Seed of Chucky (Child’s Play 5) CW: Sexual Misconduct

Directed by Don Mancini

After the new direction that Bride of Chucky took with bringing the franchise to new heights of comedic absurdity, what better way to keep that going than by making the next movie about the puppet child that emerged from the horrific puppet coitus that took place in the last film? I can’t think of anything else and neither cold the writers! I had a pretty good time with the last movie, and the series creator Dan Mancini is finally at the helm, so Seed of Chucky has everything going for it, it should be a great time, right? Right??? Strap in folks, this one is going to hurt.

The Good!

Seed of Chucky is the charming tale of the child of Chucky and Tiffany, an androgynous youngin’ named ‘Shitface’ by their abusive owner who found them and used them in his bawdy English ventriloquist act. After learning that a movie is being made about the murders committed by Chucky and Tiffany, Shitface travels to the USA to reunite with the family they never knew, resurrecting the murderous pair in the process. With the family united, Chucky and Tiffany plot to steal the bodies of actress Jennifer Tilly, and rapper turned director Redman, played by themselves, so they can form a new family and slip away into the night to continue their murderous rampage in new bodies.

The Bad.

Doesn’t sound so bad, right? It definitely sounds goofy and hyper-meta, but not too far off from the previous installment in terms of plot. Well, please take a seat because I’m about to tell you the side-plot that destroys this movie completely. When Jennifer Tilly is frustrated with her career she goes to audition for the part of Virgin Mary in Redman’s directorial debut, a biblical epic about the life of Jesus. Funny so far! But when Redman says he is going with another actress, Tilly offers to have sex with him for the role, which he readily accepts. This is not a one-scene thing or even part of the movie, a full third of the movie is about Jennifer Tilly trading sexual favors to Redman so he’ll cast her in this movie. I was having a lot of fun until this turned everything really, really, gross.

The Ugly.

But that’s not the end of it! Everyone who knows about this insists that this is a horrible horrible thing for TILLY to do and that she’s a bad person for doing this and how could she…stuff like that. No one ever mentions anything about how Redman is a disgusting pervert for even considering taking advantage of an actress like this, and this is incredibly juxtaposed with the casual misogyny constantly thrown at Tilly. I almost stopped watching the movie at this point. I’m okay with feelbad movies, I’m okay with tackling some really heavy concepts in horror movies, Starry Eyes is one that does this in a much better way, but these things have to fit the tone. A wacky sex-comedy with Jon Waters spying on Chucky jerking off to an issue of Fangoria should not have these plot points in it!

Why Not Have The Movie Be About This Instead?

And that is even more frustrating! The bizarre family drama that comes about when Chucky and Tiffany each try to mold their child into their own image, via murder and whatnot, is really fun, if not at all politically correct. There’s a really great subplot where their child, called Glen or Glenda because sometimes they feel like a boy and sometimes they feel like a girl, convinces Tiffany to stop murdering and murder is treated like an addiction akin to pills or alcohol and there are some great scenes where she’s struggling to not murder someone! A lot of these gags are funny and I would enjoy them if they were not a part of this movie. There are also many missteps.

Speaking of Cultural Insensitivity…

Weird comedy has been a staple of the Child’s Play franchise, but for some reason, someone thought this would be a great time to introduce racial humor to the franchise! Glen/Glenda knew they were related to Chucky because of a birthmark that says, “Made In Japan”, which is a neat little callback to the fact Chucky does have that because the original doll was made in Japan in the first film. Glen/Glenda even wonders if their real family is Japanese, which is amusing enough and would have been fine but the jokes continue with Glen/Glenda frequently bringing up cliches about Japan and even having a wire-fu battle at one point, not to mention the frequent use of the gong as a transition noise. It’s not just the Japanese who get it though, because sometime in the movie Chucky is dragging the body of Redman around and exclaims to Tiffany that he is happy to be taking REdman’s body because the size of his feet must indicate that he has a huge dick. Nice.

Damn, Do I Wish This Was A Better Movie

I’m never happy to say that I didn’t like a movie, and it doubly hurts here because I have been a fan of all the previous Child’s Play movies. I love their weirdness, their absurdity, and their willingness to change as the series progresses. When Seed of Chucky works, its a fun family drama spoof with some very memorable characters. But when it doesn’t work it is more than just bad, it is backwards. There’s no reason for so much of this movie to be needlessly gross and offensive, and I sincerely wish the plot had been taken in a much better direction. If all that isn’t clear enough, I’ll spell it out, do not watch Seed of Chucky. It is so much worse in so many ways than I could have imagined.