Seed of Chucky

Like A Nightmare on Elm Street, everybody's favourite possessed Good Guy doll, Chucky, has more or less traded in scares for laughs with the later sequels. But where Freddy quickly made the transition from everybody's terrifying bogeyman to a loathsome marketable doll himself — something few would have guessed in 1984 — Chucky has not only survived the change to a killer comic, he's actually a better man, or um, doll because of it. With Bride of Chucky reviving his career by giving him a wife and a companion killer, Chucky returns, with offspring, better than ever in this uncensored and extended DVD. Set in Hollywood, Seed has two parallel stories — one following the dolls (Chucky, Tiffany and Glen/Glenda) and their plan to become human and the other following the human, Jennifer Tilly as herself, and her goal to succeed in Hollywood — that collide in the end. Unfortunately, the weakness is the Hobbit-voiced third doll, Glen or Glenda (yes, like the film), which not only looks piss-poor but fails to provide the spark in his/her peacemaking attempts to intervene in his parents' killing spree. The guest actors are admirable, especially John Waters (a real life Chucky fanatic) as the snoopy paparazzi and Redman, who plays his pervy self. However, the true star of the film is Tilly, who is in fine comedic form, taking the piss out of her star persona and posing as the ultimate bitch diva unafraid of poking fun at her career and figure. Director Mancini has assembled a glut of extras that regrettably prove that quantity isn't always better than quality. His commentary with Tilly is difficult to endure, as the pair continuously butt heads in opinion, which gets irritating. Even worse is the "Family Hell-iday Slide Show," which exploits the often-funny family dysfunction routine with some corny images of the threesome on vacation with dead bodies lingering. "Tilly on The Tonight Show" doesn't fare any better. The two bright spots are the "Insider Facts on Demand" and "Conceiving…" The former is a guide for the feature-length film that provides interesting facts about the film that aren't all stimulating tidbits, but a nice option to have for those interested. The latter is a "behind the scenes" look at the history of Chucky, complete with stock footage, cast and crew interviews (including the dolls in character) and best of all, a look at the army responsible for working three puppets, including the five men it took to jerk-off Chucky. Plus: commentary with Mancini and puppet master Tony Gardner, interview with Chucky. (Alliance Atlantis)