Cult of Chucky - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Cult of Chucky


Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
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




Video:

Just like Curse of Chucky, Cult is given a KILLER 1.78:1 encode (pun intended. I slay myself sometimes. Ok, I’ll stop), and looks fabulous on home video. The DTV film is mostly inside of an asylum during winter, so the whole color spectrum leans very heavily to a desaturated blue and white combination, that looks fairly drained of MOST colors. The sterile and stylistic choice gives skin tones a rather pallid complexion, but the detail levels remain incredibly high. You can see every crease and line on Nica’s tortured face, as well as individual snow flakes falling and hitting the ground. Black levels are incredibly inky and deep, and besides some very mild crush, show no signs of a flaw anywhere. Ironically, there’s no banding that I could see in the normal dark shots, but the banding that DOES occur happens during extremely white shots that almost bloom. Other than those two tiny flaws, the picture is as spotless as you can get for a digitally shot film.






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.





Extras:

• Inside the Insanity of Cult of Chucky — Viewers will discover what it was like to film inside an insane asylum and the challenges production faced on set. They'll also hear from the cast and filmmakers as they discuss why they were attracted to this story and how the filmmakers' vision brought this fun-filled horror film together.
• Good Guy Gone Bad: The Incarnations of Chucky — This featurette offers a peek into Alterian's workshop, the studio behind Chucky's puppeteering, to see how the magic is created and focuses on how the look of Chucky has evolved over the years.
• Feature Commentary with Director and Writer Don Mancini, and Head Puppeteer Tony Gardner.

Final Score: ​

Cult of Chucky isn’t anything new or innovative in the series, but it doesn’t fall to the schlock and camp levels of Bride of Chucky, and Seed of Chucky. I won’t put it as high as the first couple of films or Curse, but it is still an entertaining little gore fest that brings us another episode of everyone’s favorite murdering doll. Just with a new face lift and hint at what’s to come next (thanks to Jennifer Tilly coming back). Audio and video are simply fantastic for a DTV horror film, and the extras actually have some meat to them. They’re not a lot, but what is there is actually quite fun to dive into. Worth a fun watch for horror fans.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Brad Dourif, Fiona Dourif, Jennifer Tilly
Directed by: Don Mancini
Written by: Don Mancini
Aspect Ratio: 1.78.1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DTS 5.1
Studio: Universal
Rated: R
Runtime: 90 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: October 3rd, 2017

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I have seen just about all of the Chucky movies.. Will check this out..

 

[Asere]

I really enjoyed Curse of Chucky too. I thought the story was very creative on how they brought Chucky back. I will definitely watch Cult of Chucky. Thank you for the review.

 

[Asere]

Cult of Chucky was just ok for me. I got tired or seeing the hospital over and over and the white everything from the walls to the floor to the ceiling. Also the multiple dolls for me was distracting. I agree with you Michael Curse of Chucky was much better and darker.

 

[Michael Scott]

yeah,sadly it was a step down (IMO) from Curse. Still not bad, but not GREAT either

 

[tripplej]

I saw one of the Chucky movies in the theater long time ago, I can't remember which one, but the entire audience was in on the movie.. Everybody would say, don't open the door, don't go there, etc.
It made the movie 10x better.. It was hilarious. Nobody complained about the entire audience talking throughout the movie.. It was an experience that benefited by having the entire audience participate.

 

[Michael Scott]

lol, if you get audiences like those a movie in theaters can be a LOT of fun

 

[tripplej]

Especially for a horror movie. Oh man, totally worth the ticket price..