October 27th, 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.
Day 27: Seed Of Chucky (2004)
Diversity is key to creating a great Halloween movie marathon. In order to create a pitch perfect evening of cinema you need as many thrills, chills, and squeals, as you do laughs, gasps, and unnerving moments of silence. We try to highlight a bit of everything in this series, which often leads us to only visit every major franchise once a year. In 2014 however, I am making a one-time exception to this rule in order to highlight a film that is truly unlike anything else in the world of cinema: Seed Of Chucky.
If you have been following along all month then you will no doubt remember my feature on Bride Of Chucky, which debuted during the first week of October. Seed is its sequel, and it technically begins in the moments immediately before credits roll on Bride. Tiffany is found severely burned on the ground, having spent the night battling Chucky, and suddenly springs to life long enough to give birth. Yes, a doll that had sex with another doll is now giving birth to a third doll that is the product of their copulation. It’s weird in all the right ways, and it makes for one hell of closing sequence.
Picking up six years later, Seed Of Chucky begins with Glen, the child Chucky and Tiffany share, waking up from a horrible nightmare. He cannot shake visions of himself doing horrific things, and he begins to wonder if understanding who his parents were might help him sleep a bit better at night. He learns that Chucky and Tiffany are now living in Los Angeles and sets out to visit them. Neither parent is necessarily expecting to see Glen again, but once he arrives Tiffany acts the way any mother would when reunited with her only child. Chucky, on the other hand, is not too thrilled about having another mouth to feed.
Seed Of Chucky was the final nail in the coffin that forever labeled the Child’s Play franchise as more comedy than horror. There are a number of deaths to be found in Seed, but they’re all based largely in the world of comedy, and at the time it was released many saw that as cheap, especially when compared to the earlier films in the franchise. I always thought it was something special however, and I think you if take a chance on revisiting it today you might walk away feeling the same.
Chucky has always been an asshole, and in Seed Of Chucky writer Don Mancini puts that take no shit attitude front and center. This leads to a number of movie parodies that admittedly feel a bit dated now, as well as references to reality TV that falls a bit stale, but beyond those drawbacks the rest of the story still plays like the day it was released. Much like how Bride told the story of Chucky learning to play well with others, Seed finds the tiny serial killer once again needing to evolve in order to survive. There is no rule that says Chucky must take care of Glen, but like any father he feels compelled to protect him and help him learn the ways of his family. Glen is not exactly the most excited to kill, at least not at first, but watching him and Chucky interact provides loads of entertainment that remains highly enjoyable to this day.
What I love most about Seed is how much it attempts to humanize Chucky and Tiffany. Bride feels like a spring to the finish line from the moment Tiffany is transformed, but here Mancini and his team take their time to address relationships, the proper way to raise children, and what this absurd family unit will do moving forward in order to survive. I’m not sure these characters ever needed to be incredibly relatable, but thanks to Seed they are, and there is something cool about the fact the filmmakers were able to forge those connections using dolls that exist in cinema for no real reason other than quenching America’s insatiable bloodlust.
Another highlight of Seed, at least in my opinion, is the fact Jennifer Tilly has the opportunity to play herself. She is a great Tiffany, but she commands the screen even more in human form, and the silliness of having a miniature version of her trying to kill the full size version will always be funny in my mind. Then there’s the fact she has a fling of sorts with Redman, who also happens to play himself. I wonder how high Mancini was when he thought that one up.
Oh, and let’s not forget about the fact that the entire film takes place in a world where Chucky and Tiffany are now movie stars known for being killer dolls. It’s as if Mancini saw Scream‘s use of meta-realities and decided to up the game.
I’m not going to lie to you: Seed Of Chucky is about as close to true horror as Michael Jordan is from earning a Super Bowl ring, but it’s high quality entertainment nonetheless. Forget about being scared for a night and remember what it’s like to have fun with mindless violence and profane dolls. I promise you won’t regret it.
Editorial written by: James Shotwell
Last year’s Day 27 film: Repulsion
- 2015’s Most Underrated Films - December 29, 2015
- Passing The Torch: The End Of An Era For UTG - December 1, 2015
- UTG PREMIERE: Before The Streetlights – “Private Browser” - November 26, 2015
Posted in 
Tags: 