Bride of Chucky


Bride of Chucky is a 1998 American black comedy slasher film written by Don Mancini and directed by Ronny Yu. The fourth mainline installment in the Child's Play franchise, it stars Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, John Ritter, Katherine Heigl, and Nick Stabile. Unlike the first three films, Bride of Chucky takes a markedly humorous turn towards self-referential parody. It also departs from the Andy Barclay storyline of the first three films, focusing mainly on series villain Chucky, a doll possessed by a serial killer, and his former lover and accomplice Tiffany, whose soul is also transferred into a doll.
Bride of Chucky was released on October 16, 1998, by Universal Pictures. The film grossed over $50 million worldwide on a budget of $25 million and received mixed reviews from critics. A sequel, Seed of Chucky, was released in 2004.

Plot

In Lockport, New York, Tiffany Valentine, Chucky's ex-girlfriend and accomplice, bribes police officer Bob Bailey into selling her Chucky's remains. After murdering Bailey, she repairs the doll in her trailer and performs a voodoo ritual to revive him. Chucky later springs to life and kills Tiffany's goth admirer, Damien Baylock, much to her delight. Soon after, the couple get into an argument when Tiffany learns Chucky never wanted to marry her. Tiffany angrily locks Chucky in a playpen and taunts him by giving him a bride doll. Chucky later escapes and fatally electrocutes Tiffany before using a voodoo spell to transfer her soul into the bride doll in an act of vengeance.
Chucky explains that if they want to escape their doll bodies, they must retrieve a magical amulet called the Heart of Damballa that was buried with his human body. They decide the best bodies to inhabit are Tiffany's handsome neighbor Jesse Miller and his girlfriend Jade Kincaid. Tiffany calls and asks Jesse to drive the two dolls to Hackensack, New Jersey where Chucky's body is buried in exchange for a thousand dollars. Eager to marry Jade and needing money, Jesse accepts. Jade's strict uncle, police chief Warren Kincaid, tries to have Jesse arrested by planting a bag of marijuana in his van. Chucky and Tiffany seemingly kill him and hide his body in the van before he and Jade begin their trip, oblivious to the murder. The two are quickly pulled over by Officer Norton, one of Kincaid's cohorts, who finds the marijuana. When Norton returns to his patrol car to report it, Chucky ignites the car's gas tank, blowing it up and killing Norton.
Jesse and Jade flee and begin to suspect each other of killing Norton. Nevertheless, they marry. Kincaid briefly springs back to life, but Chucky finally kills him by stabbing him to death. While at a hotel, Jesse's wallet is stolen by another couple and Tiffany murders them in an act of petty revenge. Seeing this, Chucky realizes he's in love with Tiffany. He proposes marriage to her and they have sex. The following morning, Jesse and Jade's friend David arrives and joins their trip. David informs them that they are the prime suspects for the deaths, but he believes them innocent. After finding Warren's body however, David thoughtlessly becomes convinced they are both murderers and holds them at gunpoint. When Chucky and Tiffany finally reveal they're alive and threaten David with their own guns, a startled David gets himself hit by a truck, killing him.
Chucky and Tiffany steal an RV to evade the police. Jesse and Jade instigate a domestic dispute between Chucky and Tiffany to distract them. In the commotion, Jade kicks Tiffany into the RV's oven while Jesse pushes Chucky out the window. Eventually, Chucky is able to get the upper hand and acquires the amulet at his exhumed grave while also taking both Jesse and Jade hostage. As Chucky begins the ritual, Tiffany has a change of heart and decides she doesn't want to hurt Jesse and Jade. She attempts to kill Chucky, but he overpowers and stabs her to death. As he's distracted, Jesse knocks him into the grave. Private investigator Lt. Preston, who has been following the case, arrives and sees Chucky alive in the grave, shocking him. Jade steals his gun and empties it into Chucky, killing him.
After declaring the couple innocent, Preston sends them on their way. Tiffany springs briefly back to life and starts screaming, giving birth to a baby doll which attacks Preston.

Cast

Pre-production

After the release of Child's Play 3, Don Mancini and David Kirschner decided that the series required a new direction, and decided against returning the character of Andy Barclay. Work on the film began in 1996, with the working title Child's Play 4: The Return of Chucky, inspired by the release of Scream. Mancini said, "Like most genres, the horror genre goes in cycles and I think we can thank Kevin Williamson and Scream for reinvigorating the market. Over the years, I had been imagining new scenarios for this series. With his previous successes, we knew it was just a matter of time before we'd be bringing Chucky back and David Kirschner and I both felt that it was important to bring him back in a new way -- we wanted to elevate the series and re-invent it, go beyond what we'd done before. And what we've ended up with is—incredibly—part horror, part comedy, part romance and part road movie. It's a really cool blend of the genuinely creepy and the really funny." Ronny Yu was hired to direct the film in January 1998 after Kirschner and Mancini were "amazed" by his film The Bride with White Hair, and was allowed to use his creative freedom and the ability to hire his collaborators Peter Pau and David Wu from Hong Kong. The inspiration to create a girlfriend for Chucky came from David Kirschner after he saw a copy of the classic Bride of Frankenstein in a video store. Mancini loved the idea and created Tiffany. He said, "After all, two dolls running around the country together and killing people a la Natural Born Killer Dolls or Bonnie and Clyde is really pretty funny." Mancini chose Tilly as his first choice to play Tiffany, after being impressed with her in Bound and Bullets Over Broadway. Gina Gershon, Tilly's co-star in Bound, encouraged her to take the role. In retrospect, Mancini commented: "Once we introduced Jennifer Tilly's character that brought a certain comedic camp vibe , which I think is kind of historically a hallmark of gay culture," referring to the increasing use of LGBTQ+ characters in later Chucky films and TV series. Several months before production actually began on the film, Kevin Yagher and his team began to create animatronic puppets for Chucky and Tiffany. For Chucky alone, nine different puppets were used.

Filming

Jennifer Tilly provided Tiffany's voice-over dialogue during a three-day recording session held in tandem with Brad Dourif just prior to the start of principal photography. Bride of Chucky was filmed over a twelve-week period in and around Toronto, Canada. Over half of the film was shot on the sound stage. Exterior locations that were used included the Clifton Hill strip in Niagara Falls, an art deco motel complex on Toronto's waterfront, an old army camp in Oshawa, and numerous rural areas.
Each doll required seven puppeteers to manipulate, a computer playback operator, and a puppet coordinator to act as liaison between the operators and the director. Three puppeteers handled the movement of each doll's facial features which were relayed through the use of a radio-controlled transmitter. All of the dolls' other below-the-head movements were cable-operated by the rest of the puppeteers. The dolls' skin featured a combination of silicone and foam latex, unlike the previous Child's Play films, where the dolls were only made of foam latex, a material that had to be painted in a way that made it very difficult to light.
Brock Winkless, who is among the 17 puppeteers who worked on this film, returned as the puppeteer of Chucky for the last time. Ed Gale and Debbie Lee Carrington performed in-suit as Chucky and Tiffany respectively during the graveyard scene.

Soundtrack

  1. The Screamin' Cheetah Wheelies – "Boogie King"
  2. White Zombie – "Thunder Kiss '65"
  3. Coal Chamber – "Blisters"
  4. Monster Magnet – "See You in Hell"
  5. Judas Priest – "Blood Stained"
  6. Type O Negative – "Love You to Death"
  7. Slayer – "Human Disease"
  8. Stabbing Westward – "So Wrong"
  9. Powerman 5000 – "The Son of X-51"
  10. Bruce Dickinson – "Trumpets of Jericho"
  11. Static-X – "Bled for Days"
  12. Motörhead – "Love for Sale"
  13. Kidneythieves – "Crazy"
  14. Graeme Revell – "We Belong Dead"

    Score

The film's music was composed and conducted by Graeme Revell, who previously composed the music for Child's Play 2. Revell reused the theme from the second film within the music and it was performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony.
On March 31, 2023, Enjoy the Ride Records and Back Lot Music released Revell's complete score on digital and in a limited-edition vinyl pressing. It was produced by Mike Matessino and is a 140-gram vinyl 2xLP album with screen printed D side. It includes a gatefold jacket featuring new artwork created by Garreth Gibson, and Voodoo For Dummies replica double-sided insert.