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Twenty-five years after Chucky first appeared on our screens in Child’s Play, the murdering psychopath, red-headed doll makes a return to his sinister side. The last couple of outings have turned Chucky from a horror franchise into a more comedic one, due in part to the Jamie Bulger murder being linked to the movies, it was no wonder Chucky needed to reinvent himself if he were to keep on stabbing. But now, we go back to his roots, his face has been given a makeover and so has his attitude.
From out of nowhere a mysterious package arrives for housebound and confined to a wheelchair Nica (Fiona Douriff), it’s a creepy looking doll. The next day, Fiona finds her mother dead in the drawing room. Distraught, her family arrive for the funeral, her sister Barb, her husband Ian, their daughter, Alice and their nanny Jill. Over the course of the evening the family dynamic shifts as tensions begin to rise over what is best for Nica’s wellbeing, all the while, the doll Chucky works his twisted way into Alice’s head and the family members begin to die, one by one.
Any horror aficionado will be familiar with the plot, it’s been done before and the standard scares are there. The lifeless doll, seemingly innocent, springing to life to attack. The trapped heroine with no where to go, hunted by the pint-sized enemy. It’s a familiar formula and there is nothing really new to add to the mix, but it is a return in tone that is very welcome.
The plot goes back and explores Charles Lee Ray a little more in a dramatic pre-murder monologue. This time it’s not just mindless killing on the agenda, we learn why Chucky has picked this particular family and whilst it’s a little groan-worthy, it’s capped off with a fun cameo no one expected.
Welcome back Chucky. Over the past twenty five years we’ve seen the franchise can succeed at both comedy and horror, the latter probably the more successful. With the open-ending we were left with, it might not be the last time we see this Good Guy kill.