Seed Of Chucky (HD DVD)

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Don Mancini is an openly gay man who is also the writer and creator of the "Child´s Play" series of films. For the first four films of the "Child´s Play" series, Mancini served as writer or co-writer. For the fifth entry, "Seed of Chucky," Mancini steps behind the camera and brings a new direction to the Chucky series. Taking a page from Wes Craven´s 1994 attempt at re-invigorating his "Nightmare on Elm Street" franchise with the film "Wes Craven´s New Nightmare," and Chucky has gone to Hollywood. Mancini not only brings the real world to his series, but also uses the film as a platform to portray sexual ambiguity and the acceptance of a sexual confused child in a dysfunctional family. By taking over the directorial duties, Mancini seems to be attempting to make "Seed of Chucky" a more personal venture. This latest installment of the "Child´s Play" continues with its own ambiguity of whether or not to be a horror film or a comedy, but "Seed of Chucky" seems to be getting quite comfortable with trying to make people laugh and has given up on providing frights.

Brad Dourif returns as the voice of Chucky. Jennifer Tilly also returns as the voice of Tiffany. In this second appearance in a Chucky film, Tilly also stars as herself; an actress having a career slump and being persistently passed over for roles by Julia Roberts. When the film begins, Chucky and Tiffany are simply reproduced puppets for a feature film about the two killer dolls. Jennifer Tilly is set to play the human Tiffany. She certainly wants more out of her career, but starring in a movie about two killer dolls is the best she can muster. Away from the film´s production, Chucky and Tiffany´s son (Billy Boyd) has been forced to work in a ventriloquist show. The ventriloquist is abusive to the calm and tormented puppet boy and tries to force him to kill a rat that the boy doll would rather pet. He eventually frees himself from captivity and sets the stage for the film´s primary plotline.

When the boy appears at the production site of the fictional film "Chucky Goes Psycho," he uses a voodoo amulet to allow the spirits of Tiffany and Chucky take possession of their Hollywood replicas. The murderous pair are happy to see their son, but confused over the lack of gender exhibited by the boy. Chucky decides he is a boy and names him Glen and argues that his lack of genitalia is simply because he has not had his growth spurt. Tiffany completely disagrees and sets up a running gag by stating the puppet is actually a girl and names her Glenda. Ed Wood fans may feel free to moan and groan over Mancini´s use of the Ed Wood film "Glen or Glenda" as an important plot device in "Child´s Play" franchise. I, myself am not decided on whether or not sitting through any more "Child´s Play" movies is more painful than sitting through a marathon of Ed Wood films. So, Glen/Glenda now has a chronic problem with urinating himself, depression over not having the necessary boy parts and two murderous parents who are torn on what their expectations of him should be.

Somewhere, somehow, Chucky decides that he could use the soul of a new baby to his advantage. It could allow him and Tiffany to enter the human realm and leave their manufactured bodies behind. Or, it could serve to help Glen/Glenda be the desired sex. It´s bad enough the poor ventriloquist dummy doesn´t know its own sexual orientation, but now the parents are making matters worse and having young Glen/Glenda become a child cross dresser. Tiffany has had enough baby manufacturing and they decide they need to find a surrogate mother. With Tiffany´s obsession over the busty Jennifer Tilly, they agree that Tilly should be Chucky´s next baby machine. To facilitate this, a completely unnecessary sequence of scenes involving Chucky masturbating into a cup is introduced.

Speaking of unnecessary, a subplot involving rapper Redman is included in the film. The rapper is producing a film where a role exists that Tilly tried out for. Redman thanks her, but tells her he will go with his first choice, Julia Roberts. The sexy vixen offers herself to Redman and they end up at Tilly´s home for an evening tryst. Later in the film, Tilly states she had not gotten laid for a year and that her overly promiscuous behavior is an act. Also later in the film, Redman´s intestines are spilled on the floor when Tiffany decides to see what he ate for dinner in what is perhaps the only grisly sequence in the film. Anyhow, Tilly is taken from Redman and strapped to a bed. Tiffany takes a turkey baster and impregnates Tilly with Chucky´s… do I really have to go on with this review? You get the picture.

Anyhow, Tilly spits out twin demonic Chucky spawn in a matter of a couple of days (it is explained that voodoo babies gestate quickly). Poor Glen/Glenda must fight his own sexual ambiguity and decide if he prefers to be a boy or a girl. He must also decide if he wants to be a murderer or to be a gentle soul. Eventually, he sides with being a murderous female, which may be a statement by the openly gay Mancini that women are evil and hence, he is gay. I´m willing to side with the director that women truly can be evil and that once poor Glen/Glenda decided to become Glenda, murder was only second nature. Joking aside, Chucky and Tiffany struggle with how to be parents and Tiffany becomes the voice of tranquility, while Chucky decides that killing is fun. So by becoming a murderous wench, Glen/Glenda satisfied his mother by giving her a daughter, but satisfied dear old dad by embracing his murderous ways. A few more things happen and after an hour and a half, the movie ends.

There were a few things I found to be humorous in this latest and most wretched Chucky film. Mancini has introduced a number of pop culture references that were nicely done. Seeing Britney Spears (Nadia Dina Arigat) plow into flames with Chucky offering up the one-liner "Oops, I did it again" was funny in a cheesy way. See Chucky hack through a door with an axe and give a perfect facsimile of Jack Nicholson´s iconic "The Shining" moment and then stating "You know, I can´t think of a thing to say. F2k it." was also priceless. Although I moaned at the continual stream of Julia Roberts jokes, I´d much rather see Tilly than Roberts in nearly any film. The pushup bra joke was perfect as well. The Ed Wood references were mildly humorous and it does take somebody with a little film knowledge to appreciate that particular reference. John Waters´ cameo was a nice touch and one could say that Mancini borrowed a little from Waters in the making of this film. However, in this one little paragraph I think I´ve covered all of the redeeming qualities of the movie.

Mancini does deserve a little credit with trying to infuse the topics of sexual orientation, ambiguity and broken families into a film. However, trying to do so in a "Child´s Play" movie just felt wrong. People typically went to cineplexes to watch Chucky slice and dice innocent victims. They didn´t come to see Pinocchio debate whether or not he wanted to wear a dress or pee standing up (which he routinely did when frightened or made uncomfortable). "Child´s Play" is not exactly a forum for films depicting parental abuse or poor parenting. These are wonderful topics and I applaud Mancini for trying something differently, but I feel he would have been more at home making a sequel to "Glen or Glenda" with these topics than he would have been forcing "Glen or Glenda" into a former horror franchise. Should I kill? Should I wear a dress? Should I be a boy? Should I not harm people or furry animals in any manner? These are great questions, but not for a Chucky´s spawn to be asking?

The first entry in this franchise was a slasher film. It was designed to scare its viewers. Since that first outing, Chucky has come up with Freddy Krueger syndrome and finally come full circle by heavily borrowing from "Wes Craven´s New Nightmare." Every film has consistently gotten sillier and less frightful. There was hardly a moment to even feel a scare might be coming. Sure, the acidic face burning, decapitation, dismemberment and disembowelment were not the prettiest things to see, but they were hardly frightening and with so many other films featuring gore and spooks, the blood and guts lacks any impact in "Seed of Chucky." About the only frightening sequence was watching John Waters make comments while Chucky was filling up a cup with baby juice. And I apologize with that horrendous play on words.