Chucky season 3, part 2 review: This is (hear us out) a horror-comedy masterpiece
If you're not tuned into SYFY's series, you're missing some grotesque, gonzo, highly entertaining TV
Have you wondered what Chucky, the Child’s Play franchise’s violent and uproarious doll, would do if he got control of nuclear codes? What other disasters could this tiny, murder-loving monster unleash upon civilization? It’s a bizarre idea, so naturally, SYFY’s Chucky boldly tackles it upon its season-three return on April 10. By the time credits roll on episode five (or part two’s first installment), Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) has increased his body count and plans to start World War III. Besides being an obnoxious psychopath, he wants to decimate everything because no one else should live if he’s dying.
Oh yeah, Fuckin’ Chucky, as he loves to call himself, is on his deathbed. Just look at the photo above to process his rapid aging, but don’t let the massive wrinkles and thinning hair fool you. Serial killer Charles Lee Ray, whose soul inhabits the decaying toy, won’t let his vessel being in extremis stop him. Chucky is initially forced to slow down. After feeling too weak to lift a knife above his shoulder, he proclaims, “Now I can’t even get it up; this is embarrassing.” Thankfully, it’s impossible to keep a Good Guy Doll down, or Chucky wouldn’t be such a wickedly entertaining phenomenon.
Series creator Don Mancini keeps pushing the envelope each year with its horror and humor, turning Chucky into one of the best projects the franchise has ever produced. Hilarious one-liners and pop-culture references are churned out at the same pace as grotesque kills. It’s hard for a slasher to find comedy organically without seeming like a parody, but it happens flawlessly here. Chucky is fun because it’s self-aware and confident in its tone.
Before getting into it, here’s a refresher on part one: Diagnosed in a comical scene with being infected by Catholicism, Chucky is abandoned by his malicious deity Damballa. Without his blessing, Chucky faces deterioration and demise. To save himself, he must kill in the foulest environment for meaningful sacrifices. Our fiendish friend settles into the White House, canonically making it America’s most evil home (Amityville, who?). Chucky tricks the POTUS’ young son into taking him as a toy and luxuriously lives at 1600 Penn while beheading, maiming, suffocating, and crushing humans who work there.