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| Bride of Chucky | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Ronny Yu |
| Written by | Don Mancini |
| Based on | Characters by Don Mancini |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Peter Pau |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Graeme Revell |
Production company | David Kirschner Productions[1] |
| Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 89 minutes[3] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million[3] |
| Box office | $50.7 million[3] |
Bride of Chucky is a 1998 Americanblack comedyslasher film[4][better source needed][5] written byDon Mancini and directed byRonny Yu. The fourth installment in theChild's Play franchise, it starsJennifer Tilly,Brad Dourif,John Ritter,Katherine Heigl, andNick Stabile.[6] Unlike the first three films,Bride of Chucky takes a markedly humorous turn towardsself-referential parody.[7] It also departs from theAndy Barclay storyline of the first three films, focusing mainly on series villain Chucky, a doll possessed by a serial killer, and his former lover and accomplice Tiffany, whose soul is also transferred into a doll.
Bride of Chucky was released on October 16, 1998. The film grossed over $50 million worldwide on a budget of $25 million and received mixed reviews from critics. A sequel,Seed of Chucky, was released in 2004.
InLockport, New York[8] in 1998,Tiffany Valentine, Chucky's former lover and accomplice, bribes police officer Bob Bailey into selling her Chucky's remains. After murdering Bailey, she repairs the doll and performs a voodoo ritual to revive him. Hergoth admirer Damien Baylock arrives at her trailer; Tiffany is delighted when Chucky animates andsuffocates him.
Chucky and Tiffany get into an argument when Chucky laughs at the prospect of marrying Tiffany. She angrily locks him in aplaypen, taunting him by giving him a wedding-themed bride doll. Chucky escapes andelectrocutes her to death before using a voodoo spell to transfer her soul into the bride doll as revenge.
Chucky explains that if they want to escape their doll bodies, they must retrieve a magicalamulet called theHeart of Damballa that was buried with his human body. They decide the best bodies to inhabit are Tiffany's handsome neighbor Jesse Miller and his girlfriend Jade Kincaid. Tiffany calls and asks Jesse to drive the two dolls toHackensack, New Jersey, where Chucky's body is buried, in exchange for a thousand dollars. Eager to marry Jade and needing money for it, Jesse accepts.
Jade's strict uncle, police chief Warren Kincaid, plants a bag ofmarijuana in Jesse's van to frame him. Chucky and Tiffany kill Warren, then hide his body in the van. Jesse and Jade begin their trip. The two are pulled over by Officer Norton, who finds the marijuana. When Norton returns to his patrol car to report it, Chuckyignites the car's gas tank, blowing it up and killing Norton.
Jesse and Jade flee and begin to suspect each other of killing Norton. Nevertheless, they marry. While at a hotel, another couple steals Jesse's wallet. Tiffany murders them in revenge. Seeing this, Chucky realizes he's in love with Tiffany. He proposes and they make love.
The following morning, Jesse and Jade flee with their friend David. David informs them that they are the prime suspects for the deaths, but he believes them innocent. After finding Warren's body however, David becomes convinced they are murderers. When Chucky and Tiffany reveal they're alive, a startled David is hit by a truck, killing him.
Chucky and Tiffany steal an RV to evade the police. Jesse and Jade instigate anargument between Chucky and Tiffany. In the commotion, Jade kicks Tiffany into the RV's oven while Jesse pushes Chucky out the window. Chucky forces Jade to take him to his grave. Jade retrieves the amulet from the casket. Jesse appears with Tiffany, now horribly burned.
As Chucky begins the ritual, Tiffany has a change of heart and decides she doesn't want to hurt Jesse and Jade, and tries to kill Chucky. Chucky fatally stabs her. Jesse knocks him into his own grave with a shovel. Private investigator Lt. Preston, arrives and sees Chucky alive in the grave, shocking him. Jade shoots Chucky several times, killing him.
After declaring the couple innocent, Preston sends them on their way. Tiffany springs briefly back to life and starts screaming, giving birth to a baby doll which attacks Preston.
After the release ofChild's Play 3,Don Mancini andDavid Kirschner decided that the series required a new direction, and decided against returning the character ofAndy Barclay.[9] Work on the film began in 1996, with the working titleChild's Play 4: The Return of Chucky, inspired by the release ofScream. Mancini said, "Like most genres, the horror genre goes in cycles and I think we can thankKevin Williamson andScream for reinvigorating the market. Over the years, I had been imagining new scenarios for this series. With his previous successes, we knew it was just a matter of time before we'd be bringingChucky back and David Kirschner and I both felt that it was important to bring him back in a new way -- we wanted to elevate the series and re-invent it, go beyond what we'd done before. And what we've ended up with is—incredibly—part horror, part comedy, part romance and partroad movie. It's a really cool blend of the genuinely creepy and the really funny."[10] Ronny Yu was hired to direct the film after Kirschner and Mancini were "amazed" by his filmThe Bride with White Hair, and was allowed to use his creative freedom and the ability to hire his collaborators Peter Pau and David Wu fromHong Kong.[11][12][13] The inspiration to create a girlfriend for Chucky came from David Kirschner after he saw a copy of the classicBride of Frankenstein in a video store. Mancini loved the idea and created Tiffany. He said, "After all, two dolls running around the country together and killing people a laNatural Born Killer Dolls orBonnie and Clyde is really pretty funny."[13][12] Mancini chose Tilly as his first choice to play Tiffany, after being impressed with her inBound andBullets Over Broadway.Gina Gershon, Tilly's co-star inBound, encouraged her to take the role.[14][15][7] In retrospect, Mancini commented: "Once we introduced Jennifer Tilly's character [...] that brought a certain comedic camp vibe [to the franchise], which I think is kind of historically a hallmark of gay culture," referring to the increasing use of LGBTQ+ characters in later Chucky films and TV series.[16] Several months before production actually began on the film, Kevin Yagher and his team began to create animatronic puppets for Chucky and Tiffany. For Chucky alone, nine different puppets were used.[17]
Jennifer Tilly provided Tiffany's voice-over dialogue during a three-day recording session held in tandem with Brad Dourif just prior to the start of principal photography.[18]Bride of Chucky was filmed over a twelve-week period in and aroundToronto, Canada. Over half of the film was shot on the sound stage. Exterior locations that were utilized included theClifton Hill strip inNiagara Falls, an art deco motel complex on Toronto's waterfront, an old army camp inOshawa, and numerous rural areas.[19]
Each doll required seven puppeteers to manipulate, a computer playback operator, and a puppet coordinator to act as liaison between the operators and the director. Three puppeteers handled the movement of each doll's facial features which were relayed through the use of a radio-controlled transmitter. All of the dolls' other below-the-head movements were cable-operated by the rest of the puppeteers.[20] The dolls' skin featured a combination ofsilicone andfoam latex, unlike the previousChild's Play films, where the dolls were only made of foam latex, a material that had to be painted in a way that made it very difficult to light.[21]
Brock Winkless, who is among the 17 puppeteers who worked on this film, returned as the puppeteer of Chucky for the last time.[22]Ed Gale andDebbie Lee Carrington performed in-suit as Chucky and Tiffany (credited as Chucky Double and Tiffany Double) respectively[23][24][25] during the graveyard scene.
The film's music was composed and conducted by Graeme Revell, who previously composed the music forChild's Play 2. Revell reused the theme from the second film within the music and it was performed by theHollywood Studio Symphony.
On March 31, 2023, Enjoy the Ride Records andBack Lot Music released Revell's complete score on digital and in a limited-edition vinyl pressing. It was produced by Mike Matessino and is a 140-gram vinyl 2xLP album with screen printed D side. It includes a gatefold jacket featuring new artwork created by Garreth Gibson, and Voodoo For Dummies replica double-sided insert.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Break In (Main Title From The Motion Picture "Bride of Chucky")" | 2:28 |
| 2. | "Hello Dolly" | 1:21 |
| 3. | "Incantation" | 1:25 |
| 4. | "Damien Putz" | 3:12 |
| 5. | "Captive" | 1:57 |
| 6. | "That's Our Chucky" | 1:16 |
| 7. | "Re-United" | 1:00 |
| 8. | "He Hasn't Changed" | 0:48 |
| 9. | "A Doll To Play With - You're Dead" | 1:44 |
| 10. | "Chucky's March/Chucky Attacks/She's Alive" | 2:28 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 11. | "Voodoo For Dummies" | 1:41 |
| 12. | "Warren Lurking Satan's Little Helper/Fitup" | 2:04 |
| 13. | "Airbags Can Be Dangerous" | 1:16 |
| 14. | "Harassment" | 1:02 |
| 15. | "The Master At Work" | 3:14 |
| 16. | "Getaway/Warren's Back/The Honeymoon" | 1:59 |
| 17. | "Death By Mirror" | 1:24 |
| 18. | "Plastic Love" | 2:22 |
| 19. | "Housemaid" | 1:04 |
| 20. | "Dolls Take Charge" | 1:39 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 21. | "Exhumation/Domestic Bliss" | 1:23 |
| 22. | "What Would Martha Stewart Say" | 1:19 |
| 23. | "Tiffany Gets Baked/Escaping The Wreck" | 2:04 |
| 24. | "The Amulet/Hostage Exchange" | 4:13 |
| 25. | "Tiffany Kills Chucky" | 1:46 |
| 26. | "Doll Fight/Jade Kills Chucky" | 2:34 |
| 27. | "Child's Play 5" | 1:40 |
| 28. | "End Credits (From The Motion Picture "Bride Of Chucky")" | 1:19 |
Bride of Chucky was released in North America on October 16, 1998, and grossed $11.8 million on its opening weekend. It has a total North American gross of $32.4 million and another $18.3 million internationally. It is the highest grossing film of theChucky franchise and the second most financially successfulChucky film in the US.[26]
To promote the film, Chucky made an appearance on the October 12, 1998 episode ofWCW Monday Nitro as aheel. He interrupted a promo betweenGene Okerlund andRick Steiner and, in addition to asking viewers to watch the film, mentioned that he was hoping forScott Steiner to win an upcoming match between the brothers.[27][better source needed]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 45% based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Bride of Chucky is devoid of any fright and the franchise has become tiresomely self-parodic, although horror fans may find some pleasure in this fourth entry's camp factor."[28]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 48 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[29] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[30]
Lawrence Van Gelder, writing forThe New York Times, gave the film a mostly negative review, writing that "the novelty of a bloody horror film built around a malevolent doll carrying the soul of a serial killer has worn thin."[31]Lisa Schwarzbaum ofEntertainment Weekly gave the film a grade of "D", calling it an "upchucking of cartoonish gore" that "leans heavily on self-referential gags".[32] Xan Brooks ofThe Independent gave the film a score of two out of five, writing: "Bride of Chucky strings together a series of humorous asides and knee-jerk shock tactics."[33]
TheLos Angeles Times' John Anderson wrote that "Ronny Yu milks the utter inanity of Chucky's existence for all it's worth and knows the conventions of the genre well enough that horror fans should feel total gratification--in the levels of both mayhem and grotesque humor."[34]Mick LaSalle of theSan Francisco Chronicle wrote that "No one will confuseBride of Chucky with a classic likeBride of Frankenstein, but anyone looking for nasty laughs will be delighted."[35] Marc Savlov ofThe Austin Chronicle gave the film a score of three-and-a-half out of five stars; he commended its visuals and "witty, pithy script", and wrote: "this fourth entry in the killer doll franchise is by far and away the best, a surprisingly affecting tale of pint-sized love and dismemberment that's remarkably well-done."[36]
Brad Dourif has saidBride of Chucky is his personal favorite film in the series.[37]
The film garnered acult following, marked by its distinctiveness and influence, while also establishing a devoted queer fan base and setting the tone for future installments.[38][39][better source needed]
| Award | Category | Winner/Nominee | Result[40] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saturn Awards | Best Horror Film | Bride of Chucky | Nominated |
| Best Actress | Jennifer Tilly | Nominated | |
| Best Writing | Don Mancini | Nominated | |
| Fantafestival | Best Actress | Jennifer Tilly | Won |
| Best Special Effects | Bride of Chucky | Won | |
| Gérardmer Film Festival | Special Jury Prize | Ronny Yu | Won |
| MTV Movie Awards | Best Villain | Chucky | Nominated |
The film was followed bySeed of Chucky in 2004,[41]Curse of Chucky in 2013,Cult of Chucky in 2017, and the TV seriesChucky in 2021.[42]
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