Rebranding an Icon in ‘Bride of Chucky’
As much as I personally love it, there is no question that Child’s Play 3 had not been the success that the first two had been. Chucky arrived in 1988 to offer that decade one last major horror icon before the final curtain call. The diminutive doll became the star of his own franchise in record time and the first two sequels were made in rapid succession. Child’s Play 2 was released in 1990 and Child’s Play 3 followed less than a year after that. By the time the third film hit theaters, many people were only just discovering the second on home video. On top of that, there was a scandal that nearly killed the franchise when it was suggested that the movie might have inspired the murder of James Bulger in the United Kingdom. In a decade where the effect of violent media on children was a constant talking point on the news, Child’s Play 3 and Chucky in general were blamed for that death on a fairly national level. Police denied the connection and it eventually turned out that the young killers had likely not seen the film, but the damage had already been done. Then, on a much more obvious note for series creator and writer Don Mancini, there was the fact that Child’s Play 1, 2, and 3 had been written one right after another, and both the creator and the audience began to notice that the series had begun repeating itself. As a result, a new sequel did not follow until 1998, seven years after the release of the previous entry.
Bride of Chucky is proof that good things come to those who wait. Chucky’s return to theaters after his extended absence proved to not only be a huge hit, but possibly the very best film of the series. This is a fun and stylish masterclass of a horror comedy. After three movies about Andy Barclay, we’ve moved on from that storyline to now do the unthinkable and slide Chucky into the role of protagonist. There are new human heroes in the form of doomed lovers Jesse and Jade, but they truly play second fiddle to Chucky and his new bride, Tiffany.
The introduction of Jennifer Tilly as Tiffany proved to be a shot in the arm to a franchise in need of reinvention. Like Brad Dourif, she was an Oscar nominee with an instantly recognizable voice. Through her, we get just enough of a glimpse into Chucky’s past as the Lake Shore Strangler without ever resorting to flashbacks or even heavy exposition that would have dragged the movie down. We know that Tiffany is also a serial killer and was his girlfriend up until the night he died, and that she has been holding onto the idea of that love for him for ten years. That’s all we need and with that, we’re off to the races.
Bride of Chucky moves at a breakneck pace, which is perfect for a road movie. Chucky needs an amulet that was buried with his body in New Jersey in orders to transfer both his soul and Tiffany’s into human bodies. Because they can’t get there on their own, Tiffany drafts the hunky Jesse into delivering the dolls, and he sees this as the perfect opportunity to take his forbidden love, Jade, and run. They aim to break free of the town, lives, and authority figures that have kept them apart.
The brilliance of it is that Chucky and Tiffany can’t stop doing what they do, and as the bodies begin to pile up along the way, this star-crossed love affair between our human leads is barely even tested before it begins to completely collapse. They spend half the film accusing each other of being the killer while the real killers sit silently in the back of the van. The perfect counterbalance to Jesse and Jade’s decaying relationship, which seemed to start out so strong, is the relationship between Chucky and Tiffany which (for a while) only grows stronger. They started out in such a bad place that Chucky literally killed her and transferred her soul into a doll. Before that, Tiffany began to confront the fact that her love for Chucky — or Charles Lee Ray — was never what she wanted it to be.
But then they start spending time together. They’re on the road, they’re pursuing the same goal, and they’re killing together as a couple, and it begins to rekindle that twisted romance all over again. Now that he has someone to play opposite of, and someone who knows him, we get to really sit with Chucky as a character in a way that we certainly didn’t have the opportunity to do in the first three movies. There’s a moment in Bride of Chucky where Chucky apologizes for his behavior and means it and that is something I don’t think anyone could have imagined happening in the earlier movies, yet it feels so natural here. At the same time, their relationship is toxic and destructive and Tiffany’s realization of that is absolutely crucial. Another moment that is purely natural for Chucky in a very different way is his proposal, professing his love for Tiffany after witnessing her orchestration of the most brutal and imaginative death in the entire film.
The true brilliance of Bride of Chucky, however, lies in the farce it makes out of not only the romance between our two human leads, but the media feeding that mistrust as it covers this killing spree. Honestly, this movie could be compared to Natural Born Killers, and strictly speaking in terms of the way both lampoon the way the news feigns condemnation and shock while sensationalizing and ultimately glorifying these horrific situations, I truly think Bride of Chucky does that aspect a little bit better.
Nobody has any clue what the real situation is, including the couple driving the van, and nobody would believe the situation if they actually confronted it. There’s something hilarious about the absurdity of the real situation (the dolls in the back seat are actually serial killers) and the narrative the news is latching onto, insisting that one of these two people must be the killer, and that the other may not even be aware of the fact, to only fuel the fire of that distrust and paranoia.
Bride of Chucky is a perfect party movie if you just want to invite friends over to watch a spooky movie and have a good time. It’s sleek and stylish, it’s full of fun performances, outrageous kills, it hooks you right from the beginning with Tilly’s introduction and Rob Zombie’s “Living Dead Girl” blasting over the opening credits. It’s a landmark horror comedy and it set the tone for the rest of the franchise. Since this movie’s release, the series has both leaned into the humor and pulled back from it, but has never left that sensibility established in Bride behind completely. Wisely, it never left Jennifer Tilly behind either.
