The Child's Play horror franchise has been making fans laugh since 1988 as the films are just as hilarious as they are shocking. Chucky is a brilliant character as the contrast between his rosy cheeks and youthful outfit and his killing sprees will always be memorable.
With eight movies and a TV series that is now in its second season, there is a lot of detail in the Child's Play franchise and it can sometimes be hard to keep track of it all. It's fun to dive into the lore of Chucky's horrifying history and how he becomes the killer doll that fans know and love.
In some ways, the Chucky TV show is better than the horror movies because it's so well-done with so many strong characters. Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur) is on a clear journey: beat Chucky and take back control of his life while saving everyone around him. The TV show makes another smart decision: keeping the lore of the Child's Play franchise. The series picks up where the 2017 film Cult of Chucky left off and delves more into the backstory of Charles Lee Ray and how he becomes Chucky, which is a welcome addition.
Don Mancini, the showrunner and also creator of the franchise, said, “Exploring Charles Lee Ray’s origins has been something that the fans have wanted to see, literally for decades now, and one of the reasons I was excited about bringing the franchise into television was because having so much storytelling real estate — eight hours of ‘Chucky’ — will provide it such a great opportunity for exploring that stuff," according to Variety.
Season 1 of Chucky explains how Charles Lee Ray becomes a killer through the use of well-done, creative flashbacks. One day in 1965, he eats an apple that contains a razer blade because it doesn't bother him. That same year, when a killer shows up in his house, he actually assists them in killing his own mom and dad. When he's older and at boarding school in the '70s, he kills the janitor without a second thought. Fans see how Charles Lee Ray and Tiffany meet: at a club where they discover their love of murdering people. This leads into the first Child's Play film from 1988 where Charles Lee Ray uses a voodoo spell to transform himself into Chucky's body and then's when the trouble and danger begins.
The Child's Play franchise has deep lore that can be tricky to keep straight as there is so much going on. In the sequel Child's Play 2 (1990), Charles Lee Ray/Chucky murders people as he tries to find Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) again. The third film from 1991 sees a company making Good Guy dolls again, which brings Chucky back to life. In Bride of Chucky (1998), Tiffany is the one who saves Chucky after he was cut up into pieces. This is an important movie in the franchise as Chucky murders Tiffany and moves her soul into a doll that looks like a bride, creating the duo that fans know and love. In Seed of Chucky (2004), Glen/Glenda wants to know who his parents are now that there is a movie in the works and brings them back to life but didn't realize that they would want to kill people again.
Curse of Chucky (2013) and Cult of Chucky (2017) focus on Nica Pierce (Fiona Douriff), who ends up in a mental hospital after being tormented by Chucky. While the TV show continues the story of Nica, it has some rough spots and isn't as enjoyable to watch as the other parts of the series. Chucky possesses Nica at various times and Nica is being kept in a house by Tiffany, who takes over Jennifer Tilly and is now in her body.
Child's Play proves some movies can't be rebooted as the 2019 film is one of the worst horror movie remakes. It also changes the origin story of Chucky and ignores the history that fans have become familiar with. Instead of being serial killer Charles Lee Ray transforming his soul into a Good Guy doll, Chucky is a doll who malfunctions and becomes a killing machine. An employee of the Multinational Kaslan Corporation removes any safety elements of a Buddhi doll and then takes his life, resulting in the evil doll that terrorizes the characters throughout the movie.
Since fans of the franchise have become so used to the connection between Charles Lee Ray and Chucky, it's hard to remember that the 2019 reboot removes this entirely. Andy Barclay, who is one of the best horror movie kids, is still the main character here, but without Alex Vincent's believable acting, the character doesn't feel the same.
The lore of Child's Play essentially sees Chucky being destroyed and then brought back to life, time and time again. It's logical, since it proves that Chucky is so powerful that he can't ever be destroyed, although of course that is Andy and now Jake's quest. Chucky is a timeless killer doll because he is ruthless and it doesn't feel like he can be stopped.
The lore of this popular franchise is both jam-packed and streamlined, as the movies do flow into each other, and it's nice that fans get a glimpse of how Chucky came to be in season 1 of the SyFy series. It will be interesting to see how season 2 continues this beloved scary story.