Seed of Chucky: Movie & DVD Review (2004)

(Originally published 2004)

At the start of “Seed of Chucky,” Don Mancini’s fifth film in Chucky-the-crazed-slasher-doll series, the screen drips with what appears to be rivers of liquid latex.

Appearances, of course, can be deceiving.

Soon, the ugly truth of all that dripping reveals itself to be scores of white, angry-looking mini Chuckies. Replete with tails, they race through an undulating tube and find their mark in a gelatinous egg. Cells split, a baby’s screech rings through the theater, a child is born.

Hello, not-so-gorgeous.

Flash forward several years and what we have is spawn of Chucky, a sensitive, bug-eyed softie with razor sharp teeth who toils in London as a ventriloquist’s dummy; it looks like a cross between Ziggy Stardust, Clay Aiken and Johnny Rotten by way of a morgue. When it learns that its parents, Chucky and Tiffany, are shooting a movie in the States called “Chucky Goes Psycho,” it decides to flee London in an effort to find them.

Meanwhile, Academy Award-nominated actress, Jennifer Tilly, shows up to do what so many actors do when they’ve fallen out of favor with the public. In an effort to remind us that she’s still eager to work, she throws good sense to the wind and goes for attention-getting camp.

Tilly has been with the Chucky franchise since 1998’s “Bride of Chucky,” in which she played a caricature of herself and also lent her voice to Chucky’s buxom, murdering doll-bride, Tiffany. Encouraged by the modest hit she enjoyed with that movie--and perhaps a bit depressed by the series of flops that followed it (“Lil’ Pimp,” “Fast Sofa,” “Dirt” and “Pigs Next Door” chief among them)--Tilly takes a much-expanded role here. She stars as a higher-strung version of herself, while also lending her voice to Tiffany.

Good work if you can get it? I’m not convinced. It is Tilly, after all, who is eventually used by Chucky and Tiffany to be the host for their new child, which can only be accomplished with the help of restraints, a turkey baster, and Chucky’s fevered imagination. It’s also Tilly who must seduce rap star Redman, also playing himself, so she can become the Virgin Mary in his new movie based on the Bible. The irony of it!

Amid the inevitable slaughterings, beheadings, stabbings and the like, the movie is never scary, though it does find jolts of humor in Tilly’s excess and in John Waters’ supporting role as a paparazzo. What makes it less punchy than “Bride of Chucky” is its focus. Somehow, the franchise has become about a dysfunctional family of living dolls trying to make it in the world.

Facing them aren’t the potential difficulties of whom to kill--those decisions are still made on the fly--but the gender issues surrounding their long-lost child from London. You see, Chucky and Tiffany aren’t sure whether it’s a boy or a girl. A quick drop of its pants confirms an androgynous nature, so they decide to call it Glen and Glenda, a nod at Ed Wood’s “Glen or Glenda,” the infamously bad movie that “Seed of Chucky” doesn’t have the guts to be.

Grade: C-