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.

Movie Review : "It"

Friday night my daughter and were talking about what her mom was going to do I told her she was going to go see “It”.Because 7 year olds know everything My daughter replied “No she is going to see a movie about a scary clown. I then tried to explain to her what the title of said scary clown movie was . But if you are wanting to see a movie about scary clowns you might be better off with the current season of American Horror Story. As “it’ doesn’t limit itself to just being about a scary clown and the bigger more sinister picture is well painted . itself among the some of the better Stephen King adaptations to film, this movie falls short of the Shining or the Mist in terms of scares , but has a lot of heart.This is only the first chapter so if you go in wanting to for them to return to Derry as adults then you better stock up on pop-corn and wait for the next movie. Generally speaking I think the director nailed the personalities of kids. This was the studio putting a ton of faith in a director whose other work “Momma” was luke warm. This film does a better job than the Tim Curry tele-vision miniseries. The big question you are really going to ask here is how does Pennywise stack up?

So you are asking Bill Skarsgard to stuck up against Tim Curry. If you strip away any cgi that was augmenting Skarsgard’s performance and kept it do who delivered their lines better than Curry would win.This also outline’s one of the movie strengths that blows the nostalgia horror fans are known for hanging onto out of the water. That is no saying we need to re-make “The Exorcist” of “the Shining” with today’s effects. In fact since this was originally a made for television mini-series and not a full length theatrical release then technically it’s not a remake. So it’s 2017 and has a bigger budget than the televised version, so it looks better. This is not just from a effects perspective there are some well placed shots, most of these you have seen in the trailer. Though a few like right before Pennywise starts dancing in his lair, so effective.

Pennywise never goes full out bug in this version, just like we are once again not shown the kids giving it to Beverly in sewer, I think that is something you can only see in Second Life. The sexual tension was more present. Not just with the kids, but a few of the townspeople and her father. Much like the lesson Joss Whedon taught us in Buffy that highschool is a terrifying place. The early adolescent world of these kids is just as scary as anything they encounter in the sewers. So it is much truer to King’s vision in this regard. I think the maniacal head shaking charge we see repeated by Pennywise was the only part of the movie I did not like, though the inclusion of the Wolf-man the protagonist sees in the book would have been a nice touch but perhaps Universal had too tight a reins on those rights. I haven’t read the book since it’s release in 1986. But the impact the book had still made me able to weigh it against the film and able to chant”he thrusts his fist against the posts, and still insists he sees the ghosts” which could have been given a little more context. So even the overblown drama of the Hollywood moments was not able to diminish the films entertainment value. If you are a horror fan you might find it lacking in the scares department, but it’s still a fun ride for Stephen King Fans.