Why So Blu?

Bride Of Chucky – Collector’s Edition (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Scream Factory brings us an encore of their Child’s Play 4K debuts last summer with the remainder of the Chucky series now hitting 4K for the first time. Bride of Chucky, Seed of Chucky, Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky will feature some fresh new restorations and transfers to go along with some nifty new bonus features to round this whole thing out. They will all come out on August 29th and can be pre-ordered using the paid Amazon Associates links that will be on all of these reviews at the bottom of the page. This particular review, we’ll be taking a look at my personal favorite film of the series, Bride of Chucky.

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Film

Originally posted as a part of Naptown Nerd’s Chucky Retrospective 9/20/2013.

CHUCKY GETS LUCKY! … For ten years, the tortured soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray has been imprisoned inside a child’s doll. “Chucky” is reborn when his old flame, Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly), rescues his battered doll parts from a police impound. But Chucky wants his favorite playmate cut down to size, so he transforms his blushing bride into a stunning little terror. Chucky and Tiffany can’t wait to start their own homicidal honeymoon. When this demonic duo hits the road and hooks up with a pair of unsuspecting newlyweds, they leave a trail of murder and mayhem behind them.

After 7 years, Chucky was revived.  And a breath of fresh life put into him.  I’ll start off by saying this…Bride of Chucky is my favorite Katherine Heigl film.  Director Ronny Yu came in and “got it” with where to take everyone’s favorite serial killer doll.  This film fully realizes what this series is and has become and its not gonna bullshit you into “trying to take it seriously” anymore.  After 3 films, that luster had worn off.  And by the last entry it was just kind of lame and boring.  Bride of Chucky tosses attempts at suspense out the window and full embraces campy, comedy and over the top kills.  And I’m fully willing to jump on board.

While there’s a real life distance of 7 years, this film takes place 6 months following Child’s Play 3.  And since there’s no kids in the movie, that moniker is kissed goodbye.  And thankfully, this movie also drops Andy Barclay and gives us something more fresh.  Charles Lee Ray apparently had a girlfriend who she expected was going to propose.  Tiffany, her name is, steels the remains of Chucky from a police evidence locker and through some voodoo, brings him back.  However, upon finding out he had no intentions of marriage, Tiffany locks him up.  But, Chucky escapes, kills her and voodoos her body into a female dolls so she can see how it is.  The two then devise a scheme to get the trailer park neighborhood boy and his girlfriend to transport them to Charles’ grave where an amulet is buried that may help Tiffany and Chucky to swap bodies with the two teens.

I guess there’s some folks that don’t like this movie due to its tone?  Really?  This is Chucky we’re talking about.  The doll with the soul of a serial killer inside that shouts profane things at his victims.  Plus, this is the FOURTH iteration of it.  I’ll give you that maybe, just maybe, Chucky could still be “feared” in the second film, but by the 3rd its old news.  So, you either drop the doll premise (which is what the series is) or you step back and look at it from the outside and realize what you have.  Ronny Yu does just that.

Not only does this one feature humor and self parody, it also shows love to the genre itself.  There’s references galore to Chucky’s rivals throughout the film.  You get a Pinhead (if I mention Hellraiser again in this retrospective do I automatically have to do that retrospective on the spot?) reference after John Ritter’s character is shot in the face with a nailgun.  The police evidence chamber has Michael and Jason’s masks, Freddy’s glove, “The Crate” from Creepshow and Leatherface’s chainsaw.  A character’s name is a marriage of two people from The Omen.  To top it off, the theatrical poster for the film is a parody of the Scream 2 poster from a year earlier.

This film probably has the most recognizable faces of any of the films thus far.  Jennifer Tilly knocks one out of the park here in one of her career best roles.  She could have slummed it here, but she gives her all and really digs into the role and create an iconic b-level screen villain.  She is someone who actually holds their own to Brad Dourif (who i’ve not commented much on, but he’s been one of the best things going for the series the whole time).  Everybody’s favorite, Katherine Heigl follows up My Father the Hero and Under Siege 2: Dark Territory with this franchise film.  She has no reason to, but I’m betting she likes to act like this film never happened.  Alexis Arquette shows up, still at this point a male in a role that is one of the most stereotypical looking goth-rockers ever to grace the screen.  Finally, in a move that lets the audience know that yes, this movie is SUPPOSED to be making you chuckle, John Ritter plays the role of Heigl’s overprotective uncle.

On a side note…since John Ritter has faced off with Chucky and Jason Ritter went against both Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees…could we put Amy Yasbeck or one of Jason Ritter’s siblings in the next Halloween, Hellraiser or Texas Chainsaw films?

So this film does up the gore, but it awesome ups some of the raunchiness.  Everybody loves Team America, but damnit, Chucky did it first.  There is a doll on doll sex scene here and it is hilarious.  I’m not gonna go into description, you can just watch this shitty quality YouTube clip here and pretend its like that fuzzy Cinemax channel your cable accidentally picked up when you were little.

Bride of Chucky was the biggest hit of the whole series.  Was it the wait?  Was it because it was actually good?  Or does it just add to the late 90s horror resurgence and people would see anything?  I don’t know.  But this movie surely holds up and doesn’t have to worry about having the stakes of “is it still scary” or “does it still work”.  You don’t have set your brain to any sort of era or mindset for this one.  Just know that you’re gonna see some blood and get some laughs.  This is a film that fully grasps what it is, embraces it and runs with it.

Video

Disclaimer: Screen captures used in the review are taken from the standard Blu-ray disc, not the 4K UHD Blu-ray disc.

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 4K (2160p)

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail:  Bride of Chucky debuts with a 4K scan of the original camera negative. And boy does this look astounding compared to the previous Blu-ray release. It has an incredibly improved depth and the camerawork/cinematography stands out as more visionary and unique than every. Colors are quite striking and the image has plenty of fine details in a crisp, sharp picture that carries a healthy layer of grain that helps with all of those factors.

Depth:  Depth of field is quite strong and the scale and creative vision of the cinematography is now bigger, more distinct and confident with this transfer. Movement is smooth and filmic with no issues of distortions coming from any of the rapid action sequences.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and natural and really bring the picture together nicely to bring out the colors here, especially blues in many of the nighttime scenes and darkened rooms. Details shine through no matter how dark and no crushing was witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors really pop here. Blues, reds, purples, greens, yellows…you name it. There’s a nice palette here and it bursts out like never before. Neon signs, car lights, fire and more really light up the screen and glow with the advent of HDR.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural really have a bold color to them now. Consistent from start to finish, facial features and textures are clear as day from any given distance in the frame.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, English 2.0 DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: English SDH

Dynamics: I’m assuming this 5.1 track is the carry over from the previous Blu-ray. You also have an option of a 2.0 track (Which is probably a downmix of the 5.1). Its a very clear, crisp and loud presentation with good impact on the big explosions and heightened effects. There’s a good balance to go along with some solid depth and layering throughout.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer hits well on all the musical cues but also impressively on the explosions, crashes, shattering and jump scare musical stings.

Surround Sound Presentation: This actually does a solid job of working the room. There’s a lot of front, but many unique sounds have some good volume and impact in the rear channels. Music plays good and in concert through all the speakers. Sound travel is accurate and felts decently.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp.

Extras

Bride Of Chucky – Collector’s Edition is a 2-disc set that comes with the Blu-ray edition. All bonus materials outside of the commentary are found on the standard Blu-ray disc. While all these featurettes are coded for HD on the disc, the source is clearly SD.

Audio Commentary

• with director Ronny Yu
• with actors Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif and screenwriter Don Mancini

BRIDE OF CHUCKY Spotlight on Location (HD, 10:22) – A vintage little set report type feature that would’ve run on something like HBO when the film came out. Has interviews with Ronny Yu, Don Mancini, Jennifer Tilly, John Ritter, Nick Stabile, Katherine Heigl, Kevin Yagher and David Kirschner. Also includes behind the scenes footage.

The Making of BRIDE OF CHUCKY (HD, 10:58) – This is an EPK with the same interviews from the previous featurette plus Chucky and Brock Winkless, but does include some sound booth recording footage with Tilly and Brad Dourif.

Additional Deleted TV Scenes (HD, 2:40)

Theatrical Trailer (HD, 1:19)

TV Spots (SD, 1:02)

Summary

Bride of Chucky brings laughs, thrills, kills and some gnarly gore with a nice fresh voice from Ronny Yu restoring some life into the series. Scream Factory’s new 4K release of the film has a spectacular new transfer that makes this film look rich and as if you’ve never seen it before. The extras here are all vintage (Some carry over, some not on a disc before), but they’re all right. Come for the movie and its new image quality, its terrific!

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