There’s almost too much goodness (and some bad) on the new BingeCast. Movies, television, angry voicemails, new drops, new sounders, and nude hosts. What? Download now and join the party.
Head over to Patreon.com/BingeMedia to sign up for the Full Binge! This week Moreno hosts staff and listeners alike for a raunchy, drunk commentary of Halloween Kills.
I’m not sure there has ever been a time when a remake has come out when the franchise it is remaking is still going strong. But that’s exactly what we have in 2019’s Child’s Play. Original creator Don Mancini is still working the franchise he has been at the forefront of for thirty plus years. But original studio MGM was starved for a taste of the Chucky pie after selling the franchise off following the first film. Hence, here we are.
After months of antagonizing each other on Facebook about this film, the time has come for Matt and myself to finally review 2019’s Child’s Play. Is it as bad as we have been building it to be for a year straight? Is it bad at all? What can we expect in the future? Listen to the podcast that’ll be sure to piss Don Mancini off as much as the movie itself.
Five weeks and four podcasts. That’s as long as it took for Matthew Goudreau and I to get through the entire Child’s Play series, which ends right here with a review of the brand new release Cult of Chucky. With Don Mancini once again returning to the director’s chair, is there anything even remotely interesting or new he can bring to this killer doll franchise which he hasn’t done before. Better yet, how do we feel it stacks up against the others, and what could the future of Chucky possibly hold?
Matt and I also divulge what else we have in store for the future, which is pretty exciting and intriguing. But that’s for discussion on another day. For now, enjoy what we have built this series on, and get ready for more!
Here we are. Less then a week away from our first time viewing of Cult of Chucky, The Young Folks’own Matthew Goudreau and I, after this very podcast, are now up to speed.
Six years following the tease of a kid born from Chucky’s loins, original creator Don Mancini took up the director’s chair in order to tell its story in 2004’s Seed of Chucky. But instead of taking the series in new horrific directions, Mancini turned the fifth movie of the franchise into a slapstick farce, with a coming out of the closet story added for good measure. After the fun we had with Bride last week, did Matt and I think this was a good direction?
And then, nine years later, Mancini went the other way, and brought Chucky back as a scary presence in 2013’s Curse of Chucky. Trailers promised a return to form, and a brand new direction of Child’s Play seemed like the right way to go. But is this exactly a reboot, and why is there remnants of the previous entries in here?
By downloading the podcast below, you will find out our answers to these questions and more. And don’t forget, all of these reviews are leading up to a review of the brand new Cult of Chucky, to be posted next Tuesday.
Also, Matt and I talk about what to expect from us next Friday, which is probably going to be my most introspective show since I joined these air waves.
I have been wanting to read Hack/Slash for a long time now. Ever since I started reading comics religiously when I started working at a library, I always knew there was a horror comic market. I had seen comics of famous horror movie franchises and other types when I would get the rare treat of visiting a comic shop when I was younger. Now, I know all of these comics are out there but they seem to be somewhat difficult to get your hands on. This was one series that I was able to get omnibus editions for, so I was able to read the entire series from beginning to end. They definitely made a moderate fan out of me just with artwork and subject material. However, this book was not nearly as awesome as I think it should have been, and I was definitely let down by the end. When reading an entire series like this one, it gives you a real good opportunity to take a look at quality over time. When reading a series as each volume comes out, a little bit of each volume is left to carry over into the next. That 9-month wait for the next volume gives the volume a little added imaginary quality, just because of the suspense of getting a new book. When reading something all the way through from the beginning like this, you get to see where it all goes wrong. Unfortunately, Hack/Slash never seemed to get it right.
From the outset, they do a fantastic job of establishing Cassie Hack as the main character. The daughter of a psycho lunch lady, she sets out to slash the slashers as a career. Seeing her demented mother turn into a slasher caused her to want to fight back against the slashers for the rest of her life. You can obviously see where this common story is headed and that it takes a certain sense of horrific humor to get into it. Right off the bat, I was sold. A goth girl in a short skirt running around and claiming vengeance on the slashers of the world sounded perfect. All of that surface-level quality can lose all of its charm quickly when there’s nothing to back it up. The magic expired soon into the second omnibus edition of Hack/Slash and I found myself a little tired of the act. Part of it may have been due to the fact that I did indeed read the entire series in such a short amount of time, but it really just doesn’t have much going for it. The stories became very plain or way too complicated, and the art started to suffer as the words took hold of the page. Some of the highlights include Cassie Hack’s battles with familiar characters like Victor Crowley, Re-Animator and Chucky, as well as some fourth-wall breaking moments with Robert Kirkman and Skottie Young.
I think that horror comics should be made for people that are fans of horror film, but obviously you can’t cater to the long desensitized or your book is going to be garbage too. Now, there are several degrees of horror movie fandom, but let’s just stick with die-hards for now. Die-hard horror fans want to see their horror, and that is not what Hack/Slash does for most of its run. Sure, there are some bloody pages here and there and some gruesome things, but nowhere near the level that some of us horror aficionados are used to. The covers of the books were probably one of the best parts, as there are some great bubblegum Cassie covers and some more edgy ones with other characters. I enjoyed getting to the end of each omnibus to look at the cover gallery, as it showcased what enticed readers to the title in the first place. The covers definitely attract a certain crowd, and they hooked me right away. I gave it a shot and while there were some exceptions to the following statement, Hack/Slash for the most part is not worth your time. I would recommend it if you are truly looking for more horror in your comic lineup and haven’t found it elsewhere. Hack/Slash is nothing near what we horror fans would expect from its advertised content, but it did keep me interested enough to read through the series before moving on. It does have some great stories contained within, Hack/Slash vs. Army of Darkness unfortunately not being one of them, but overall it doesn’t do much to impress. If anything, just take a look at some of the covers in the Hack/Slash series and decide for yourself if taking a look around is worth the sacrifice in quality of writing.
The idea behind a sequel is usually supposed to be about going bigger and better than the previous installment of the franchise, right? So what happens when the studio decides to negate that basic principle and push out a quick sequel in the name of money? How many times have you gone out and picked up the latest installment in your favorite franchise only to get home and once the credits roll you just kind of sit there thinking…”well, that really wasn’t what I thought it wold be at all”? I want to discuss these moments, look at these sequels and dissect them in order to see if they made the right choice or gone in another direction. Are these sequels worthy of their predecessors?
First up is Child’s Play 3. I want to start off by saying I am probably the biggest Chucky fan you’ll ever come across, seriously. Child’s Play 2 was the very first horror movie I ever saw and introduced my genre of choice. Needless to say, I have a soft spot for the Chuckster. However, I can still admit when one of the movies is a let down (SEED….fuck you). So, let’s dig into this movie shall we?
Synopsis:
It’s been eight years since Andy last came face to face with the knee high killer doll Chucky. His mother still in a mental institute and his reluctance to make a home with any family he is placed in by his foster care, Andy is forced into attending Kent Military Academy. Upon arrival all seems until a package is sent addressed to Andy only to be stolen by the ever so annoying Tyler. Chucky is back, and wreaking havoc in the halls of KMA, its now a cat and mouse game between Andy and Chucky to save Tyler’s soul as Chucky realizes he no longer needs to have Andy in order to become human once again.
What’s so sloppy about it, and how do we clean it up?
The Characters:
I tried to make that synopsis as cool sounding as I could because honestly this movie is pretty boring at times. I still enjoy it, but I’m pretty sure that just comes from my love for Chucky himself. While, there are some positives to this movie I want to just take a look at what the filmmakers could have done differently. Let’s begin with Andy and the rest of the characters shall we? If we are going to jump so far ahead into his life why do we still have to watch a damaged and scared character? Andy is supposed to be about sixteen years old in this film, so why not make him a stronger more confident young man? Maybe start the film and he is already at Kent, actually got himself together at last instead of retreading on his old fears right at the start. The filmmakers really missed out on an opportunity to actually make a hero out of Andy, someone to be an actual threat to Chucky (I know how stupid that sounds considering the killer is a doll) which would have added a much needed sense of threat and suspense to the film. Having Andy filling the true hero role, maybe the next character could have changed a but as well…..fucking Tyler. Fuck Tyler, I hate this kid with a passion. If you can find a more annoying child character you can slap me in the face. Probably the single biggest misstep this movie has IS Tyler. The kid looks about twelve (meant to be about seven) and obsesses about the new Good Guy doll coming out….he’s also a damn thief, he literally steals the mail meant for Andy and opens it once he finds out there’s a Good Guy doll in his hands. I can go on and on about this kid, but this article would turn into a thesis paper, in short he sucks, he should have never been written this way or even been in the film. Moving onto the love interest, Kristen, a strong female character who trains Andy…and also becomes the damsel in distress at the end of the film. Why the hell would Don Mancini (the writer of every Child’s Play film) create this solid female and completely turn it around and make her utterly useless? It’s actually insulting. There are a few other sideline characters that actually make sense within the story: the overbearing Shelton, Whitehurst, and the garbage man. None of these characters really matter because no one showed up to see them, they showed up to see Chucky.
The Story:
We already took a peek at the story this movie has so let’s talk about what the filmmakers could have/should have done with this third installment. Let’s start with the time-line, why go eight years ahead? I would have much preferred that this movie picked up RIGHT when Child’s Play 2ended. For those who are aware there is a deleted scene that is included in the TV version of CP2 that has Chucky coming back from the dead and smiling at the screen. Now, if they had used that deleted scene at the beginning of CP3 and let that kick off the story that would have been amazing. It wouldn’t have felt as forced as the story we were being given as well. Having CP3 pick up where CP2 ended would have opened the door to answering some solid questions/ideas left open at the end of the second film: 1.) What happened to Kyle? 2.) Having the company behind the Good Guy dolls attempt to cover up and disprove the fact that Chucky is actually alive seeing that he HAS to be on some of the security footage. And finally number 3.) An interesting dynamic of the company, the police, and Chucky all hunting down Kyle and Andy for the events that took place at the adoption agency and the warehouse. Those three pinpoints are what I think would have made a better story/movie than what Mancini and company were able to give us.
If we look at the idea that was eventually given on screen, how could they have been reworked in the same movie to make it better? For one thing, as said above, why not start with Andy already being at Kent academy? It would have been cool to see him already adjusted to a normal life, moving past the events that haunted him as a child and becoming an adult. Once Chucky comes back we could see Andy’s entire world fall apart around him as he once again is hunted down by the pint sized killer. This film should have also stuck with Andy, fuck Tyler, cut his character completely out and make it an Army trained Andy fighting Chucky. The filmmakers should have toned down the humor in this installment as well, make the movie dark. They should have had Chucky be more menacing…I know, I know, we all love his one liners, but we also love the dark and menacing take a lot more (thankfully they brought that back in the absolutely amazing Curse of Chucky). If they chose to use those elements above this film could have been a solid entry in the series, however the way it stands right now it is just wildly mediocre.
The Resurrection and Death of Chucky:
The re-birth of of Chucky in this movie kind of makes no sense (not that it does in the alternate ending of CP2 either). His blood mixes in a giant vat of liquid plastic that only makes ONE Chucky doll…..why would a vat that probably made about three hundred dolls on bring one back with the sound of Charles Lee Ray within it? That’s just something that has always annoyed me, if not have three hundred Chucky dolls at least have two, it would only make sense. The death of Chucky bugs me too, these films always deem it necessary to kill Chucky dead, dead, dead at the end of each entry. I really wish they wouldn’t do that, why always kill off the bread and butter of the franchise in such a way that they need to come up with some bug assed crazy way to bring him back to life in the beginning of the next movie?
All in All:
This movie really has some problems, most dealing with the inclusion of the Tyler character and some of the chosen storytelling techniques. If they chose to go along with the original ending of Child’s Play 2 they could have had an extremely interesting part 3 instead of this slightly boring and poorly written film that was pushed upon us. With some changes to the story and exclusion of the Tyler character I think the basic idea of the existing third film would have been a much better and enjoyable experience.
