October 3rd, 2014 
James Shotwell 
Of all the holidays celebrated worldwide, no single day is more loved by the UTG staff than Halloween. With the arrival of the year’s best month, the time has finally come to begin rolling out a plethora of features and special announcements we have prepared in celebration of our favorite day, including the one you’re about to read.
Now in its third year, 31 Days Of Halloween is a recurring feature that will run throughout the month of October. The hope and goal of this column is to supply every UTG reader with a daily horror (or Halloween-themed) movie recommendation that is guaranteed to amplify your All Hallows’ Eve festivities. We’ll be watching every film the day it’s featured, and we hope you’ll follow along at home.
[Warning: the material within is likely NSFW]
Day 3: Bride Of Chucky (1998)
The best way for me to describe the elements of a horror movie that causes my brain to explode with joy and forever commit a portion of its limited memory to fandom is to tell you ‘I know it when I see it.’ What draws me into one movie is rarely what I come to love about another. Originality is always key, of course, as is an inherent sense of fun, and in my mind there have been too few films in the last twenty years that can say they are anywhere near as endlessly entertaining as Bride Of Chucky.
Taking place one month after the events of Child’s Play 3, Bride Of Chucky opens with Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), a former girlfriend and accomplice of serial killer Charles Lee Ray (voice of Brad Dourif), acquiring the shredded remains of Chucky from police custody. She brings the tattered toy to her trailer, which looks something like a goth teen’s dream bedroom, and proceeds to stitch the fallen villain back together. Once complete, Tiffany performs a ritual meant to bring Charles Lee Ray back to life, and not long after, the doll that struck fear into the heart of millions is alive once more.
Chucky is happy to be back, but before long he realizes that Tiffany has more interest in keeping him as a pet than helping him find another human body for his soul to possess. As you can imagine, he takes offense to this and quickly sets out to even the playing field by killing off Tiffany and shoving her soul into a similarly sized doll. In doing so, he creates a new horror film icon that quickly ups the ante for violence and comedy across the board.
As soon as Chucky and Tiffany adjust to their new positions in life, everything that follows is a nonstop barrage of humor, violence, and over-the-top action that is as comical as it is entertaining. Bride Of Chucky shakes off the typical genre shackles of constantly trying to scare people in order to create a sense of fun and instead makes the idea of a murderous toy rampage something everyone with a taste of onscreen bloodshed can enjoy. It’s not about making you uncomfortable in your own skin or too scared to turn off your lights at night; it’s about having a good time with a wild premise at the expense of characters that are (generally speaking) not all that interesting in the first place.
The kills in Bride Of Chucky are the most creative in the entire Child’s Play franchise. This is due, at least in part, to the introduction of Tiffany. She provides Chucky with the motivation and imagination needed to break away from the knife-wielding ways that took center stage in previous franchise entries. There’s now explosions, semi trucks, mirrors, and a wide assortment of additional tools/objects put to devious use.
It’s not just about the violence, however, though it is incredibly well executed. Finding a murderous onscreen couple is a rare gift in horror, and finding one whose love is actually believable is next to impossible. Chucky and Tiffany have a surprisingly realistic relationship, filled with ups and downs, as well as fights and laughs. Their emotional journey often parallels the high-stakes adventure that embarks upon the film, which adds a nice dash of flavor to every sequence. The third act sex scene may push your idea of good taste to the limit, but it’s all in good fun. Plus, who doesn’t love a condom joke?
I can honestly say I have watched Bride Of Chucky no less than fifteen times in the sixteen years since its initial release. It arrived at a time when I was just old enough for my parents to allow some R-rated films in our home, and Bride was one of the first horror titles to become available after that point. I had never watched Child’s Play, and if I had I was too young to remember what kind of impact it left on my young mind, but watching Chucky and Tiffany embark on their quest for new bodies opened my mind to a world of entertainment I’m not sure I knew existed before that point. Horror, in my mind, was always something meant to be watched late at night by people who were willing to have their greatest fears brought to life. The idea of blending scary and/or creepy things with horror was entirely foreign to me, but after that first encounter it quickly became my favorite sub-genre of film. Unfortunately, not long after I learned that making a truly great and humorous horror film is a next to impossible task, which is probably part of the reason I returned to Bride Of Chucky so many times in the years that followed. Whenever something else failed, Bride of Chucky delivered, and to tell the truth, it still does today.
It’s easy to understand if you want to spend your Hallloween nights being scared, but I feel I must insist that you make time to cut loose and have a little fun with Bride Of Chucky. It has everything you could ask for in a horror film: Solid story, great kills, a fantastic villain (two to be honest), and a finale that is both ridiculous and hugely satisfying. There may very well never be another film like Bride Of Chucky, but as long as there is home video we can revisit this classic until the sun burns out and we all die.
Editorial written by: James Shotwell
Last year’s Day 3 film: Chopping Mall
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