Bride of Chucky (1998) review

16. Bride of Chucky (1998)

Directed by: Ronny Yu

Produced by: David Kirschner, Grace Gilroy

Screenplay by: Don Mancini

Starring: Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, Katherine Heigl, Nick Stabile, John Ritter

By the mid 1990s, there was very little success in the slasher genre; audiences had grown tired of the killer antics of Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, etc., so the box office returns were less than promising. But when Wes Craven’s postmodern hit “Scream” came out, it started a different kind of craze; the movies had to be self-aware and have a wry sense of humor. 1998 saw Michael return with a solid entry in “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later,” and it also saw Chucky (Brad Dourif) make a comeback after the lackluster “Child’s Play 3,” with the new “Bride of Chucky,” which was promoted with an appearance from the titular character on “WCW Monday Nitro” as a heel. This is the first time Chucky is presented as the main character, dropping Andy Barclay’s storyline and allowing the plot to unfold from his point of view. The result is a product that’s at times very enjoyable, at times very tedious, but ultimately satisfying for what it introduces: as the tagline indicates, Chucky gets lucky.

The film opens some time after the last one ended, with Chucky literally in pieces; but his dismembered parts are obtained via police bribery by Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly), his former lover and accomplice. She crudely stitches and sews his doll body back together and resurrects him via voodoo spell; but when he snidely quells her marriage expectations, she tauntingly keeps him in a playpen with a bride doll to keep him company. Then Chucky escapes, kills Tiffany, and transfers her soul into the bride doll; still wanting out of his Good Guy form, he plans to get them all the way to New Jersey, where his human body lies with a mystical amulet—not true if you’ve seen the first film, but whatever—that can make them human again. So they contact Tiffany’s neighbor Jesse (Nick Stabile), who’s hoping to get out of town with his girlfriend Jade (Katherine Heigl) against her horrible Police Chief Uncle Warren’s (John Ritter) wishes, and gets him to drive them there, hoping to possess their bodies in the process.

There are some new concepts for horror franchises that work, and some that don’t work. Casting Jennifer Tilly as Chucky’s murderous ex is a terrific decision; she fits so naturally into this setting, it feels like she’s been there since the beginning. Tiffany only shows more dimensions through each later installment, but in this case, the first half of the movie when it’s mostly just her and Chucky together has the most enjoyable scenes. She believes in love and happiness, but is still very much a sadistic bitch, often giggling with excitement at scenes of carnage, and her doll design is just as cool as her off-the-wall personality. Chucky himself has a new gruesome look, and the effects this time really go well with the designs; the kills are more memorable, especially when Tiffany smashes a hotel ceiling mirror, causing it to rain shards of glass on a con artist couple lying on a waterbed. Okay, the CGI looks a little fake, but the way it’s shot and edited helps give it a really creative look.

Unfortunately, just about anything that doesn’t inherently focus on Chucky or Tiffany kind of sucks. Watching this movie again, I was reminded how much I really hate Jade and Jesse’s relationship; it doesn’t start that bad—they want to be together, Warren resorts to really corrupt methods to keep them apart, so they decide to run away—but what should’ve been a fun little star-crossed lovers story is anything but, with them literally accusing each other anytime something goes wrong. In a whirlwind mindset, they actually get married, and immediately regret it and stick to the blame game; this is just one of several stupid and irresponsible situations they find themselves in. It’s not funny, sweet or even that tragic; it just leaves me longing for something like “Return of the Living Dead 3,” where yes, the couple had a dumb, illogical escape plan, but you didn’t doubt that they loved each other. Also, isn’t Jade supposed to be 17? Why are they being propositioned by the couple at the hotel? The acting for them is actually okay—that’s Katherine Heigl as Jade in one of her early film roles—but the characters never become likeable.

The self-referential humor ranges from obvious to kind of clever; Tiffany’s death scene is spliced with footage of “Bride of Frankenstein,” which she’s watching on TV, and is a great sequence in general. The opening scene in the police evidence room features Leatherface’s chainsaw, Michael and Jason’s masks, Freddy’s glove, and even the mysterious crate from “Creepshow.” The moment Chucky rotates his head around feels like an homage to “The Exorcist,” Warren’s face getting impaled by nails makes him look like Pinhead from “Hellraiser,” and Chucky even acknowledges that his story would take three or four sequels to tell properly. Oh, and just to add to the bizarre nature of these storylines, there’s a scene where the Chucky and Tiffany dolls have sex, done mostly in silhouette, and it leads to…well, we’ll get to that later. Some of these choices are a little distracting, but the overall vibe mostly fits, and it’s complemented by a soundtrack consisting of mostly punk and heavy metal rock by Blondie, Judas Priest, Rob Zombie, Monster Magnet and Slayer.

In my opinion, some of the problems with “Bride of Chucky” have mostly to do with director Ronny Yu, who I feel is better at directing settings and props than actors; he would go on to direct “Freddy vs. Jason,” which had great action and gore but bland characters. Some of these performances and dialogue really don’t work, especially the exchanges with Officer Norton (Michael Johnson), who Jade and Jesse refer to as “Needle Nose,” although I think it’s funny how they use marital role callbacks to turn Chucky and Tiffany against each other to their advantage. In the end, I think the good of this movie outweighs the bad, even if the climax is pretty lame and there are a number of moments that leave me performing the “wrap it up” hand gesture. The whole appeal is Chucky and Tiffany, and that in some crazy, messed-up way, they really are meant for each other; Don Mancini even described them like “Barbie and Clyde” or “Natural Born Killer Dolls,” and I think if there was even more focus on that, or maybe if Jade and Jesse’s storyline felt like clear satire, it could’ve been much better, but it’s still a fun time for what it is.

My rating: 6.5/10