- Directed by Don Mancini
- Written by Don Mancini
- Stars Allison Dawn Doiron, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQaT6uuXZQ8
Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone
There’s a new Chucky gimmick in this one, and it’s a lot of fun. The special effects are good and mostly practical rather than CGI. The acting is fine, and we see most of our favorite characters from past films here. We liked it.
Synopsis
Andy is on a date, and his girlfriend thinks he’s a gun fanatic because he owns one. He wants to be able to protect himself, but he’s vague about what. She Googled him and knows the whole story. We get a few flashbacks to what happened in earlier films, and the girlfriend dumps Andy.
Andy goes home, and we see that he doesn’t own a gun; he has a whole arsenal. He opens the safe, and he has Chucky’s still-living head in there. He takes off the gag and talks to it. “I guess it’s just me and you again tonight, pal,” he says. Andy tortures his “best friend” on a regular basis. Credits roll.
Nica is in the hospital getting electroshock treatment. She still has nightmares about Chucky. Dr. Foley explains that Nica was the one who killed those people, and she only imagined a killer doll. He’s having her transferred to a medium-security institution.
Nica starts to get settled in at the new hospital, which looks like a Soviet prison on the outside, but is reasonably nice on the inside. She meets Michael, gives him some chewing gun, and then they have sex. Angela thinks she’s a ghost, and she says Chucky told her that he will be coming for Nica. Dr. Foley pulls out a Chucky doll that he bought at Hot Topic. Madeline, one of the other patients, grabs the doll and claims it as her baby. She finds out that Michael has multiple personalities; they’re all crazy there. Well, it is an asylum.
Tiffany comes to visit Nica; she’s her niece, Alice’s, guardian. “You look exactly like Jennifer Tilly.” “Yeah, I get that a lot.” Alice is dead. She also brings a Chucky doll; Alice used it in her therapy. When left alone, this doll blinks. Within seconds, he’s armed with a scalpel and stalking the halls of the asylum.
Chucky sneaks into Nica’s room, and she’s already cut her wrist open in a suicide attempt. Next morning, she wakes up and sees a message in blood “not so fast.” Chucky has sewn her arm up. Angela the ghost-lady, however, is very dead in the same way. “Chucky did it” is written in that blood puddle.
Andy watches a video of him demonstrating Chucky’s living head to Dr. Foley, who says it’s a great trick. The real Chucky laughs at the video and taunts Andy, “Maybe this really is all in your head.”
Meanwhile, at the hospital, we get a whole bunch of is it real, or are they just crazy, scenes. Foley thinks it’s mass hysteria, which seems logical up to a point. Chucky kills Claire next. We see that now Chucky can be in more than one place at a time somehow.
Andy reads about the deaths in the newspaper and wonders how this could be possible, since he has Chucky on his desk. Nica thinks Chucky has replicated himself into other dolls. We also see that Dr. Foley isn’t particularly ethical or altruistic. Chucky tries to temp Nica into killing Foley, but she doesn’t.
Michael has acquired a new alias; now he’s “Charles,” and he seems a lot creepier. Andy is making his way to the asylum, but Tiffany calls and tells him that the cult is growing all the time. Andy arrives and has himself committed.
Dr. Foley gets a package, and guess what’s inside? Another Chucky doll. Who sent that? Don’t know. Meanwhile, Madeline is killed by “her baby.” Nica warns Foley that Chucky is going to kill him too, but he ignores her. Before long, Nica finds herself surrounded by three Chuckys, and he explains the whole thing. They have a gruesome party with one of the orderlies.
Tiffany shows up and kills the security guard. Chucky calls on Demballa to give him the power, and before you know it, Nica is up and walking around for the first time – now possessed by Charles Lee Ray. We see a dead doll laying next to the doctor on the floor. This time, Foley doesn’t survive.
Nica-Charles confronts Michael/Mark/Charles and calls him out on his being a “poser.”
Finally, Chucky goes after Andy, who actually knows what he’s doing now. Nica, Tiffany, and the Alice doll drive away for another “happy ending.” Leaving Andy locked in a cell.
Commentary
I don’t think Andy’s instantaneously getting committed works like that. Then again, this isn’t a completely legitimate mental hospital, so —whatever.
I really, really prefer this practical-effect Chucky over the newer CGI versions. He isn’t supposed to look real, after all, he’s a toy. His plasticity is supposed to look like that. Too much reality doesn’t help in this case. The gore shots are really well done and over the top, and of course, the jokes are— well, it’s Chucky.
The only thing better than Chucky is three Chucky’s (Chuckies?) working together. The Tiffany/Alice doll is there, but she doesn’t really do anything. They almost, almost try to do too much for a single film, but as one installment in a series, it’s really good.