In RFMC’s “All Dolled Up” series, I’m taking my first journey through the seven original films, one reboot film and one TV series of the “Child’s Play/Chucky” franchise. Spoilers follow.
Overall impressions
Creator and showrunner Don Mancini patterns “Chucky” Season 1 (2021, USA/SyFy) after “Hannibal” and “Cobra Kai.” The former in the sense of crafting a non-mystery “mystery” (we know Chucky’s the killer, but it’s fascinating to see if the authorities will ever realize this) and the latter for the thrill of old movie characters popping up in the TV series.
Unfortunately, he’s not armed with the same caliber of actors or writers. The adult performers are fine, but the three lead teen boys – Jake (Zackary Arthur), Junior (Teo Briones) and Devon (Bjorgvin Arnarson) — are such single-expression actors that I come close to wondering if they are AI creations.
“Chucky” Season 1 (2021)
USA/SyFy, 8 episodes
Creator: Don Mancini
Stars: Zackary Arthur, Brad Dourif, Bjorgvin Arnarson
The writing features massive logic holes. A teacher is arrested for Chucky’s murder spree but we never see any evidence against her. Junior is suddenly talking to Chucky and under his manipulative influence when in his previous scene he didn’t believe the doll was alive. Yes, it’s a surprising twist, but it’s unearned.
“Chucky” might be the most objectively shoddily written TV show I’ve ever thoroughly enjoyed. We get that classic October mood. Mancini is not afraid to kill off anyone (a sharp contrast to the newer “Scream” films), leaving the three main boys parentless and the lead girls, Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) and Caroline (Carina Battrick), down one parent. Indeed, “Final Destination’s” Devon Sawa plays a pair of brothers, are they are both killed off. On paper, this is brutal, although “Chucky” doesn’t have much time to wallow in emotions.
Best of all, Chucky is a consistently delicious villain, a combination of Brad Dourif’s vocal performance and CGI effects that are even better than the most recent movies. Not to mention a neat trick where Fiona Dourif plays Charles Lee Ray in 1980s flashbacks, with Brad’s voice overlaid.
Outsider status
LGBTQ people. Jake and Devon are gay and in a budding romance. Tiffany-in-Jennifer-Tilly’s-body (Tilly) is bisexual, perfectly content with Charles possessing the body of Nica (Fiona Dourif).
Autistic people. Caroline is a rare and excellent portrayal of an autistic savant child. We equally see her brilliance (an incredible drawing of Chucky) and her qualities that could seem annoying, such as her random screaming for her doll and her sudden switches in interests-of-the-moment.
Comedy quotient
80 percent horror, 20 percent comedy. The TV series naturally feels more leisurely than a tight movie, and there’s a sense – sort of like “Cobra Kai,” although not as well done – that morphing a goofy film series into prestige TV (with the old actors popping up) is inherently ridiculous and fun. Still, Chucky’s kills come fast and furious; this is not a slow burn.
Magic and the dolls
Following from “Cult of Chucky,” Chucky can essentially do a Voldemort and split his soul into other Chucky dolls, although he’s not limited to seven and all of them are equally Chucky. He possesses dolls originally named Tommy and Billy at various points. I think a numerical limit might’ve helped define both the villains’ and heroes’ goals better.
A related spell from “Cult” has also allowed him to possess Nica, although this possession is unstable; sometimes Chucky is at the fore, sometimes the paraplegic Nica. When it’s Chucky, the body’s legs work. A throwaway line explains that Chucky can possess one human at a time.
A whole truckful of Chucky dolls is in play at the end of Season 1, but quick expositional dialog about voodoo explains that they aren’t fully possessed by Chucky yet. In order for that to occur, one of the kids needs to turn totally evil. This almost happens with Jake and Junior, but not quite.
Special effects
The CGI animators do their most impressive work of the saga. Between this and Brad Dourif’s voice work, Chucky is easily the show’s best character/performance. Though not exactly special effects – more like traditional effects – it should be noted that it’s pretty neat how other actors (Fiona Dourif, in fact) play the younger Charles Lee Ray and Tiffany and Brad Dourif and Tilly do the voices. It’s almost a giallo effect; a little cheesy, but it fits with horror traditions.
“Chucky” skimps on its budget in other areas. For example, an exploding house will be shown at a distance; there will be no close-up sense of any damage. The makeup work for the kills is solid, though.
Best kill
In a closing monolog, Chucky announces his season kill tally is 21, so it’s tough to choose. I’ll select one not for violence or gore but for a brilliant surprise in character building. In a flashback to 1965, young Charles is presumably hiding from a robber-killer in the closet with his mom. When the villain opens the door, we see Charles has killed his mom; he’s been a psychopath since birth and the criminal killing his dad served as a teaching moment, not as a scary event. Chilling.
Best one-liner
“Whee! Whee! Whee!” Chucky exclaims in childlike glee as he’s used as a bludgeon by Junior on his dad, Logan.
References and meta commentary
One episode patterns itself after “Cape Fear,” specifically the De Niro version, and another after the original “Frankenstein.” Film-noir nerd Devon (I love the large posters in his basement bedroom) does a podcast on Hackensack, N.J., crimes — although we never hear it, and indeed no crimes other than Chucky’s depredations are referenced, so maybe he has put the ’cast on hiatus while he himself is targeted. A character podcasting about crimes follows “Scream: The TV Series” and happens in parallel with the debut of “Only Murders in the Building,” and of course all of them tie in to the real-world true-crime podcast boom.
Continuity and predictions
Season 1 fleshes out Charles Lee Ray’s backstory as a born psychopath and we see the early stages of his relationship with Tiffany via the giallo style of one actor doing the physical role and another doing the voice. Rather clunkily, we learn (if I’m getting this right) that the truckful of Chucky dolls could become a murderous army if Chucky can get one of the teens to fully embrace killing. This doesn’t happen in Season 1 so presumably it will be Chucky’s goal going forward.
Tiffany is also still out there, along with poor Nica, who has to share her body with Chucky and has now had her limbs chopped off by Tiffany in a particularly “Hannibal”-esque revelation (though admittedly goofier and hard to believe here).
Season 1 delights us with the return of Andy (Alex Vincent, who cameoed in “Curse” and “Cult”), who owned the first possessed Good Guy doll way back in 1988’s “Child’s Play,” and his foster sister Kyle (Christine Elise) from “Child’s Play 2.” They pose as census workers and go around the country killing Chuckys.
As with “Cobra Kai,” a viewer is now encouraged to think about who else could pop in from the movies. This might be an odd pull, but how about De Silva (Perrey Reeves), Andy’s almost-love-interest from “Child’s Play 3” and that movie’s best human character?