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Seed of Chucky


SEED OF CHUCKY
(2004, Mancini)



"Look around you, Tiff! This is nuts! And I have a very high tolerance for nuts."

That is Chucky's scream of desperation as things keep going awry in this insane sequel in the Chucky franchise. But it might very well be the audience or me screaming at the screen as creator, director, and writer Don Mancini kept pulling things out of his hat, cause this film is nuts indeed.

Seed of Chucky picks up some time after the events of Bride, as Glen (Billy Boyd) discovers he is the son of Chucky and Tiffany (Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly), and resurrects them sparking more chaos and mayhem. That is the gist of it, without getting much into how nuts it is, which means I'm leaving out pretty much 75% of the film.

How nuts it is, you say? The film opens with "doll sperm" traveling through a "doll uterus" (cue first reference, Look Who's Talking), Jennifer Tilly playing a fictionalized version of herself, who is willing to sleep her way into the lead role of the Virgin Mary in a film directed by Redman (yes, that Redman). Plus, you get a supporting role from John Waters as a peeping tom reporter, a gender-fluid doll, and countless more references to films that go from Psycho and The Shining to Rebel without a Cause and even Naked Gun.

This all lends itself to some hilarious moments, but it also ends up feeling like too nuts. And I have a very high tolerance for nuts, but it does feel like the whole meta, self-referential thing goes overboard a few times here. There are things that you know are there just because Mancini wants them to be in there, regardless of how organically or sensibly they tie into the film or the overall franchise, which makes it all very much hit or miss.

In my previous review on Bride of Chucky, I wrote about how one had to try to get on the film's wavelength for a better enjoyment. Considering how bonkers this film is, I wonder if a second viewing, or even a group viewing, would make this improve. As it is, Seed of Chucky is a mostly off-the-wall, absurd, sometimes funny and sometimes non-sensical sequel. It's nuts, so I guess it all depends on how high is your tolerance for nuts.

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