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Living With Chucky Review

April 4, 2023 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
Living With Chucky Image Credit: Screambox
7.5
The 411 Rating
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Living With Chucky Review  

Directed by: Kyra Elise Gardner
Written by: Kyra Elise Gardner

Starring:
David Kirschner
Don Mancini
Brad Dourif
Fiona Dourif
Jennifer Tilly
Alex Vincent
Billy Boyd
Tony Gardner
Kyra Elise Gardner
Lin Shaye
Marlon Wayans
Abigail Breslin
Christine Elise
John Waters
Adam Hurtig

Image Credit: Cinedigm Films

Running Time: 105 minutes
Not Rated

The Child’s Play franchise has always been a peculiar one within the slasher genre. I don’t mean that in a bad way; the horror series has proven itself over the years and is a fan favorite for a reason. But it’s also one that has been able to survive – and indeed, thrive – by its ability to change and adapt. Whereas franchises like Friday the 13th, Saw, Scream, Nightmare On Elm Street (outside of Wes Craven’s New Nightmare) and others tend to follow established formulas, Don Mancini’s killer doll film series has been willing to wildly shift its direction when things are working. It dove into horror comedy territory with Bride of Chucky to revive itself, and then jumped back to a more traditional horror tone with the underrated Cult of Chucky and Curse of Chucky.

But that’s not the only unique thing that Child’s Play brings to the table. The series is very much a multi-generational affair, with Fiona Dourif joining her father in the franchise starting with the aforementioned Cult. The family aspect is at the heart of Living With Chucky’s motivations. Writer/director Kyra Elise Gardner is the daughter of Tony Gardner, who took over the special effects and makeup effects for the franchise starting with Seed of Chucky. The younger Gardner set out to meet everyone in her dad’s “second family” who worked on the franchise, the result being a documentary that debuts on Screambox on April 4th and charmingly details the franchise and the talented people who have brought it to life.

Living With Chucky sets out to serve two main functions. First off is to provide the franchise with its own retrospective documentary that runs through the series’ history and tells the story of how it came to be. Starting with the state of what horror was doing in the late 1980s, she speaks with people within and outside of the Chucky films about how the little doll that could slay was able to launch and become a breakout success. Lin Shaye and Marlon Wayans are on camera along with franchise creator Don Mancini and producer David Kirchner, plus stars like Brad and Fiona Dourif, Alex Vincent, Jennifer Tilly, John Waters, Billy Boyd, Christine Elise, and many others.

The talking head-style interviews are something anyone who has seen any of the many other horror documentaries like Never Sleep Again or Crystal Lake Memories will be familiar with (or most other non-horror documentaries for that matter). But the way that those involved with the films speak about working on it and with each other feeds into Gardner’s overall theme about the franchise feeling like a family project of sorts.

Those with deep knowledge of the franchise may not find a lot of new information here; we hear about the inspirations of the franchise (Cabbage Patch dolls, consumerism), the technological innovations to bring Chucky to life, the willingness to shift genres and the queer themes introduced in the later entries particularly. And those who are looking for information on Child’s Play 3 may be disappointed as the film races through that less-regarded entry, though the film is admirably not afraid to shy away from places that the series went wrong.

But even for those who know most of the minutiae of Child Play history, there’s a lot to like here. A particular highlight is the fact that Brad and Fiona Dourif are interviewed together, allowing the two to react to each other’s stories. The warmth and admiration between father and daughter is emblematic of the way everyone speaks warmly about the people they worked with, which makes it an easy and often heartwarming watch.

That leads into the second aim of the series, which is to present what it’s like growing up with the franchise in your life. Kyra Elise Gardner was a young child when her dad joined the series, and like most families of those in the film business it meant that she was missing him for periods of her childhood when he had to go work on location. Kyra appears late in Living With Chucky to tell her own story, and even commiserates with Tilly about seeing her dad (who appears on-screen in Seed) get decapitated on-screen at a young age.

If there’s a criticism to be applied here, it’s that Gardner’s personal aspect gets a little bit lost until she more overtly comes into the picture, which doesn’t happen until fairly late in the film. But it’s also a fairly smooth transition and it allows the rest of the documentary from feeling too scattershot. It also allows the film to end quite strongly, offering insight into what it’s like to be a family member of someone who works on these films while also celebrating the “second family” nature of the Child’s Play cast and crew.

Living With Chucky debuts exclusively on Screambox starting on April 4th.

7.5
The final score: review Good
The 411
Kyle Elise Gardner’s Living With Chucky is a solid, enjoyable film looking behind the Child’s Play franchise from the perspective of someone who grew up with Chucky as a major part of her life. While long-time Chucky devotees may be aware of all the stories contained within, the documentary serves as an enjoyable love letter not only to the franchise itself, but also to the cast and crew who have brought it to life over the years.
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Living With Chucky, Jeremy Thomas