PLOT: The ultimate account of the Child’s Play film franchise and Chucky, a horror villain for the ages. With contributions from cast, crew, critics, historians, and experts, as well as clips, photographs, archival documents, behind-the-scenes footage, and more, experience the making-of story that proves you can’t keep a good guy down in a series of films that have created an icon.
REVIEW: There are no better horror franchise documentaries than Crystal Lake Memories and Never Sleep Again. The in-depth looks at the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises are the definitive looks at their respective franchises. They provide unique interviews and insight into the horror productions we thought we knew everything about. Yet they manage to find new information! So I, like many fans, was ecstatic to see them put Chucky in their crosshairs. Given the series’ very unique history and 36-year run, there is so much information to parse from. And I’m sure that even the most die-hard of Chucky fans will find out something new.
While the other documentaries have given pretty similar time to all of the entries, that’s not the case here. Being the first film in the franchise, Child’s Play gets a lot of time, closing in on closer to 80 minutes. Most of the other segments are around 35 minutes, but it’s not beholden to any specific runtime. It seems as though some entries just require slightly more time to get across all the interesting behind-the-scenes moments. But it mostly feels balanced. If anything, the first film is very deserving of all the extra time as there’s such interesting information regarding its production.
We’ve always heard about Jessica Walters being the original voice of Charles Lee Ray, but here it’s finally addressed head-on. It’s too bad she’s since passed because I would have loved a little insight from Walters herself. It was also great to see the feud between Don Mancini and Tom Holland addressed. The doc is very friendly towards Mancini so it’s hard to say if there’s a bit of bias going on here but Holland certainly doesn’t come across well. From trying to diminish Mancini’s contributions to being a real stickler on set, it’s no surprise he never returned to the series. Though it doesn’t seem like anyone harbors ill will these days.
Considering both Freddy’s Nightmares and Friday the 13th: The TV Series had segments in their docs, I was slightly surprised at the exclusion of the Chucky TV show. It’s not only a massive part of Chucky but it continues the lore and is considered part of the continuity. But it wasn’t concluded by the time this was being made, so I’m sure they wanted the entire story before talking about it. Fingers crossed they will add a segment for the DVD release now that the show is over.
Damn near every actor you can think of is involved here. Whether it’s the homeless bum from the first, the foster dad from two, or even the mean drill sergeant from three. The only major exclusions (outside of the deceased) seem to be Jenny Agutter, Justin Whalin, and Katherine Heigl. And given those three don’t have a positive relationship with the franchise, it’s not a surprise to not see them. It’s too bad though, because everyone has such nice things to say about them. The inclusion of so much of the cast is one of many reasons this feels like the definitive documentary on the series.
One element I didn’t love was the reporter-like voice of the narrator. Her voice really clashed with the tone and didn’t really work for me. Thankfully, she’s not in it very much. I also felt that the doc wasn’t wrapped up in that “summarizing the whole franchise” kind of way, and mostly seems to focus on just Cult. We needed a brief section that went over the impact of the franchise and the many different things that have spawned from it. They didn’t address Chucky’s inclusion in video games, the TV show, or even the remake. Feels like a missed opportunity to not see Mancini bitch about the Hamill film.
Thommy Hutson has been a writer on these docs going back to His Name Is Jason, so it’s awesome to see him take up the directing mantle and knock it out of the park. With its interesting new insight and surprising new information, this is a must for fans. But it’s the attention to detail and sheer impressiveness of the editing that will keep non-fans engaged as well. Sure, it’s going to be hard to get anyone who isn’t at least somewhat interested to watch a 5-hour documentary but those who take the plunge will be rewarded with a phenomenal look at the Chucky film series. After all, he’s our friend till the end.
DOC OF CHUCKY IS STREAMING ON SHUDDER ON NOVEMBER 1ST, 2024.
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