Once once more, TV viewing/streaming brings contemporary parallels together with contemporary alternatives for commentary.
Stacked up subsequent to the present (and fairly terrific) Stranger Things 4 Vol 1, Astro Primetime’s restricted collection Chucky has a complete doll-sized fistful of similarities.
Examples of its parallels with ST4: supernatural forces that prey on emotional baggage, children adventuring on bikes, (actually) terrible faculty bullies, awkward crushes, an impending sense of dread and doom … and sudden outbursts of darkish/grim humour from typically surprising sources (with a Halloween night time sight gag that almost made me choke on my seaweed snack).
Chucky, in fact, revolves round the titular doll, possessed and animated by the soul of serial killer Charles “Chucky” Lee Ray (Brad Dourif), who has been terrifying, taunting and amusing audiences since his 1988 film debut in the film Child’s Play.
Progressing (some would possibly say regressing) from psychological horror to outright horror to (virtually) excessive camp, the collection has been rebooted, retooled, expanded and now, revived with a surprisingly contemporary tackle doll-induced mayhem.
Finally, Jake had his crew, an entourage of 1. Okay, half.
The eight-episode first season (a second is due later this yr) comes to us courtesy of franchise creator Don Mancini and it is fairly superior to most of what adopted the pretty-darn-good Tom Holland-directed unique.
Forget the 2019 reboot which had Chucky powered by rogue AI slightly than a disembodied soul (although it had a cool voice efficiency by Mark Hamill).
The Chucky collection adheres to common franchise continuity, and a few familiarity with Curse Of Chucky (2013) and Cult Of Chucky (2017) will certainly assist your general enjoyment.
It begins with aspiring 14-year-old artist Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur, trying like he may star in an Entourage prequel) shopping for a classic Good Guy doll at a yard sale. No prizes for guessing that that is certainly a doll possessed by a sliver of Charles Lee Ray’s soul (hey, when you can hold observe of the MCU, this must be a … snap).
So it is not lengthy earlier than Chucky worms his depraved manner into Jake’s head. After all, the child appears proper for his Hannibal Lecter-esque murmurings, already being made a punching bag by his drunk dad Lucas (Final Destination alumnus Devon Sawa, in a twin function as Jake’s uncle Logan) and bullied by passive-aggressive cousin Junior (Teo Briones) and his girlfriend Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind).
A possessed doll … a ventriloquist’s act … certain, it has been finished earlier than, however no person does it fairly like Chucky.
If not for his calming crush on classmate Devon (Bjorgvin Arnarson), Jake would possibly very effectively give up to Chucky’s insidious affect a lot sooner (after which the first season wouldn’t even stretch eight episodes).
Lest you suppose it is all nearly Chucky making an attempt to get Jake to do his twisted bidding, although, fret not. The longer-form episodic TV construction (as opposed to a 100-minutes-or-less film) permits Mancini and his collaborators to flesh out relationships, toy with viewers expectations, throw curveballs, and leap the rails with out warning.
Familiar faces and voices from earlier in the collection return, ably complemented by the new members of the solid and horror/SF the Aristocracy like Sawa and Andromeda‘s Lexa Doig. And then we have now franchise staple Dourif, whose distinctive speech by some means sounds proper even when it is dubbed over the actor enjoying a youthful Charles.
Younger? I imply in fact there could be flashbacks, how else are we to witness milestones in the lifetime of the title character in any other case? And for certain, these glimpses into the previous dwell, and slay, up to expectations.
And that true-to-his-nature fidelity is why we will at all times depend on Chucky to be a true friend to the end, and (the nice) past.
All eight episodes of Chucky Season One can be found on Astro On Demand by way of the Primetime channel.
