Curse of Chucky is the sixth installment in the Chucky/Child’s Play franchise, it’s the first movie in the series to be direct-to-DVD, and aside from Chucky it features an entirely new cast of characters, distancing itself from the rest of the series. Reading all of that, you may be thinking that this movie is probably shit. I know I had assumed the same thing. However, believe it or not…this is actually a really good movie. Curse of Chucky may be the best movie in the franchise, and if not it’s definitely close.

The movie starts by introducing us to a new main character, Nica (who is played by Fiona Dourif, the daughter of the actor that voices Chucky!), who is a wheelchair-bound woman living with her mother. One day, a package gets sent to their house. Inside the package is the Chucky doll, which neither seem to be familiar with. Needless to say, one day Nica’s mother ends up dead, and so the rest of Nica’s family is called over to take care of things. However, problems arise when Chucky starts picking them off one by one. It still is the standard slasher plot, but it works really well here.

Perhaps the reason Curse of Chucky is so good is because it re-invents the franchise. The first Child’s Play movie was actually a straight-up horror movie, not really featuring many of the comedic elements that future installments did. Curse of Chucky takes the series back to its horror roots, delivering a movie that prefers to build scares over comedic one-liners. Obviously, if you were one of the people that preferred the goofier Chucky movies, then this one might not be for you. I personally loved the movie’s style and tone though, so I was thankful for the change, especially after a movie like Seed of Chucky was just plain stupid. There were legitimate moments where I jumped or was grossed out, and I was happy to see that.

The movie does a surprisingly good job at building tension. The best example of this is actually early on, so I feel comfortable talking about it without feeling like I’m spoiling anything. Basically, Nica makes dinner for all of the people at her house. Chucky goes to put rat poison in their bowls, but is only able to get it in one of them before Nica walks back in to take the bowls out. What follows is a dinner scene where six people are all eating together, and we’re not sure who has the bowl with the rat poison in it. This is a very tense scene, and the movie ramps this up by providing moments like uncomfortable close-up shots of eating, or having people say things like “this tastes funny……….it must need more salt.” It leaves you constantly guessing who has the bowl, and so I appreciated a scene like this for building suspense.

Of course, the movie does also deliver on the gruesome kills too. We get to see Chucky do things like stab someone in the eye or electrocute them. I actually did cringe a few times, and I have a pretty high tolerance for this stuff. The movie is shot in a way where you really feel the impact of these things. I also even felt that while having shots of Chucky’s face, which looks a lot different in this movie. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the re-design at first, but it actually looks pretty creepy.

All in all, I thought Curse of Chucky was great. I felt like the series needed a good reboot, and this was it. While it’s mostly distant from the rest of the franchise, it does tie everything together in the end in a weird way, so if you’re someone that’s looking for continuity then it is there. The only way I can see a Chucky fan not liking this one is if they’re into more of the goofy movies, instead of the more horror-focused ones. For me, this was either my favorite or second favorite of the series. It’s tied pretty closely with the first Child’s Play, which is a huge compliment from me. You might have passed on this one because it was direct-to-video, but I actually highly recommend it if you’re into these movies.

4/5