Child's Play 3 (1991) / Curse of Chucky (2013) [SYFY edit]

 Nearly concluding my SYFY (TV-14) Chucky series with my daughter, these two were her choices for Friday evening. I sort of remain the same on Child's Play 3 (1991), a film set primarily at a teenage military cadet academy, with director Jack Bender and writer Don Mancini aging Andy seven years, casting a new actor in Justin Whalin as the young man Chucky once again pursues despite having his melted wax head exploded in the previous film. Don Mancini was in a dilemma because Andy and Kyle really did a number on Chuck, so bringing him right back to life without even a year of the second film being out was certainly a chore I can imagine. Blood from the gooey remains of Chuck leak into a vat of wax when a hook pierces them. Voila, another doll with Charles Lee Ray's soul takes care of the toy CEO up in his high rise by choking him with yo-yo string. Chuck killing folks with toys never gets old to me. Don really had to come up with a doozy to get Chucky all the way to that military academy, but, sure enough, those little stubby plastic fingers just type up Andy's location, and once again he gets himself packaged and sent to that place's mailroom. It is all far-fetched but so is a psychopathic doll with the soul of a serial killer most notorious for profane quips. I admit that I'm not all that wild and crazy about spending time at the military academy as Chuck eyes another kid, this time the son of a helicopter pilot, Tyler (Jeremy Sylvers), while Andy does what he can to try and stop him. A bullying antagonist in charge of the cadets is Shelton (Travis Fine, with a face you just want to punch, as Andy eventually does), while Andy befriends a picked on roommate, Whitehurst (Dean Jacobson) and becomes romantic with a female cadet, De Silva (Perrey Reeves; I know her from the X Files episode, "3"). Eventually Chucky starts to kill various introduced characters such as a garbage man (who follows Chuck's call for help, not realizing he'd be smashed in the trash crusher of his truck), a barber (Andrew Robinson, with a "Presto, you're bald" Chucky eventually parodies with "Presto, you're dead"), academy head (Dakin Matthews, a regimented Colonel who suffers a coronary when Chuck pops out with a knife!) and security guard at a carnival (using a gun from his desk drawer). Whitehurst's heroism by sacrificing his life for his friends is such a tragic and noble moment in the film; he's just relentlessly ridiculed by his superiors and talked down to. Chuck loading rifles during a paint ball exercise testing two academy teams with bullets could have been even more disastrous than the ultimate results, but a particular casualty sure shakes the young cadets...with Chuck just reveling in his evil.

That's the thing about early Chuck...he's just a fucking evil bastard who laughs uncontrollably when killing folks. He truly gets a kick out of his homicidal antics. Tyler, for a while, trusts Chucky but, eventually, even the gullible kid figures out that this Good Guy is very, very bad. The rivalry between Andy and Shelton is significant to Don Mancini as a lot of that tension is built over time. While I do miss Andy, and I did like how the series was following Alex Vincent along with Dourif's voiced doll, at least this third film remained faithful to how much of a menace Chucky continues to be.

Above shows the differences in the design of Chucky's face

I do think what hurts Curse of Chucky (2013) to me is the differences in how Chucky looks scene to scene, even designed with feminine features in just these specific moments when staring down potential victims. Other times, particularly when he's still and not moving, Chucky looks as he did in the first trilogy. I still think -- I haven't watched this since I reviewed in back in December of 2013 -- Fiona Dourif as a paraplegic in a wheelchair who tries to stop Chucky as he moves from family member to family member is one of the film's main strengths. I thought the film really milked Fiona's handicap for all its worth, particularly because Chucky was mobile, fast, and ruthless. And in this film Chucky was not only devious and cunning, he played around with those inside this castle like two-story home, taking his time to stalk, surprise, and attack each victim. I think that castle, which seems very lived-in and of age, complete with an elevator and ornate architecture and furnishings, remains a big plus in the film's favor. I was just very confused with why Don Mancini, who also directed this along with writing the film, chose to alter Chucky's appearance, seemingly even growing out his hair specifically when giving him that female look at times. I'm guessing that was actually intentional, though, it felt to me like Don shot two different Chuckys and included them both, with that visual disparity quite a distraction, even taking away from some of the effectiveness of his menacing Fiona's sister and her sister's husband, au pair (and lover in a startling reveal), and daughter.

I had read Andy was in the film but the SYFY TV-14 edit didn't have that. Even with it missing, it seemed like Curse had two to three endings.

There were plenty of amusing ways SYFY masked all the typical foul-mouthed Chucky quips we franchise fans know and love.