Why So Blu?

Seed 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 least favorite entry in the series (and of most horror series in general), Seed of Chucky.

Film

Originally posted as a part of Naptown Nerd’s Chucky Retrospective 9/23/2013.

Everyone’s favorite killer doll returns and the Chucky legacy continues with the introduction of a new family member! This time around, Chucky (voiced again by Brad Dourif) and his homicidal honey, Tiffany, are brought back to life by their orphan offspring, Glen. Then, the horror goes Hollywood as Chucky unleashes his own brand of murderous mayhem! Featuring Academy Award® nominee* Jennifer Tilly (as herself and the voice of Tiffany) and hip-hop star Redman, it’s all about family values, Chucky-style!

After 6 more years, Chucky randomly pops up again.  During the era when this film came out, its sort of surprising that it wasn’t a remake or reboot this time around.  Granted, it was early in that cycle, but still, with another big gap in between productions, you’d think it might have been an option.  Plus, seeing the heights to which a rival icon, Leatherface, was brought back to relevance , a studio or writer/director might want to do the same for another.  In any instance, the man behind them all, Don Mancini, returns.  With this series, love them or hate them, you can really point to one person as to the blame if you so desire.  This time, he adds to his normal writing duties and sits in the director’s chair as well.

Chucky and Tiffany really did die in the previous film.  Their kid, going by the name “Shitface” is a part of ventriloquist gag routine.  Interested in it’s family lineage, Shitface traces it back to Chucky and Tiffany in Hollywood.  All that can be found though, is dolls on the set of a movie being made.  Using the series’ famed voodoo, Shiftace resurrects both of their souls into the prop dolls.  While connecting with their child and trying to figure out its gender (giving the doll the names of Glen and Glenda).  Chucky and Tiffany devise a plan to body swap into Redman and Jennifer Tilly and once again be human.

The previous film went more for comedy and it worked.  Seed of Chucky full consumes itself in comedy, being meta and being ridiculous and becomes a complete mostly unwatchable mess.  There are jokes of all sorts being flung at you almost nonstop throughout the runtime.  Most of them being unfunny pop culture jokes.  The scene where Chucky runs Britney Spears off the road and says “Oops, I did it again” is so beyond groan-worthy you pretty much want to his stop, throw your hands in the air and say “That’s it! I’ve had enough!”

What worked for the previous film is that the humor was relevant to the story and character of Chucky.  And for the series it was a new and fresh take.  It added to the film.  This one is constantly pulling you out of it.  Having Jennifer Tilly show up and play herself is cute for like 5 minutes, but for her to play herself and be an actual character in the film gets old and unfunny really fast.  I’m not knocking Tilly here.  She’s actually quite good, and I really need to give her props here for committing and being dedicated to this shitty little movie.  The fact, too, that Redman is here playing himself screams that he was like a 9th or 10th choice for who they really wanted.

All the Hollywood jokes here just aren’t very funny either.  And no, its not because any of them are dated either.  These gags weren’t working back in 2004, either.  There’s a humor that lies in taking something true about the industry and making a joke out of it.  But its another to take something that sounds like how a middle schooler who hangs out on IMDB that desperately needs to sounds cool or intelligent by giving crummy ratings and posts to classic films sees things and make jokes out of that.  This movie wallows in trying to do its Hollywood gags and loses focus of not only being a horror-type but just being a Chucky movie.

This movie is a pretty big chore to get through.  What’s good about it?  I like that they’ve continued Chucky’s look of being this scarred up monster.  And Tiffany was a fun character to return.  Glen/Glenda/Shitface has a cool design and is kind of funny for a little bit.  However, most of this will all wear off after 20 minutes.  If this film quit dicking around and actually had some focus, there might’ve been something at least mediocre.

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:  Seed of Chucky comes with a pretty impressive looking 4K scan of the original camera negative. Its not the revelation that Bride of Chucky was, but this is rather strong in itself. There’s a nice layer of grain that lends itself to finer details and better depth. Color saturation and contrast with natural black levels round out for a rather strong display.

Depth: Depth of field is pretty open with good scale and pushback that adds a lot of dimension and space in the image. Movement is smooth and natural with no issues of jitter or blur from any rapid action sequences.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and natural with great shadow, nighttime scenes and darkened rooms which still carry good information. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors are pretty strong here, with some good, naturalistic looks. It doesn’t quite pop like Bride’s transfer did, but this has a good palette all its own with good shades and tints easing through the screen. HDR helps with signs, displays, car lights, fire and more.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent from start to finish of the film. Facial features and textures are very strong 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: Seed of Chucky is a rather loud and impacting 5.1 mix that definitely delivers tremendously. This mix is balanced well for good horror movie stylistic volume and low level choices for good effect. There’s nice work on layering and depth with some excellent foley to really set this one to a high mark.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: The subwoofer is quite active, loud and powerful through all the songs, score hits, explosions, crashes, impalements, glass shattering and more.

Surround Sound Presentation: There’s plenty going on up front, but the rear channels do build a calm ambiance while also do excellent work in tracking between angle changes and helping things to travel back to front.

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp.

Extras

Seed 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. The standard Blu-ray also contains the Unrated Version.

Audio Commentary (Unrated Only)

• with writer/director Don Mancini and special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner
• with writer/director Don Mancini and Jennifer Tilly

Off With the Head: Tony Gardner on SEED OF CHUCKY (HD, 18:59) – Gardner opens with his introduction to the series, coming of Hocus Pocus with Kirschner and being courted with some opportunities for Bride of Chucky. He mentions that they had no reference materials in terms of the Chucky and Tiffany dolls and having to do freeze frames and take pictures of the screen from DVDs of the old movies. Gardner also goes into great detail on the puppet work here and the process they did in Romania shooting the film (including his own death scene).

Chucky Be Demented: John Waters on SEED OF CHUCKY (HD, 6:16) – Sitting next to Glen (“He looks like my type honestly, if I had to pick.”), Waters discusses how he loves the idea of the Child’s Play movies. He talks the cheapness of Romania and all the ways people were treated there (“I felt bad for the extras, they got fed like an apple.”). Jennifer Tilly is the “queen of Chucky” to him. Waters says he felt the prosthetic he had to wear for his death was “torturous” and a “claustrophobic nightmare”. “Horror is universal. If you’re a Republican or a Democrat and Chucky breaks into you’re house, you’re both scared.”

Slashed Scene with Optional Commentary by Writer/Director Don Mancini and Debbie Carrington (SD, 3:18)

Heeeeere’s Chucky (SD, 2:18)

Family Hell-day Slide Show (SD, 3:31)

Conceiving the Seed of Chucky (SD, 18:45)

Tilly on The Tonight Show (SD, 1:30)

FuZion Up Close with The Seed of Chucky Stars (SD, 4:26)

Storyboard to Final Feature Comparison (SD, 13:55)

TV Spots (SD, 2:07)

Teaser Trailers (HD, 2:00)

Theatrical Trailer (SD, 2:10)

Summary

I was quite hard on this film back in my piece from 10 years ago. I’m a little softer on the film now, but most of those feelings still remain, albeit I’m less irate about them. Scream Factory has definitely given it some love with a new transfer and a pair of new interviews to go with the older bonus material. It may not be your favorite, but Seed of Chucky is part of the family and should be in your Chucky collection with the others if you’re a fan.

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