Director: John Lafia
Cast: Alex Vincent, Jenny Agutter, Gerrit Graham, Brad Dourif
Have I Seen it Before: Not terribly dissimilar from the first film in the series, I’m relatively sure I caught at least large swaths of the film on cable over the years, but the poster was far more memorable than anything else.
Did I Like It: Is there any other horror series which more aptly eschews the normal boundaries of criticism. The first film is silly at its core, but somehow manages to harness a fundamental tension that keeps it afloat. Later films in the series are fueled by that silliness.
And so this middle portion of the series feels strange. By all rational expectations, this film should be a pale echo of something that had no right to work any level in the first place.
And yet, for a particular kind of horror fan, this film works just as well, if not even better than the first. The series begins to not feel the slight shame it had for itself in the early goings. Even if the final metamorphosis is incomplete, there is some pleasure in watching it begin.
Additionally, from a technical standpoint, this are far better. There’s far less of the need to dwell on the rules of Dambala and soul transfer—this series is still far, far away from making those elements at all watchable—and that allows a bit more time to focus on Chucky (Dourif) as a puppet, and that part of the creation has certainly improved in the two years since the last film. This one could get away from putting its central baddie in full view on the poster and not have the movie be laughed out of multiplexes across the country.
Ultimately, that elemental wielding of the series’ most basic elements is going to be the wrong direction to take things, but here things feel just insubstantial enough to avoid having anything about which one might complain. Small praise, to be sure, but given the state of horror in the late 80s and early 90s, that should all probably be read as fawning praise.