LIVING WITH CHUCKY explores the iconic Child’s Play franchise through a personal and social perspective
The Chucky franchise has been a fascinating one to observe over the past 30 years. The perseverance of this horror icon through the decades and the evolving nature of these films is truly something stunning to behold. So it’s no wonder that Kyra Elise Gardener’s Living With Chucky is a perfect encapsulation of what it’s like to work and ultimately live in this comically horror-infused world. There was no better person to handle this material with such care and attention and introspection as well as Kyra did.
‘Living with Chucky’ chronicles the long-standing horror franchise from its inception with 1988’s Child’s Play and continues until the latest film Cult of Chucky (2017). The documentary is divided into small chapters, talking about each movie in the franchise, the thought process, and the evolution of the franchise as the subsequent sequels were being developed, and all the actors and creative people behind the camera that worked on them. It’s fascinating to deep dive into this franchise, which was originally constructed as a straight horror movie about this killer doll agonizing a little boy.
The movie goes in depth regarding the characters, and the design, deconstructing the themes of capitalism and how that served as the basis for the first Child’s Play. There are a lot of fascinating behind-the-scenes tidbits regarding the filmmaking process, and how they made this seemingly innocuous doll come to life and terrorize and haunt so many characters on the big screen. It really shows the effectiveness of cinema and how you can really sell an idea or a concept by how well you execute it on film.
A lot of the documentary is analyzed through the eyes of the writer and creator of Chucky, Don Mancini. He goes into detail about how his process was as a writer and collaborator. He shows his evolution as a writer with every subsequent sequel and shows the viewer how he started getting more and more comfortable with the characters and the universe he built with each successive film. Mancini gives you a nice deep dive into his methodology as a writer and shows how he tried to course correct and evolve the franchise into something different by every iteration, weaving his narrative together as it went along.
The Chucky franchise is an odd one because as the documentary proposes, most horror franchises either go in two directions, more comedic or to space. I think most people are thankful that Chucky didn’t go to space. But even though they decided to go more comedic in tone, it ultimately revitalized the franchise and made it endure far longer than most other horror franchises have, since most have been relegated to having to reboot to maintain relevance. Chucky wears all its colorful unique threads on its sleeve and embraces the camp in a way that functions and ultimately make it more unique as a result.
The movie interviews a lot of the key players in the franchise, such as Brad Dourif, who has voiced the killer doll since the very beginning, Jennifer Tilly, who came after the fourth movie and revitalized and brought new energy into a dying franchise, Alex Vincent who plays the little boy Andy and many many more. It’s enthralling hearing them speak about their characters, what it means to them and what they added to the universe they help build.
Another element that not a lot of people discuss at length is the fact that the Chucky franchise is exceedingly inclusive and welcoming to diverse characters, ranging from women to LGBTQ folk. From Chucky’s and Tiffany’s son being transgender to having John Waters featured in one of the films and casting Jennifer Tilly and Fiona Dourif in immensely prevalent roles throughout the series. It’s something that’s analyzed in the documentary as well, how prevalent and explicit these voices are seen and heard within these movies. Which I think adds to the universality of this series of films.
Living with Chucky also shows the struggle most horror series face as it deals with subsequent sequels making less and less money. This was never a deterrent for these creatives, which ultimately found creative ways to continue telling their narrative and expanding on it further and further while also connecting back to the first movies, weaning everything into one connective story spanning decades.
The documentary took a sharp unexpected turn however and made the whole experience especially wholesome as a result. Two-thirds into the documentary it’s revealed that the daughter of the great visual effect supervisor Tony Gardner is the interviewer and director of this documentary. The movie suddenly shifts focus as it becomes a sort of family reunion and walks down memory lane of this little girl who grew up essentially with a second family, a family that just so happens to be very involved with a franchise about a killer doll. It’s beautiful seeing these family threads repeat themselves through another family connection, that being Fiona Dourif, the daughter of the voice of Chucky himself, Brad Dourif.
What follows is a tender moment where these two daughters reminisce and candidly remember their times being on set as children and growing up with this extended family and ultimately becoming a part of these films they watched for so many years. The project has a homemade feel to it, which helps it feel more earnest and intimate. It relies on talking heads and it’s constructed in a tremendously simple way, but it’s effective nevertheless based purely on the charm and charisma of the interviewees.
Living with Chucky is a very personal project constructed with love and tenderness, one that analyzes this long-standing franchise from an endearing and thoughtful perspective. Chucky fans will get a lot out of it and ultimately feel extremely emotional seeing all these actors, filmmakers and creators discuss these films and this long journey into becoming a big extended family.
‘Living With Chuky’ was screened at Fantastic Fest 2022 and will be streaming throughout the Fall at upcoming festivals courtesy of Yellow Veil Pictures.
Want to discuss things further? Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram. And for more film, gaming, anime, and TV news, trailers, and updates make sure to keep it locked right here at The Nerdy Basement. While you’re here, please consider supporting us on Patreon! It’s an easy way of supporting us so we can keep providing you with your Nerdy News!