Cult of Chucky - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Cult of Chucky



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
To finalize the Chucky franchise on 4K, we finish off the series (outside of the MGM remake of Child's Play with Mark Hamill) with the Cult of Chucky, which I previously reviewd back in 2017 (my thoughts on the film itself will be identical to my thoughts on the original Universal Blu-ray)

Ok, once more, I have to reiterate that I’m a fanatic for 80s and 90s horror movies. I grew up with Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, the Chucky franchise, and countless others being a staple in my formative years (which could explain a lot). However, the Chucky franchise is a bit of an odd bird among the 1980s horror franchises. It never actually LEFT. The series continued on into the early 2000s, and then was tanked after the abysmal fan reaction to Bride of Chucky, and Seed of Chucky. Fans were extremely disappointed, as the killer doll was a campy favorite of many, so Don Mancini (the writer of all of them) came back in 2013 with a proposal. Instead of rebooting the series, he was going to go back to the original roots of the concept, giving us a darker and grittier horror film instead of reveling in the camp factor that plagued the last several sequels. Thus we got The Curse of Chucky. I actually REALLY liked The Curse of Chucky, as it introduced a darker take on the series that hadn’t been seen since the first two films, and it gave us Brad Dourif’s (the voice of Chucky daughter, Fiona, a chance to play the hero of the movie. It was dark, bloody, and a LOT of good fun in my opinion, breathing life back into the series.

4 years later, Mancini is back again, this time giving us a direct follow up to the events of The Curse of Chucky. Nica (Fiona Dourif) has been committed to an insane asylum after everyone thinks that SHE killed her family and friends in the last film. Even the head psychiatrist, Dr. Foley (Michael Therriault) has convinced the poor girl that she did it. His hypnosis techniques seem to have cured her of her “issues”, at least enough for him to transfer him to a medium security psych ward when Nica can start living her life a little easier. But things don’t go smoothly for long in a horror movie. It seems that Chucky (Brad Dourif) is alive and kicking, but only as a severed head in Andy’s (Alex Vincent, reprising his childhood roll from Child’s Play) home.

Unfortunately, Chucky has found away around that little problem. It seems that he’s gotten a new spell under his belt, and secretly transported part of his spirit into MULTIPLE other things (and people). When Dr. Foley brings in a Good Guys doll to his therapy sessions as a teaching aid, he unwittingly allows Chucky a doorway into Nica’s world, and soon, the demonic little doll start terrorizing the mental ward, taking the patients and nurses out one by one in a race to one single goal. Nica. Luckily Nica isn’t alone, as Andy decides to come back for one final hurrah, and pits his lifetime of hate and vengeance acquired from Chucky’s interference in his life in order to take out the doll before he can do more harm.

Cult of Chucky is unfortunately little bit of a step down from Curse of Chucky, as it is kind of a hodge podge stew of older franchise jokes, fan service, and a slight return of the humorous Chucky instead of the darkly disturbing one from Curse. That’s not to say it’s bad, just a little disappointing considering how well done the previous installment was. However, there are some really good kills in the film and some nasty little bits of gore that will excite the gorehounds among us. Not to mention a nightmare scene that gives us some of the creepiest imagery of the whole film. The multiple Chucky dolls angle was a bit weird, but by the end it actually kind of worked. I also liked that we got to see some more of Andy this time, and the same with Jennifer Tilly.

With that being said, this was really Brad and Fiona’s movie. Even though Andy has more screentime and Jennifer Tilly gets actual presence for a limited few scenes, most of the time we’re stuck in the mental ward as Chucky teases and tortures Nica with death after death to the other inmates. Fiona is EXTREMELY visceral here, and makes for one of the better horror victims I’ve seen in quiet some time. She and her father play off of each other well, and thanks to family blood, she can imitate his high pitched laugh disturbingly well. The rest of the cast is your typical throwaway horror cast, but everyone does a decent enough job and Mancini keeps the story moving at a brisk pace.




Rating:

Rated R for strong horror violence, grisly images, language, brief sexuality and drug use




4K Video: Video:

Cult of Chucky is advertised as having a 4K remaster of the unrated cut (on both Blu-ray and the 4K disc) by Scream Factory, but since the film itself was finished on a 2K digital intermediate, then I can only assume that the disc is an upscale. Cult of Chucky was a solid looking disc on Blu-ray from Universal, and the new remaster is more of a fine tuning and finessing of the Blu-ray rather than a night and day difference. The disc is very dreamlike with whole swathes of almost drugged and hazy like visuals that are complimented by a blue/gray color grading that keeps everything mostly monochromatic. There is a lot of leeway given to reds and blues on the disc, with sharp primary reds for blood and other object based items in the picture (such as red jello), but overall this is a very grim and gray looking image. Blacks are deep and inky though, with great shadow detail and only minimal crush (which I believe is more aesthetic than anything, as that’s present in the Blu-ray as well).

The Blu-ray itself for the unrated cut looks very similar to the Uni disc, so no big change there. But I did notice that Scream pulled the same thing that they did with Curse of Chucky as well. By that I mean that they split the R-rated theatrical cut and the Unrated cut into two separate encodes instead of using seamless branching. This means that they gave a much higher bitrate encode to the newly mastered Unrated cut, and a fairly bit starved encode for the unremastered Theatrical cut. In turn it looks a bit worse than the Universal Blu-ray of the same Theatrical cut. Luckily not by much though. The soft hazy look and monochromatic color palate don’t really lend itself towards amazing visuals, so the decrease in picture quality for that Rated cut on the Blu-ray isn’t wildly different than the Universal cut, bitrate tweaks aside. Still, if I were wanting the best possible version of the theatrical cut I would still keep ahold of my Universal disc.








Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is just as excellently crafted, and while it isn’t a wildly bombastic track, it is artfully done with some great sonic details. You can hear every creak of Nica’s wheelchair, and every whisper of rubber squeak of Chucky’s doll feet as he walks across the floor. Surrounds are actively engaged with all sorts of activity, ranging from the talking of other patients in the background, the soft flutter of cloth just before Chucky knocks someone over the head. LFE is deep and POWERFUL when intensity and kills start going into high gear, and the vocals are locked up front with some minimal panning effects bleeding into the other two mains. I’m actually REALLY impressed with how well done the track is for a DTV film, and it proves once again that you don’t have to have an enormous budget to make a great audio experience.

(Once more, this track seems identical to the Universal 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix, so my thoughts on that will carry over from the Blu-ray).







Extras:

Disc 1: 4K UHD
• Audio Commentary with writer/director Don Mancini and special effects makeup artist Tony Gardner

Disc 2: Blu-ray
• NEW Doll in the Familly – Tony Gardner on CULT OF CHUCKY
• NEW Do the Chucky Stomp – Alex Vincent on CULT OF CHUCKY
• NEW A look inside Alex Vincent's Recording Studio
• Inside the Insanity of Cult of Chucky
• Good Guy Gone Bad: The incarnations of Chucky
• The Dollhouse
• Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by Don Mancini
• Trailers
• TV Spot

Final Score: ​

Cult of Chucky isn’t wildly new or innovative for the series by any stretch of the imagination, but it had some interesting premises set up by the “twist” finale. I liked the idea of Chucky being able to duplicate himself and take over more than just one doll at a time. While I understand why the ROI on the film wasn’t great enough to garner a sequel, the ideas and themes set forth here are explored way more thoroughly in the TV series on the USA Network. A show which I actually didn’t realize existed until last when I saw the Blu-ray release for the first season (and had to binge watch). The 4K UHD disc is at least very solid looking, and the extras included aren’t half bad. Definitely a fun watch for sure, and a solid conclusion to the film series.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Fiona Dourif, Brad Dourif, Allison Dawn Doiron, Alex Vincent
Directed by: Don Mancini
Written by: Don Mancini
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 90
Blu-Ray Release Date: Auguest 28th, 2023

Recommendation: Good Watch