Brought back to life by former lover Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), Chucky (Brad Dourif) finds his usual plans derailed by her unrequited desires.
Heartbroken by his dismissal, Tiffany imprisons Chucky in her home.
Chucky swears vengeance and Tiffany ends up dead with her conscience trapped in another doll.
United in plastic, the troubled lovers join forces to get a magical object that can undo the spell and release them from their doll bodies…
Released in the wake of Scream, Bride of Chucky was a second creative wind for the franchise. This was my first viewing and it was an immediate upswing from the previous sequels.
The introduction of Jennifer Tilly is such a master stroke. Her presence alone brings a heightened edge, a heightened sensuality and comic distance that immediately rewires the tone of the film around her.
In contrast to the earnest genre stylings of its predecessors, Bride is more in line with its titular inspiration, James Wales’ sequel to Frankenstein: more knowing, more melodramatic, more camp.
Tilly’s (and the film’s) more comic approach completely reorients the whole enterprise, and is key to the re-centring of the series around Chucky and his lover.
We get a pair of teen lovers to act as the normies, but they are basically the straight man to the central couple.
The other star pairing of the movie are director Ronny Yu and cinematographer Peter Pau.
This movie is absolutely beautiful to look at.
And it manages to be compelling without ever becoming truly scary.
It has gore aplenty, but it does not have the kind of basic slasher-style build-to-the-next-kill tension of its predecessors.
It is a testament to the storytelling that this does not matter.
In keeping with horror movies of this time, the film is filled with references but it manages to keep a grasp on the perverse love story at its heart.
And the film is not worried about making them likeable, instead making them as dis functional as possible.
What is fascinating about the relationship with Tiffany is how it humanises the series’ killer.
Chucky is no saint here - he is a petulant abuser who is introduced treating Tiffany like absolute garbage, and she throws it right back at him.
While their path to rekindled romance is obvious, there is an undercurrent of distrust following their reunion that provides the film with its one real edge of danger.
With a hilariously melodramatic finale, Bride is a fun, wild ride. Not my favourite, but a welcome change of pace. And Tilly is dynamite.
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