Bride of Chucky

Bride of Chucky
Movie poster for Bride of Chucky
Directed by	Ronny Yu
Produced by	David Kirschner Grace Gilroy Don Mancini
Written by	Don Mancini
Starring	Jennifer Tilly Brad Dourif Katherine Heigl
Music by	Graeme Revell
Cinematography	Peter Pau
Editing by	Randy Bricker David Wu
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	October 16 1998
Running time	89 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$25,000,000
Preceded by	Child's Play 3 (1991)
Followed by	Seed of Chucky (2004)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Bride of Chucky (also known as Child's Play 4: Bride of Chucky) (1998) is the fourth entry in the Child's Play series. The film stars Jennifer Tilly (who plays and voices Tiffany) and Brad Dourif (who voices Chucky). This movie co-stars John Ritter, Katherine Heigl and Nick Stabile. It was directed by Ronny Yu, who also directed Freddy vs. Jason and The 51st State. Bride of Chucky marks the point where the series takes a more humorous turn, often into self-referential parody. Thus the change from the "Child's Play" in the title. Contrary to the previous three films, the violence in Bride of Chucky is punctuated by humor to deflate the macabre visuals. The film almost ignores the events of the previous films, but does reference Charles Lee Ray's death and Chucky's tattered appearance.

Plot

Chucky returns from the dead after being chopped up in Child's Play 3. He is reanimated by his girlfriend Tiffany, whom he left 10 years ago when he, as Charles Lee Ray, transferred his soul into the Good Guy doll. When Tiffany asks Chucky if he was going to marry her since he left a ring for her, Chucky informs her that he stole the ring from a rich old lady because it is easily worth $5000 to $6000. Tiffany then remarks, "So, you weren't going to ask me to marry you?" to which Chucky responds, "What, are you nuts?" and laughs. The heartbroken Tiffany drops Chucky into a playpen, intending to hold him prisoner as payback for the years she waited for him. While Tiffany is in her bathtub, and watching Bride of Frankenstein (from which screenwriter Don Mancini got the idea for Bride of Chucky), Chucky escapes by using a diamond ring to cut through the wooden bars. He then pushes Tiffany's television into her bathtub, electrocuting and killing her in the process. Using voodoo incantation, Chucky transfers Tiffany's soul into a bride doll. After finally settling their differences, the two decide that they must go to Charles Lee Ray's (Chucky's) grave to retrieve his magic amulet, because without it, Chucky and Tiffany will be permanently consigned to doll form. Tiffany hires next-door neighbor, Jesse, to transport her and Chucky to the cemetery where Ray's body is interred. Jesse desperately needs the money promised by Tiffany because he wants to run away with his girlfriend Jade, who happens to be the niece of a rather domineering local police chief. Chucky and Tiffany intend to appropriate Jesse's and Jade's bodies in the process.

Allusions

This film includes several humorous referential allusions not only to the Child's Play series (as in the line, "Chucky? He's so... '80s!") but to the horror genre as a whole:

• In the film's opening scene, Michael Myers' decapitated head (following the ending of Halloween H20), Jason Voorhees's mask (from the Friday the 13th films), Leatherface's chainsaw (from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films), and Freddy Krueger's glove (from the Nightmare on Elm Street films) are visible in the evidence locker.
• Andy Barclay is not mentioned (or even appears) in this film, except in the opening credits where a newspaper headline reads: Boy claims doll possessed by killer's soul.
• Although never mentioned, the time setting of this film occurs at least a month after Child's Play 3. The date on Tiffany's newspaper clippings in the opening sequence, and the date of death on Charles Lee Ray's tombstone are November 9, 1988, the release date of the first Child's Play film. Andy's birthday occurs in November, one day after the date of Ray's death. Andy is six years of age in the first film (which would make him sixteen in 1998), indicating that Bride of Chucky has to take place in December 1998 at the earliest, since this film includes references setting it in 1998.
• There is a character in the film named Damien Baylock. In The Omen, the satanic child is named Damien, while his evil nanny is named Mrs. Baylock.
• A certain Bride of Chucky promotional poster showing black-and-white silhouettes of Chucky and Tiffany with one eye blue and the other green, is a parody of a Scream 2 poster.

• In the opening shot, when a policeman is walking through the evidence locker room, there are several dolls that resemble (or may actually be) those used in the film series, Puppet Master. (The dolls appear in the first storage case shown, on the left side of the screen).
• When John Ritter's character is killed, his face looks much like Pinhead from Hellraiser. Chucky exclaims, "Why does that look so familiar?"
• According to the DVD's director commentary, Chucky was originally supposed to say to Chief Warren (John Ritter), "Sorry, Jack, but three's a crowd," after killing him -- referring to Ritter's starring role in the hit television sitcom Three's Company. (At the last minute, the director deleted the line from the script because he found it too corny. The joke may have also referred to the series' short-lived spinoff, Three's a Crowd).
• When Jesse (Nick Stabile) asks Chucky and Tiffany how they became dolls, Chucky replies that it is a long story, and that if it were a movie it would take 3 to 4 sequels to do it justice (a humorous reference to the length of the Child's Play series).
• Police Officer Robert Bailey, who is killed in the opening sequence of Bride of Chucky, is referenced in the sequel Seed of Chucky. Tiffany is trying to end her killing fetish and decides to atone for her killings. She phones Bailey's widow to apologize for slitting her husband's throat, causing the woman to sob and Tiffany to feel a sense of closure.
• Chucky says "Hi, I'm Chucky" twice in this film.
• Julia Stiles got the part of Jade, but later dropped out to play a role in 10 Things I Hate About You.