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Chucky TV Series |OT| "An angsty queer drama with just the right amount of doll-murder" (currently at 100% RT)

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CloseTalker

CloseTalker

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Oct 25, 2017
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I am a card-carrying member of the "Child's Play/Chucky is actually the most consistently creative horror franchise of all time" club. Don Mancini created the franchise, and has been the shepherd of it for every entry except the notably very poor 2019 reboot. After Seed of Chucky over-indexed on the comedy weirdness that Bride almost perfected, Mancini took a few years off and did his own soft reboot of the franchise with Curse of Chucky in 2013, which brought the series back to its horror roots with a tight, fun "monster in the house" movie. He then swung big with Cult of Chucky in 2017, a movie that kind of needs to be seen to be believed, but is a love letter to fans, and the franchise in general. Not every movie has been incredible, but almost every Chucky movie that Dan has been a part of has genuinely swung for the fences, and tried to build on the lore of the universe while keeping the idea fun, fresh, and entertaining. I fucking love these movies.

Mancini was famously left out of the 2019 reboot altogether, and it shows. The movie didn't get what made Chucky a fun monster, changed his origin to be some lame rogue AI, and the less said about the redesign the better.

However, while they went and made that awful movie, Mancini went his own way and started work on a Chucky TV series. I never really knew what to expect from this, a horror TV series based on this property doesn't exactly sound like a great idea, but Don Mancini has well earned my trust at this point. Reviews have started to drop, and I can't fucking wait.

Polygon: an angsty queer drama with just the right amount of doll-murder
Slant: Chucky walks a fascinating tonal tightrope as a funny, absurd series that engenders sympathy as well as shock.
Slashfilm: The TV series feels both different enough to seem like a fresh start while remaining referential to what came before.



For anyone who has watched up to Seed of Chucky and fell off, I HIGHLY recommend watching Curse and Cult of Chucky. Both are really clever, fun films that take the franchise in fun directions while somehow also building on what came before. And then watch this TV show, since apparently it's surprisingly good!
 
Fat4all

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CloseTalker said:
you're damn right.
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Prompto

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Never watched the movies but I've heard enough positive impressions on Twitter to want me to check it out
 
Forsaken82

Forsaken82

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Don't know if I'd call the 2019 remake as "notably very poor". It reviewed better than Child's Play 2, 3, Bride and Seed, and ended up being an OK slasher film, regardless of the shameful cash grab that it ended up being.
 
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CloseTalker

CloseTalker

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Forsaken82 said:
Don't know if I'd call the 2019 remake as "notably very poor". It reviewed better than Child's Play 2, 3, Bride and Seed, and ended up being an OK slasher film, regardless of the shameful cash grab that it ended up being.
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I would absolutely call it notably very poor, but I'm glad you got some enjoyment out of it
 

Shroki

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Prompto said:
Never watched the movies but I've heard enough positive impressions on Twitter to want me to check it out
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SteveWinwood said:
I've never seen a Chucky but boy does your write-up make me wanna give it a try.
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Man... what are you even doing with your lives?

For real, though. Child's Play is a classic movie that's one decision away from being one of the tippy-top best horror movies of all time. Child's Play 2, Bride of Chucky, Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky are all either good or at least are really fun.

It's worth it.
 
SolidSnakex

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HStallion said:
The show is a direct sequel to the movies so it might be a good idea to at least read a wiki if you can't catch the movies.
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Dead Meat's Youtube channel has also done a Kill Count of all of them where they give an overview of the story for each movie. So that might be a better way to consume the setup. The videos are only 12-16m a piece.
 
HStallion

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SteveWinwood

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Shroki said:
Man... what are you even doing with your lives?

For real, though. Child's Play is a classic movie that's one decision away from being one of the tippy-top best horror movies of all time. Child's Play 2, Bride of Chucky, Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky are all either good or at least are really fun.

It's worth it.
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I think it's really interesting how seemingly all horror franchises have this thing, where the first one is genuinely good or at least interesting and then you can just see the them fall off a cliff in quality with each sequel. So the praise in the op about consistent creativity really perked my ears.
 
Fuu

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Haven't watched any of the movies (I was afraid of Chucky when I was little rofl), but this thread made me interested in the show. I'll check it out.
 

Shroki

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SteveWinwood said:
I think it's really interesting how seemingly all horror franchises have this thing, where the first one is genuinely good or at least interesting and then you can just see the them fall off a cliff in quality with each sequel. So the praise in the op about consistent creativity really perked my ears.
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There are definitely bad Chucky movies (Child's Play 3 and Seed of Chucky), and Child's Play 1 is definitely the best movie. So there's a lot of that with Chucky, too.

But Chucky has rebounded a couple of times now and I think it's because creator Don Mancini has been captaining the ship the whole time.
 
Fat4all

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the writing/production credits on this seem great

you have the main Child's Play writer and later-series director involved, both he and other producers/writers worked on Hannibal, and yet another wrote/produced on 90s Twin Peaks
 
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CloseTalker

CloseTalker

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I'd put Childs Play 2 above the original any day. It moves at a much better clip, Andy is a better actor and in a more interesting situation as a character, and the final act in the factory is an all-timer.
 

SFenton

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Nov 10, 2017
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Forsaken82 said:
Don't know if I'd call the 2019 remake as "notably very poor". It reviewed better than Child's Play 2, 3, Bride and Seed, and ended up being an OK slasher film, regardless of the shameful cash grab that it ended up being.
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*Having never seen another Child's Play movie* - but I watch a lot of horror and movies in general- I agree, I had fun with it, even if it felt a little plug-and-play into the "horror, but with kids! Like Stranger Things!" angle. I'd watch another, at least.

That said, this isn't the first time I've heard high praise for the later Chucky movies, so it may be high time I get around to them.
 
Dandy Crocodile

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Been waiting for this since the end of Cult.
Child's Play franchise is my favorite slasher series and I'm SO ready for this.
 
SolidSnakex

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SteveWinwood said:
I think it's really interesting how seemingly all horror franchises have this thing, where the first one is genuinely good or at least interesting and then you can just see the them fall off a cliff in quality with each sequel. So the praise in the op about consistent creativity really perked my ears.
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Nightmare is probably the odd one out here. The original is definitely well received, but I think Dream Warriors is generally seen as being the best. New Nightmare is up there as well.
 
plagiarize

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SFenton said:
*Having never seen another Child's Play movie* - but I watch a lot of horror and movies in general- I agree, I had fun with it, even if it felt a little plug-and-play into the "horror, but with kids! Like Stranger Things!" angle. I'd watch another, at least.

That said, this isn't the first time I've heard high praise for the later Chucky movies, so it may be high time I get around to them.
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The Chucky franchise is great. They aren't all hits, but they *go places*. Like, Curse of Chucky is a fantastic horror movie I'd recommend to anyone even if they've never seen another film in the franchise. Same for Bride of Chucky. Cult is gonzo if you enjoy that sort of thing (and I do). Seed? Holy hell Seed is an amazing mess of a movie that I love love love. Yeah, tonally it is as far removed from horror as you can get... but it's got such a bonkers cast and such a bonkers plot that yeah, sure lost most people.

But not me. It's so audacious, and it's why we have the situation with Tiffany which...

Still has Jennifer Tilly playing herself possessed by Tiffany in this same show.

If that isn't your cup of tea, I get it. But yeah. It's such a fun horror series and definitely one that is woefully underrated, dare I say partly because of how delightfully queer the whole thing is.
 
Zutrax

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SteveWinwood said:
I think it's really interesting how seemingly all horror franchises have this thing, where the first one is genuinely good or at least interesting and then you can just see the them fall off a cliff in quality with each sequel. So the praise in the op about consistent creativity really perked my ears.
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Nah, Friday the 13th I genuinely feel has the weakest first film that happened to hit it big in it's day causing it to become what it is. The best F13th films are generally considered to be the 4th or 6th ones. (personally I'm in the 6th being best camp)
 
plagiarize

plagiarize

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Anyway, the end of Cult of Chucky is really similar to the end of Hannibal series 2 in a number of ways, so I'm glad we're finally getting the next chapter. It always felt like the set up for something else, and it leading into a TV series was talked about right when it came out. Finally...

Here we go.
 

SFenton

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Nov 10, 2017
646
plagiarize said:
The Chucky franchise is great. They aren't all hits, but they *go places*. Like, Curse of Chucky is a fantastic horror movie I'd recommend to anyone even if they've never seen another film in the franchise. Same for Bride of Chucky. Cult is gonzo if you enjoy that sort of thing (and I do). Seed? Holy hell Seed is an amazing mess of a movie that I love love love. Yeah, tonally it is as far removed from horror as you can get... but it's got such a bonkers cast and such a bonkers plot that yeah, sure lost most people.

But not me. It's so audacious, and it's why we have the situation with Tiffany which...

Still has Jennifer Tilly playing herself possessed by Tiffany in this same show.

If that isn't your cup of tea, I get it. But yeah. It's such a fun horror series and definitely one that is woefully underrated, dare I say partly because of how delightfully queer the whole thing is.
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Kind of sounds like if I dug the weird and wacky and dumb shit that was happening in Malignant (and I very much did) this'll be right up my alley but even wackier.
 
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