The documentary explores the cast, crew and puppetry behind the killer doll
By Rachel Walz
On Nov. 1, “Doc of Chucky” was released as a Shudder original. This five hour long documentary covers all seven Chucky films; the original horror focused “Child’s Play” trilogy, the comedic parodies “Bride of Chucky” and “Seed of Chucky,” and the gothic reinventions “Curse of Chucky” and “Cult of Chucky”. The documentary features interviews with cast and crew across each film, and gives an insightful look behind the curtain at the work that goes into bringing Chucky to life.
Creator Don Mancini conceived the idea based on other ‘killer doll’ movies such as “Trilogy of Terror,” but as a satire on commercialism and children’s advertising. His original idea was a doll that bled, similar to dolls that cry and pee, and came to life when protagonist Andy Barclay mixed his own blood in. Rewrites from director Tom Holland (not Spider-Man, the director of films such as Fright Night) led to the more simple story of dying serial killer Charles Lee Ray using voodoo to place his soul inside a popular ‘Good Guy’ doll. From there, Chucky’s story took shape, and the “Lakeshore Strangler” proceeded to hack, slash, strangle, electrocute and defenestrate any poor soul who crossed his path while trying to make his way back to a human body.
Chucky requires a lot of puppetry and a lot of camera trickery to work as effectively as he does. It can take anywhere from three to seven puppeteers to correctly control the doll, even for the most mundane of actions like smoking a joint or stalking a victim. A variety of extra puppets with different purposes and expressions had to be made; for example, a scene of Chucky writhing in agony while on fire in the original had creators building an animatronic designed to only flail its arms and legs with the aid of a drill bit.
Sets often had to be custom built to accommodate puppeteers and hide wiring from the audience. There are even times where human little people actors substitute for Chucky in quick shots where the puppets couldn’t properly do the needed action. The puppetry doubled in “Bride of Chucky” with the introduction of Chucky’s sinister bride Tiffany, and tripled with “Seed of Chucky” introducing their child, Glen/Glenda, both of which commanded their own unique puppets and challenges due to smaller body sizes.
The actor interviews are just as fascinating; from Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly discussing the fun they had voicing Chucky and Tiffany, to former child actor Alex Vincent (who played Andy Barclay in “Child’s Play” and “Child’s Play 2,” and would later return in “Curse,” “Cult,” and the television series) talking about his time on set as a child and his excitement to return as an adult, to actors lauding their violent deaths at the hands of Chucky, to Fiona Dourif, who plays paraplegic protagonist Nica Pierce in “Curse” and “Cult,” talking about how fun it was to work on set with her father.
The documentary also covers the LGBTQ history of Chucky. Chucky creator Don Mancini is gay, and purposely injected queer themes into the franchise. From the casting of queer icons like Jennifer Tilly (who played the love interest of Gina Gershon in 1996’s “Bound,” a film the franchise loves to give a nod to) and queer cult film guru John Waters, to the inclusion of queer characters such as David in “Bride of Chucky,” to the gender fluidity and exploration of Chucky’s child Glen/Glenda, who was explicitly named in reference to the queer Ed Wood film “Glen or Glenda” and was inspired by transgender friends of Mancini. This gives Chucky an extra level of depth compared to other slashers of the same era.
The documentary is not without flaws. As information dense as the documentary is, it only focuses on the seven films and neglects to touch on the “Chucky” television series, which is in continuity with the films and shares many of the principal actors interviewed in the documentary. The documentary also fails to touch on the 2019 “Child’s Play” remake, but that film was made without Mancini’s involvement.
The other major complaint is the long runtime. “Doc of Chucky” clocks in at just under five hours long. It might have made more sense to chunk the documentary into a mini-series; split the “Child’s Play” trilogy into one episode, then an episode focused on “Bride” and “Seed” due to their more comedic and meta-commentary aspects, then an episode focused on “Curse” and “Cult.”
Still, for the hardcore Chucky fan, this excellent documentary is a one-stop shop behind the curtains that proves Chucky right; “a true classic never goes out of style.”