3 out of 5

Directed by: Don Mancini

A little understuffed, but ultimately a rewarding redirect from the encroaching campiness of Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky.

Curse starts off seemingly far away from past CP business, with the wheelchair-bound Nica (Fiona Dourif; a bit of cheeky casting, considering her father’s long-running role as the voice of Chucky) getting an unmarked package delivered to the large, gothic house she inhabits with her mother (Chantal Quesnelle).  While, yes, that package ends up being a Good Guys doll, it looks brand new, and all of the suggestive chatter we overheard – about troubles in both Nica’s and her mother’s pasts – don’t seem to focus around any killer dolls, or names of previous characters we recognize.  The movie doubles down on this when Nica’s sister, husband, nanny, and daughter show up, with some typical – but well written and well acted – horror movie bickering sending people off to isolated rooms when a storm kicks up and that Chucky doll appears to go missing.  Mancini handles the tension well, but also plays it cagily, with only snippets of Chucky in motion, as though we don’t know he’s the one motivating himself from room to room, making knives go missing, etc.

But when one too many oddities occur, Nica wisens up and does a Google search, bringing up hits that tie us back to the five previous films.  From here on out, Mancini can open up more, connecting us to the series’ history, and tying Nica (and family) into things effectively from a story perspective.  Visually, some of the flashbacks done for this are a bit clunky, offset against an otherwise really solid looking flick: Michael Marshall’s deep, rich cinematography is of a higher caliber than the majority of horror, and the framing, taking notes from years’ worth of slashers and thrillers, is great, leaning into the predictability of focus pulls and odd angles to play up some scares.

It’s still something of a slowburn, though, and relatively low on gore and kills.  The gags we get are good but ridiculously short; Mancini instead lingering very much on Chucky, the puppet design of which is super creepy.  (And I didn’t mind the CGI work that other reviews seem to call out.)  Brad Dourif’s contributions are as eager as ever, but in exchange for Seed’s / Bride’s camp, the pacing requires a lot of Chucky snark scene punctuating, and it comes off as a bit forced.

Curse of Chucky is a good example of a proper reinvention of a franchise: going back to basics, while also connecting to the history so fans don’t feel disserviced.  It almost goes too low key, taking an incredible amount of time to build up to a reveal we’re already aware of by this point, but the commitment is admirable, and the end result entertaining.