George Taylor While I'm not a fan of Chucky - no doll could be more terrifying than Talking Tina from the Twilight Zone, this one where Chucky's human girlfriend puts her own spirit into a doll to be with him, is pretty damn funny. One just has to turn off one's brain to enjoy it.

hellholehorror Brilliant comedy horror! At the time of writing I haven't seen the original Chucky but I have seen the two previous dire sequels. This sequel is original, comic and very entertaining with brilliant catchphrases and Jennifer Tilly looking and acting stunningly sultry. The violence is entertaining and the story good. Sometimes the computer effects take over too much and the film is not scary but other than that this is a solid, well-directed, highly entertaining film which is a sequel but could happily stand on its own with a bit more back-story explanation.

gwnightscream This 1998 horror sequel stars Jennifer Tilly, Katherine Heigl, Nick Stabile, John Ritter and Brad Dourif. In this installment, we meet Chucky's girlfriend, Tiffany (Tilly) who is also a serial killer and she revives Chucky. Soon, Chucky makes her like him and plans to find an amulet that's buried with his corpse. They sneak a ride with 2 teen lovers, Jesse (Stabile) and Jade (Heigl) who plan to elope. Along the way, Chucky and Tiffany bring carnage and decide to get married too. The late, Ritter plays Jade's uncle, Warren who is a police chief and Dourif returns to voice Chucky. This isn't great, but watchable and Tilly and Dourif are the only good things about it in my opinion.

MaximumMadness After pretty definitely dying off in the early 90's due to audience apathy and a string of borderline-flops, the slasher-film genre was revitalized thanks to master director Wes Craven's wonderful and subversive self-aware 1996 horror-comedy "Scream." Realizing that slasher horror could be "hip" and "cool" again with the postmodern twist that "Scream" added to spice-up its storyline, it quickly became in-vogue for studios and filmmakers to add a self-satirical meta angle to many new horror features released in its wake. And one of the most successful films to implement this new leaning towards comedy was certainly 1998's delightful and twisted "Bride of Chucky"- the fourth film in the popular cult-series "Child's Play."Directed by the fantastic Ronny Yu from a script by "Child's Play" series creator Don Mancini, "Bride of Chucky" might just be the best film of the entire franchise. After the somewhat disastrous third entry made seven years prior, the series sort-of imploded and there was a time where there was doubt we'd ever even see Chucky on the big screen again. Thankfully, the wait was worth it. "Bride of Chucky" is fantastically entertaining, and the newfound self-aware humor adds a lot to the film. By that time, audiences had wised up to the formula of the series and another bland retread would have fallen flat. By giving us such a radical and humorous departure, Mancini and Yu injected some much-need fresh blood into the "Chucky" experience. It was hilarious. It was unexpected. And it was exactly what Chucky needed at the time to win back audiences who had grown tired of his old antics by the time the third film had rolled out.Jennifer Tilly stars as Tiffany, the former lover of the infamous "Lakeshore Strangler" Charles Lee Ray- who had transferred his soul into a children's doll known as Chucky. (Voiced by Brad Dourif) Longing to be reunited with her lost love, she manages to get her hands on the mangled corpse of Chucky and re-assembles him, bringing him back to life with a copy of "Voodoo for Dummies." While their reunion goes well at first, Tiffany finds herself crestfallen when she learns that Chucky never intended to marry her, and she betrays him by locking him in a playpen. Escaping, Chucky murders his former flame and transfers her soul into a female doll in a twisted bid for vengeance. Now, the angry couple must figure out a way to get their souls into new human hosts once and for all... and they have their eyes set on Tiffany's trailer-park neighbor Jesse (Nick Stabile) and his girlfriend Jade. (A pre-fame Katherine Heigl)The fun of the film really lays in the shockingly sweet (in a twisted way) romance of Chucky and Tiffany. It's almost a demented parody of romantic comedies, and they have absolutely remarkable chemistry together. Dourif as always is a blast as Chucky, and it's a ton of fun seeing him saddled with a romantic interest in Tilly's Tiffany, as they repeatedly get on each-other's nerves, but also do have some genuinely cute moments together. It adds a lot of flavor and character to the proceedings seeing them bonding over butchering innocent victims. Stabile and Heigl are also a lot of fun as our somewhat hapless protagonists (who find themselves blamed for the murders committed by the demonic dolls), and there's also a really fun supporting performance by the late and great John Ritter as Jade's strict police-chief uncle who raised her in an oppressive environment. The cast is just a blast.Mancini's script is tight, concise and never fails do deliver laughs with each scene. He also throws in the occasional shock and scare to keep horror fans happy. I've always admired how daring Mancini is with his characters, and he's never afraid to take a risk with the material, whether it works (as it does here) or not. ("Seed of Chucky" being a good example of him going a bit too far.) Ronny Yu is a really great visual artist, and his completely insane sensibilities perfectly compliment the material, as he relishes in delivering gags and gore by the boat-load. I also really admired the musical score by the talented composer Graeme Revell, who had previously delivered a Gothic and operatic score in the series' second installment. Revell's music this time around is a bit more subdued, but works perfectly for the devilish romance between our murderous leads, and I think it's among his best work.There's really not much I can say to the detriment of "Bride of Chucky", besides some minor nitpicks I had with a few of the scares and kills. It's just a fun, entertaining and often strangely adorable film, and I think it still stands tall as one of the best of the series. It might not have been the film that fans were expecting when they found out Chucky was coming back for a fourth installment... but it was the film the series needed at the time to reinvigorate audience interest and evolve as a legitimate franchise.As a horror fan, I have to give "Bride of Chucky" a near-perfect 9 out of 10.