Curse of Chucky is a 2013 slasher flick and the sixth film in the “Child’s Play” horror franchise. It is written and directed by series co-creator Don Mancini for Universal Pictures.

A paraplegic woman named Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif) receives a “Good Guy” doll in the mail, after which her mother Sarah (Chantal Quesnel), who obsessively paints yellow flowers, seemingly commits suicide. Nica’s sister Barb (Danielle Bisutti), her husband Ian (Brennan Elliott), nanny Jill (Maitland McConnell), and daughter Alice (Summer H. Howell) arrive with the family priest Father Frank (A Martinez). Alice begins to play with Chucky (Brad Dourif), who mysteriously vanishes and reappears. As family secrets are revealed, a storm hides the screams of the people in the house as they start to die in bizarre ways.

It was a relief to see that the series was trying to course correct after the previous two entries. While the story of Chucky veered into violent gross-out humor, this movie tries to return to its roots as a horror slasher. It was a worthy attempt, but it fails on a few levels.

First of all, with the exception of Nica and Alice, you do not really cheer for anyone. Barb is a cheating housewife, Jill is the person joining in the cheating, and Ian is kind of unlovable. In the first films, the characters, while imperfect, were still just normal people. There is an overwhelming amount of drama and it often got in the way of the horror.

Nica was a good character and I found her to be a good protagonist. It was cool learning that the actress portraying her, Fiona Dourif, is the daughter of Brad Dourif, who voices Chucky.

That is a shame because Chucky was back in full form. He is back to being the selfish, narcissistic, creepy, and violent serial killer whose soul is trapped in his body. I applaud the puppeteers and effects team who made it happen. If it had focused more on him and his antics over the drama, I think this movie would have brought the franchise back to truly being a frightening icon of Halloween.

Bottom line, Curse of Chucky was a good attempt to return the franchise to the horror genre. It has a few missteps with family drama in the script, but it still brings the gore and frights.

PARENTAL CONCERNS: Sexual content, Strong foul language, Bloody violence, Disturbing images

FAVORITE QUOTE: “Twenty-five years. Since then a lot of families have come and gone; the Barclays, the Kincaids, the Tillys. But you know Nica, your family was always my favorite. And now, you’re the last one standing… So to speak!”

Check out the trailer below:

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