Bride of Chucky 1998 - REVIEW

Back in 1998  Ronny Yu took the job of adding another chapter to the Child's Play series.  Chucky had been dead since part 3 in 1993, but to some fans he was surely not forgotten.  The series definitely needed a refresher and a new start.  With part 3 it got rather stale, which is probably why they waited so long to put out another sequel.  Unlike most Friday The 13th movies this was not going to be a guaranteed hit.  Do you think they pulled it off?

It's been 10 years since Chucky had died in the toy store and transferring his soul into a doll.  The dolls remains are being held at a police station in an evidence locker.  A cop is seen grabbing the bag that holds his remains and puts it in his car.  He meets up with Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) and they have a deal to exchange Chucky's remains for some cash.  Tiffany decides to do away with the cop and kill him.  She gets a sick fascination from killing people.  She takes Chucky back home and stitches him up and preforms a Voodoo incantation on him to bring him back to life.  It seems to not work at first but Chucky does return back to life and we find out that Tiffany was Chucky's girlfriend before he died years ago.  Her plan for them to marry is laughed off by Chucky and Tiffany is angered and locks him in a crib.  While she is taking a bath Chucky pops in and knocks a tv in the bathtub.  He then transfers her soul of a girl doll, now they are both made of rubber.  They need to get to New Jersey to Chucky's human grave to get the amulet they need, and in the process Tiffany dupes her neighbor Jessie (Nick Stabile) in taking the dolls to New Jersey for five hundred bucks and five hundred when he gets there.  He picks up his girlfriend Jade (Katherine Heigl) to escape her controlling Uncle in the process.  Chucky and Tiffany are sure to leave a few bodies along the way!

I really have mixed emotions about this movie.  I really do not downright not like it but it really is not my favorite in the series.  As far as refreshing the series goes I really think they did a good job with the story.  Just not so much with the delivery.  Bride of Chucky I thought really focused on the comedy instead of more of the horror.  This really could have been a lot darker than what it was, instead many people see it as just being down right cheesy.  In horror cheesy is fine, especially with a slasher but this one was not as amusing as most are.

The main cast did a fantastic job with Brad Dourif returning as the voice of Chucky.  The always sexy Jennifer Tilly and a controlling and sadistic cop played by John Ritter.  Out of all the cast John Ritter was really my favorite.  I think it was because I really had never seen him play such a dark character that the audience just loved to hate.  A very young Katherine Heigl is worth mentioning as well.  While her performance really was not that great in my opinion, she was unknown at the time and still had a lot to learn.

There is a lot about this film I like and a lot I really don't like.  I'm about 50/50 on it.  It is not one of the movies I like to watch a whole lot but every now an then I will pop it in.  I have grown to like it more and more over the years.  When Bride first came out I really hated it.  The more I saw it I became more attached.  I did not like the sequel after this Seed of Chucky at all, but I am excited to see Chucky return to the big screen this year with Curse of Chucky due out in the last part of the year.  Stay twisted everyone!