Reviewed by Chris Risdal, MoreHorror.com
After ‘Child’s Play 3’ fell short at the box office, writer/creator Don Mancini felt the series was in a serious need of an overhaul and the result is something that’s better than ‘3’ but leaves the series down a road of self parody that eventually fizzled out the series for 8 years (Thank God for ‘Curse of Chucky’).
‘Bride of Chucky’ begins a few months after the last installment, in which Chucky (again played by Brad Dourif) was chopped to bits. His former flame (played wonderfully by Jennifer Tilly) steals his remains from the evidence locker of the police station. She stitches Chucky back together and recites the ol’ voodoo chant, bringing him back to life once again. When Chucky’s girlfriend (named Tiffany) finds out he had no intentions of being with her, she locks him up and mocks him. This leads to Tiffany now being in the body of a doll as well and the only way to return to human form is to do the same ol’ same ol’ with some new kids (Nick Stabile and Katherine Heigl).
While the story may sound like the same scenario of Chucky wanting a human body again, surprisingly putting Tiffany into the scenario and having Andy be absent this time around (though he is missed) works well for the film and breaths some fresh air into the franchise. The film itself downplays the horror and goes more for black comedy, which works well enough even if some ideas fall farther down the scale than others (doll sex anyone?) The cast all does much better than I would have expected from a film like this. Dourif of course, is always great as Chucky and Jennifer Tilly’s Tiffany fits her like a glove.
And while I said the other cast does better than in most films like this, I have to say the main couple Jade and Jesse (Stabile and Heigl) are both quite annoying at times, however this can be forgiven since ‘Bride of Chucky’ isn’t really about them now is it? A notable cast member is John Ritter in the role of a heavy, which is a nice twist and you really learn to hate him.
‘Bride of Chucky’ may not be the ‘Child’s Play’ film that everybody wanted after three, but it’s certainly not a bad film, in fact it’s a great movie to show at a Halloween party. It’s silly, it’s gruesome, and it’s not for everyone, but I enjoyed ‘Bride of Chucky’.
Overall Rating: 4 bloody Hatchets out of 5