Movie Review : "Cult of Chucky"

I will be the first to admit the Chucky movies have not always been my favorite. The first Child’s Play was good for what it was, when I saw it. Bride of Chucky for all it’s cheese was still the only sequel of note up to this point. Now fast forward to current day where I have a 7 year old little girl who likes Chucky as of all the other slashers or as she called them as a child “trick tricks” he is the most digestible to her, though she does have a fascination with Ghostface from the Scream movies, yet another horror franchise that panders to people who might not normally like horror.  So I watched the Curse of Chucky with her and noticed it was well made and I would add scarier than Cult of Chucky.

Cult of Chucky in terms of cinematic quality or eye-candy is exceeds the previous film. There a moments of camera that are quite pretty, some slow motion scene and bright vibrant blood. Yet there is never a sense of menace. I am not sure if I just could not get invested in the characters. But the stakes never felt high enough to get scared. This was an entertaining movie. It falls quite short of another retro revival in “Leatherface”, but for what it is went above and beyond in terms of technical ability. The premise of the movie, I suppose if I did spoiler alerts this would be one, is that they supernatural element is dialed up as the Spirit of Chucky and inhabit humans or multiple dolls at once. The franchise winks at itself bringing Jennifer Tilly in to reprise her role as Tiffany, though she does more in her human form.

The movie is set in a mental institution which makes most of the characters ripe for the picking. The depictions of mental illness are pretty stereotyped and I think by taking a more clinical approach they could have given the movies more depth and had you more invested in the characters. The movie instead chose to run off of the novelty in the concept. When things take a turn in the films final act, there are somethings that are not totally resolved. If it sounds like I am being harsh on the film , the truth is this movie was better than it had any right to be considering the premise and the legacy of the other films. The door was of course left wide open for yet another sequel which I would be fine with considering how well they did with this one. I would be highly suspect of anyone who puts this at the top of their horror movie of the year list, but think it certainly holds it own against things like Insidious sequels.