The meek offspring (voiced by Billy Boyd, a long way from the Shire) of killer dolls Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) and Tiffany (voiced by Jennifer Tilly) comes to Hollywood to find his parents. But he is shocked to learn that Chucky and Tiffany (now used as puppets in a Chucky and Tiffany film, starring Jennifer Tilly as a bizarro version of herself) are sadistic killers. He’s also somewhat gender confused, two things that his/her Old Man (ie. Chucky) finds hard to deal with. Meanwhile, Tiffany unsuccessfully tries to kick her killing ‘habit’ for her child. S Club 7 poptart Hannah Spearitt plays Tilly’s long-suffering PA, rapper Redman is the director (!) of the movie, and cult filmmaker John Waters turns up as a sleazy papparazzo.
Enjoyable directorial debut for ‘Child’s Play’ series creator Don Mancini, but this 2004 fifth instalment finally crosses the line from horror, through horror-comedy, into straight-out yukfest. Yes, it’s funny, but so was the first film, and it also gave us what I consider to be among the top 5 horror films of all-time (I find dolls to be rather frightening, much like guys in innocent-looking masks, particular clown masks). This one just never takes itself the slightest bit seriously, so that I kinda felt a little detached, actually, if still quite amused.
Jennifer Tilly is extraordinary playing an unflattering depiction of herself (lots of fat jokes and references to her greatest ‘exposure’ in ‘Bound’) in this admittedly uninspired ‘New Nightmare’-type of movie-within-a-movie flick. But although Billy Boyd is quite effective as the effete, Ed Wood inspired gender-confused offspring Glen/Glenda, a further problem emerges. With Tilly as herself, Tilly as Tiffany, Boyd as Glen/Glenda, and characters played by Redman, Hannah Spearitt, John Waters, et al, there’s precious little screen time for the series’ most important, interesting, and entertaining character, Chucky. Brad Dourif is his usual excellent self as Chucky’s voice, and the animatronics are so damn good that I seriously doubted that CGI wasn’t used, but Chucky just isn’t a dominant force here. With his combo of humour and malevolence being given short shrift, the whole film just seems like a put-on (in fact, it seems more like a mix of Tim Burton, Charles Band, and James Whale at times), but unlike most parodies, there appears to be a plot here. And if we can’t take that plot at all seriously since the filmmakers haven’t…it puts this one on a lower standing than the previous films, I’m afraid.
The screenplay could’ve used a rewrite, really as the film plays more like an unstructured collection of freakish images and ideas- you’ve got the killer dolls, the wonderfully shrill Tilly (Tiffany later notes of Tilly ‘Oh my god, she’s a complete slut!’), exploitation auteur Waters (having a ball, and getting burned by acid in one of the film’s highlights), a twisted Britney Spears gag, Tiffany exposing her rather large breasts, Chucky masturbating to Fangoria (which must be some kind of milestone in cinema!) and a nice decapitation (that isn’t as enjoyable as the aftermath. You’ll see what I mean).
OVERALL SUMMARY
Somewhat engaging (hey, Santa gets slashed after about 15 minutes, so that’s something!), film buffs will enjoy the horror references and spoofs (the opening stalk-and-kill is an amusing mixture of the usual ‘Child’s Play’ dolls-eye view and the opening scene of ‘Halloween’, whilst the film’s highlight is probably an homage to an infamous moment in ‘Chinatown’), but I’m betting the ‘Glen or Glenda?’ elements fly right over mainstream audiences heads. It just should’ve been better, and couldn’t they have taken it even a little seriously?
