or the girl. I wasn’t too clear on that. Anyway, she goes to the attic, which is just typical in these haunted house movies, right?

She goes to the attic and looks around, sets Chucky down. Is feeling his outfit and feels that there’s something in there. I I felt like she was looking for the nanny cam at first, but then she pulls out the knife that he has had hidden in there. She’s like, that’s weird. I thought, oh wow, she’s disarmed him.

No, she sets the doll down, then she sets the knife down next to him, promptly turns her back away. And then, after she comes back around, she’s looking at the doll a little more closely. Is this her? That ends up peeling a little bit? Yes. Off of his face? Yes. So, his lower lip has, it’s just a little funny.

And it’s funny because I even noticed it before she did. And, and starts to peel it off and as she peels it off we see that there is a, a rubber layer or something over his Actual face. Yes. So when she peels it away, there’s the scar. And I was like, Oh, that is so good.

Craig: I have in my notes in all caps and bold, it was a mask

Todd: all along.

Right? This is still

Craig: the Chucky we know. It’s the same Chucky. It’s the same doll. He’s got the scars. They’re just underneath. He hid them. He was covering them up. That’s why his head looked disproportionately large through the whole movie. And to be fair. With that reveal, he still looks different than he did in the last movie, um, and fans didn’t like it.

And so, for the next one, they course correct a little bit, a little bit. Not entirely, it doesn’t go entirely back to what he looked like in Seed, but closer to this. A little more gnarly. Anyway, but I loved it. I loved, loved, loved, loved, loved that reveal. And I remember the first time I saw it, I didn’t know what was happening.

And when she started peeling that away, and when I saw the scars, it was glee. Like, I was just gleeful. I’m like, oh my god, I get

Todd: it! I really liked that bit, and again, it was just shocking for me too, and it was also very exciting. Again, I really liked that bit as well, I just wish that when he had peeled the rest of it off, he looked more Yeah, fair, fair.

I wish it had been like, oh, it was a mask all along, and the Chucky still looks like he used to. You can’t have so many years of establishing your character looking like this. And then in the reboot, pull A Nightmare on Elm Street, where Freddy looks god awful in the, uh, in that

Craig: remake. Yeah, I don’t think it looks awful, but it is a deviation from what he looked like before.

He looks a little bit more polished. He looks a little bit cleaner. He doesn’t look like a 30 year old damaged doll. And

Todd: apparently that was also a stylistic choice that Mancini did. He wanted to, he’s, like, you know, we’re updating the movie. We might as well update the doll, too, to look a little bit more like, uh, the more modern, like, American Girl type dolls.

Yeah. Instead of the old, like, My Buddy dolls, basically, which is what the The previous one we’re based on and that’s a nice idea except he’s the same doll So you can’t just change the doll so drastically.

Craig: It really didn’t bother me, but I understand why some people didn’t like it I was fine with it. But then it goes, you know, pretty much, you know, now Chucky is back to his Normal self and he he kills the mom Barb like he pops one of her eyes out We said that Nika did back did research she did and at some point Chucky tells the whole story.

Charles Lee Ray was obsessed with slash in love with Nika and Barb’s mother. I got the sense that maybe that they had had a brief affair but then she had become afraid of him because he’s a lunatic and a murderer. So what we see is a flashback scene with Brad Dourif playing Charles Lee Ray. Barb is already born, but The mom is pregnant with Nika and he’s got the mom tied up like on a table.

In a

Todd: basement.

Craig: But he’s still talking to her as though like, we’re a couple and we’re gonna be together and I love you. And then, but she’s obviously terrified, but trying to not show it, not show it. And then the cops show up and he’s like, You called the cops, you bitch! How did

Todd: she do that while she was tied down?

I’m not sure. Well, she

Craig: must have, she must have called them before. I guess. I think it’s insinuated that Charles Lee Ray killed her husband. That maybe that they had had a brief affair, but then he killed the husband and she’s afraid of him now. She somehow called the cops, but he’s like, I’ll show you, you bitch.

And he stabs her in the abdomen, which we find out is why Nika is. Paralyzed! Yeah. Like, her spine was severed in utero, and that’s why she’s paralyzed. Now apparently that Chucky is no longer particularly concerned with getting out of his doll body, I guess he has nothing better to do than just settle scores with anybody that he had issues with.

So he came, and not only did he kill Nika’s mother, but he’s just gonna kill her whole family, and he basically wins!

Todd: Yeah!

Craig: I mean, there’s a lot, what are you,

Todd: I don’t know, I mean What are you gonna say? It just, there’s a lot of tense back and forth, especially with Nika, not only does she, is she paralyzed from, you know, the legs down, but she also has a heart condition, so Yes!

Craig: But she’s not Helpless. That’s what I like about this. No, she really fights. And she refuses to be helpless. And even, like, yeah, she does. She has this heart condition, and at one part her heart starts to go out. But there’s another part then where she cuts Chucky’s head off with an axe, I think, and she thinks he’s dead and it was so cute, and Alan’s sitting right next to me and Alan goes, chop it up, chop it up.

All

Todd: right, keep going, don’t stop. Because then you

Craig: see, she thinks she’s safe and you see in soft focus behind her the body get up and go pick up and put its head back on. But this

Todd: was another bit of retconning from the series because Chucky was supposed to be flesh and blood. Organic. So when he gets cut off, in this, he’s just plastic inside.

I know.

Craig: Don’t ask me, I didn’t write it! I don’t know. Ahahahahahah But, and, and at one point he, well, I mean he kills Ian, the, the dad at some point, and Yeah, that was

Todd: particularly brutal. I don’t even remember what happened. What happened? Ian’s laying back, on his back on the floor, Chuckie picks up an axe, walks over to him And then acts as, like, in his mouth?

And, uh, basically, like, separating his head, basically, the upper part of his head from his jaw. And it shows it in gory detail, like, as it happens. It’s, it was shocking. Look, I mean, you know, we’ve seen a lot of gore and stuff like that. But still, you know, this is, like, torture porn era to style gore. And I was surprised to see that in a child’s play movie.

Not that we don’t see gore. Not that we, you know, people aren’t getting killed and stabbed and whatnot. But this might be I think the most brutal kill we’ve seen in these films. Eh,

Craig: I don’t know. I mean, the series has got some pretty brutal kills, but Yeah, I don’t know, whatever. Ian, who cares? Uh, and then Chucky, like, axes Nika’s leg.

That’s what I’m thinking, I, I get that she can’t feel it, but that’s not, it’s not like that’s not any big deal. No. Anyway, whatever. He tells her the back story gleefully. And he talks about how he took care of, now it’s very vague and this comes up again later. He talks about how he took care of all those other people as though she’s just the next one on the list in this long line of people that he’s taking care of.

But we come to find out that these people are still around. It was probably smart on Mancini’s part not to get too specific. Yeah, like just give himself some options. I took care of those folks, but. Whatever, they’re still around. But she turns it back on him and mocks him. You know, you remind me a lot of Andy Barclay.

He was a whiny little bitch just like you. Did you kill him too? More or less. I killed his childhood. So you never

Todd: actually

Craig: killed Andy Barclay, did you? What? You know, it’s called completion anxiety. It’s very common in males. You are a male, aren’t you? Oh, I’m gonna kill you slow.

Yeah, no, I get that. 25 years must be the slowest murder in history. Like and she’s she’s ridiculing

Todd: him. She’s using her psychology degree. She had mentioned earlier Oh, I

Craig: completely forgotten about that. And I don’t know at some point, you know They’re they’re going back and forth about Andy and she says to him.

Let’s play mother

Todd: She gets his uh his

Craig: knife she gets his knife which is the same knife Oh God, I don’t know. Anyway, earlier in the flashback scene, the knife that he used to stab the mom’s abdomen, it looked like a toy knife, like the good guy Chucky knife from the beginning.

Todd: Oh, and, and we forgot to mention, like, uh, after he stabs her abdomen in that scene, and then it’s like the cops have shown up, he’s running away from the cops, and it turns out this was what he was running away from when he went into that toy store in the very first movie.

So it really brings everything Together! I really liked that, actually. It was, it was really smart. Right,

Craig: it makes it feel immediately connected. Like, it’s, it’s not like this is just some rando side story. Like, we, it, there’s a direct connection to the first movie. Yeah. And, God, they stick with it. Like, I, I, I can’t imagine that you’re not gonna be sick of Chucky by the time that, I mean, we’ve only got one more movie

Todd: to go.

Oh, we’re gonna kick off the series once this is done. Oh

Craig: my God, the series is done. So good!

Todd: Yeah, she’s, she was, she’s chomping at the bit to get to the series, and I’m like, wait, we’ve gotta finish watching the

Craig: movies first! Oh god, it’s so good. Okay. So, basically they fight and fight, and I don’t know what happens, Nika stabs him, but he’s not dead, and then the cops show up, and Chucky plays dumb.

Like, as soon as the cops play up, he’s just, he just goes straight back into doll mode. Doll mode, yeah. Then, it cuts to who knows how long later, and Nika is on trial for the murder of her entire family. And she is sentenced to go to a facility for the criminally insane. Chuckie is It’s on the prosecutor’s table, like as evidence, and they wheel her by, and she looks like a lunatic as she screams at him and taunts him, I’m still alive, you didn’t get me, hahahaha.

I love that she’s taunting him, like that she still has the balls to do that, but it just makes her look, it makes her look crazy. It makes her look bad.

Todd: And then, Todd,

Craig: I love this

Todd: movie so much. The ending really. Like the three

Craig: endings. The three endings,

Todd: yeah, exactly, where it was this thing, and then this other thing, and then this other thing, and I was like, oh, oh, oh!

I love how they set all this up. This, I don’t want to say redeemed it, because I told you, I did not feel bad about this movie. It just, tonally, it was different. But when they brought Jennifer Tilly back in, I was like, oh my god! Wasn’t it fantastic?

Craig: Yeah, it was. Like, it’s basically a recreation of the opening of Two!

Yeah. Where a cop takes Evidence out of the evidence depository into his car and drives away and I don’t remember if he talks on the phone or but

Todd: he did just like I got it you know you give me your make sure you got my money yeah and then

Craig: Jennifer Tilly pops up

Todd: from the back of the car seat slices him across the throat and

Craig: says they never learn and then she turns to the evidence bag and says so you Who’s next?

Like, she’s been in on this all the time! She’s, she’s helping him. And then, there’s, you see a scene where she mails him. To somebody else. Good afternoon. Three day, two day, or overnight? Overnight. It’s extremely urgent. Fragile? Surprisingly not. Approximate value? Well My mother always used to say you can’t put a price on love.

Under 250 then. Would you like to insure the package? Oh, that won’t be necessary. It protects you and it protects the recipient. I doubt that. I am just filled with glee when I see her as Tiffany. Yeah. Because she’s just so With the huge smile on her face, and she’s gorgeous, Jennifer Tilly is gorgeous, she’s got this crazy bleach blonde hair and this insane smile on her face, and it’s amazing.

And then the next ending cuts to Alice coming home from school, and she’s like, Grandma? Grandma? And the package that Jennifer Tilly had sent is there on the table, open, and uh, Chucky is just sitting there, and he tells her, he, he, she’s like, where’s Grandma? And he’s like, in the cellar, and she says, what’s she doing?

And he’s kind of like. Side eye says, nothing.

It’s so funny and he says, we’re going to play hide the soul and she’s like, Oh, okay. And he’s like, cause you’re somebody that nobody would ever expect. And then it cuts away from that and then credits and then now you’re, you’re going to have to do this because I made Alan watch this movie with. Me, and by the time, the third ending with Alice, he’s like, I’m done.

So we didn’t get to watch.

Todd: Oh, you did watch the post credit scene.

Craig: No, we did not. Wow. I’ve seen it before, but not recently. So you’re going to have to refresh my memory.

Todd: Well, you just see, Chucky has been mailed, and he shows up on a doorstep, a male, an adult male picks it up, takes it into his apartment and sets it down on the kitchen while he goes to answer the phone, he’s got cartoons playing on the screen, we see, of course I knew, I was like, this has gotta be Andy, and just in case you’re not sure, that is when we get that scene I referenced earlier, that shot that just pans across all of his pictures, and it’s got his Kent Military Academy thing, it’s got a picture of him with his mother, and You’re like, Oh, this is Andy’s house.

And that’s Andy. And then he cuts back to the container where already there’s a knife from inside, sawing it open. And I was like, okay, this is back to the Chucky I know. Right. This was so funny. And then he pops out. And turns around, but Andy is already there with a rifle pointed at his face, and he’s like, Play with this.

Craig: And it’s Alex Vincent! In his triumphant return! 25 years

Todd: later! And he blows Chucky apart with a shotgun. Yeah, it’s fantastic. But I’m not sure, like, if he transferred his body into Alice, what’s this? All right,

Craig: so this is where Yeah, I mean, it’s kind of, I’m not gonna tell you. Okay. Because we find out, we find out in the next movie.

Okay. And I’m, like, as excited as I was to talk about this movie with you, I’m almost equally as excited to talk about the next one because It changes again! Like, the next one is not this dark, gothic piece. It’s like, we’ve, we just reset. We know who Chucky is now. Again. And it follows Nika! Wow. And, and she’s put in a mental facility and that’s the next movie.

But it also does some new things that are crazy, like just so it’s gonna get crazy. Yeah. It’s, it’s gonna get

Todd: crazy. Alright, well I’m, I’m looking forward to it because now Me too. I’m, I’m, I’m getting adjusted to the new tone. You know, it was jarring, but I get it. You got to do what you got to do. You got to update him.

You got to do something different. And quite frankly, that’s what Bride was. It was something different, you know? Right!

Craig: So And I have to think that that has something to do with the staying power of this franchise. They, they stick with the core and, and they don’t They don’t retcon a lot. I know the whole New Jersey, Chicago thing, whatever, but that’s pretty insignificant.

They don’t retcon a lot, but they take it in different directions. And I think that that’s so smart, because it keeps it interesting. It’s still the franchise that I grew up with, but they’re taking it in different directions. And I just think that that’s brilliant, and I’m still totally on board. While

Todd: keeping the story consistent, like you said.

Yes. Yes. That’s really, it’s really good to be able to do that. And once again, just probably just to have that same guy involved from the very beginnings. What makes that possible? How often does that happen, you know? Right.

Craig: Don Mancini and Brad Dourif. I think Brad Dourif is essential. We’re obviously not going to talk about it.

They made a remake. You know, of the original movie, and I saw it, and it was alright as a movie, but it did not have the heart or spirit of this, and there was no Brad Dourif, and it just isn’t the same! Like, just No.

Todd: Mancini wasn’t involved. No! It’s weird, right? Why would that even happen?

Craig: Well, and like, Aubrey Plaza played the mom in it, and I love Aubrey Plaza, and she’s good in the movie.

It’s not a terrible movie, it’s just not The remake was something that nobody asked for. Like, nobody wants this. And, and, you know, I think it did okay, but fortunately not well enough to continue on, because it just didn’t matter, especially since the original franchise was still continuing!

Todd: Like, what are you doing?!

It’s weird, right? Usually the remakes come when the original franchise is dead.

Craig: Right, right. And this one is not yet. And I don’t, I don’t know, like three seasons of the series. I haven’t watched the third season. It’s available, but I haven’t watched it. Like I’m saving it. I think I’m going to save, cause Alan and I have watched each season during the Halloween season, um, every year.

And so we’re kind of saving. And, and Alan really likes the series. I, I made him watch this with me and about three quarters of the way through, I said, okay, now I know that you don’t love these movies, but I want you to be honest with me. Like compare, cause I want an outside opinion compared to like, you know, the silly ones like Bride and Seed.

How do you feel about this one just as a movie? And he said, it’s, it’s like, I like it. It’s fine as a movie. But he said. He particularly liked this one, Curse, because he said it’s already, and by it’s he means the whole thing, the whole franchise, it’s already so silly, that if it isn’t scary, It’s just lame, and that’s why he liked this one.

I really did think that this movie went back to more, leaning more into the scary than the silly. And for him, who is not a diehard fan, he appreciated that.

Todd: It’s a very perceptive comment, actually, yeah. Right.

Craig: Because it is. I mean, it is. It’s already so silly. It’s a killer dog. Dog. It’s a killer doll. If it’s, uh, yeah, if it’s, if it’s not scary, then it’s just lame.

Well, and

Todd: you’re certainly not going to wait seven years just to do more of the same. Right. Do another jokey, you know, comedy movie. So, yeah, it makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense. And it probably brings other people in who hadn’t heard of the franchise before, maybe this is their first introduction to it, they know it is a horror movie, to have it be silly again and with all the in jokes and things, it probably has wider appeal because of that, so.

It was a smart move. Like I said, just coming off of a, like a full two weeks of seeing it. I even saw Bride and, and Seed a second time. I know. So like, when you’re in that spirit, and then boom, you’re whacked with this one. It’s just like. Oh my god, that was not what I was expecting, and not what I was gearing myself up for when I popped that popcorn and, you know, snuggled up on the

Craig: sofa.

I have to say, I’m so glad we did this. I have been having so much fun talking about these movies. And I don’t know, it’s just been really fun, kind of focusing on one thing for a while. Yeah, it’s not bad. And, and again, I know the magic of podcasting, you all, you all will get these episodes over the Course of the next three weeks or whatever, but we have been recording them over the course of like a week.

So like we

Todd: Deep

Craig: living with dived it like it has been Chucky forever For us for this whole week I I’ve been super into it and I was really really worried that you were gonna burn out And you haven’t, and I’m glad, and I’m super looking forward to our, the next, the last one. The last one.

Todd: I’m really excited about it.

Yep, we’re gonna, we’re gonna just take it right into the next month, cause we gotta finish it out. We gotta finish it out with Cult. Well, thank you guys for sticking with us. If you enjoyed this podcast, please share it with a friend. If you have a friend who’s a Chucky fan, what a better way to introduce them to our podcast than by forwarding them their, our episodes that we’ve been doing.

Let them know about this month, just, uh, find us two guys and a chainsaw podcast, uh, all you need to Google to find us all over, a Facebook page, you know the drill. Until next time, I’m Todd. And I’m Craig. With Two Guys and a Chainsaw