Seed of Chucky

Seed of Chucky
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Don Mancini
Produced by	David Kirschner
Written by	Don Mancini
Starring	Jennifer Tilly Brad Dourif Billy Boyd Redman Hannah Spearritt Steve Lawton John Waters
Music by	Pino Donaggio
Cinematography	Vernon Layton
Editing by	Chris Dickens
Distributed by	Rogue Pictures
Release date(s)	November 12, 2004 (2004-11-12)
Running time	87 minutes
Country	Romania United States United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	$12 million[1]
Box office	$24,829,644

Seed of Chucky, also known as Child's Play 5: Seed of Chucky or Child's Play 5, is a 2004 horror comedy film, which is the fifth entry in the Child's Play series. The film was written and directed by Don Mancini, who created Child's Play and has written all sequels to date. With this entry, Mancini marked his directorial debut.

Seed of Chucky follows the events of Bride of Chucky and stars Jennifer Tilly (who plays herself and also voices Tiffany), Billy Boyd (as the voice of Glen/Glenda), Brad Dourif (as Chucky), Steve Lawton (as Stan). The film features rapper Redman, cult director John Waters, and S Club 7 star Hannah Spearritt.

The film, shot in Romania, continues the series' evolution from the pure-horror genre of the first film to a hybrid horror-comedy. Besides spoofing other horror films, the film references domestic dramas and tabloid television. This film also counts as the first film in the series to contain nudity.

Plot

Six years following the events of Child's Play 3 and Bride of Chucky, the film opens with Glen (Billy Boyd), the apparent "son" of Chucky and Tiffany; born at the expense of his estranged mother Tiffany dying immediately after he was born (this is shown at the end of Bride of Chucky) and living a life of embarrassment and abuse as a ventriloquist's dummy who shortly said he found him long ago in the cemetery of where Glen's mother died. Desperate to know his parents (after seeing behind the scenes footage of the Child's Play movie-within-a-movie on TV), Glen escapes and tracks them down to Hollywood.

Upon tracking down his parents, who are now dummies in one of Jennifer Tilly's films, Glen uses a voodoo amulet (the "Heart of Damballa" from the previous film) to bring them back to life. Shortly afterward, when Chucky (voice of Brad Dourif) finds out that Glen is his child, he faints while Tiffany (voice of Tilly) hugs her son. Shortly after this, Tiffany and Chucky have a dispute over whether Glen is a girl or a boy. Chucky decides to label him as a boy regardless. Tiffany disagrees, labels him as a girl, and calls him "Glenda". This may be a throwback to the Ed Wood 'so-bad-it's-good' film Glen or Glenda?.

When a puppeteer, Tony Gardner, walks into the room, he picks up Tiffany and begins taking her apart, causing her and Chucky to cut his head off with a piano wire. Jennifer Tilly walks in and sees the decapitated body and calls the police. Glen/Glenda is horrified by this, and later on (after Glen/Glenda explains that he/she is their child) he/she asks them why they murder people. Chucky tells him/her that it's a hobby and they do it to relax. He also states that it has been a tradition for generations. After Glen/Glenda counters by saying that violence is bad, Chucky claims that it is violins that are bad, and that "their screechy music's gonna ruin the goddamn country!" Tiffany, on the other hand, calls it an addiction, and tells Chucky that they need to stop, since they have a child and a future to think about. She and Chucky make an agreement to quit killing, although Chucky pretends to agree, crossing his fingers behind his back and promising so Tiffany will shut up.

Meanwhile, Tilly tries to get a role as the Virgin Mary in Redman's directorial debut, but after Redman says that Tilly isn't right for the part and that he is going to go with Julia Roberts (who Tilly hates), Jennifer invites him over to her house. As this is happening, Chucky and Tiffany make plans to transfer their souls into Redman and Jennifer so they can be married with children. However, Tiffany says that she will not let herself get pregnant again, and decides to make Tilly the surrogate mother. Meanwhile, Tilly and Redman start to have sex only for Tiffany to knock them both out. While they are knocked out, Tiffany inseminates Tilly with Chucky's semen. As this happens, Chucky leaves and takes Glen/Glenda with him. After driving Britney Spears' (Nadia Dina Ariqat) car off the road, they proceed to go to a photographer's dark room. The photographer, Pete Peters (John Waters), had taken pictures of Tilly having sex with Redman, and of Chucky masturbating. While Chucky attempts to kill the man, Glen/Glenda tries to warn him, only for Peters to bump into a shelf causing a jar of acid to fall on his face. Chucky is overjoyed at this, thinking that Glen/Glenda wanted to kill the man. He takes a picture to celebrate.

Jennifer Tilly awakens the next morning without remembering the previous night. She proceeds to have morning sickness and realizes that she is pregnant. After telling Redman, claiming it is his, he states that this is impossible as she answers the phone. After Tiffany hears Redman's reaction, she is unable to control herself and guts him, hiding his body in a closet. The next day, Jennifer Tilly awakens and is horrified to find herself with a fully pregnant belly. The voodoo magic that "fuels" the killer dolls has also accelerated the pregnancy. Tilly is then captured by Chucky and her chauffeur, Stan (serving as a replacement body for Chucky due to Redman's death). Tilly's assistant, Joan (Hannah Spearritt), concerned about her boss, tries to help her, but she is killed after she is lit on fire and falls to her death. Although it seems that Tiffany eliminated Joan, it is revealed that it was Glen who turned into Glenda (it is revealed two souls share Glen's body, shocking both of his parents and himself after Tiffany snaps him out of it). Chucky puts a cloth in Tilly's mouth to keep her from talking and screaming.

Later, Tilly gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and it is then that Chucky has an epiphany. After several years of being an infamous killer doll, Chucky finally accepts (and embraces) his circumstances. Disturbed, Tiffany rejects Chucky and resolves to take Glen with her. However, an enraged and emotionally shattered Chucky throws a knife at Jennifer, but Stan jumps in front of it and is killed. Before Stan dies, he tries to tell Jennifer that he loves her. Tiffany takes the knife and throws it at Chucky. Before he can take it and before Glen can decide which baby to possess, the police arrive, forcing the dolls to flee. Jennifer is rushed to the hospital, once she is found by the cops. Tilly claims she wants to see her babies. While looking at her twins' pictures, Tiffany takes a needle and drugs Tilly. She tries to possess Tilly, but Chucky breaks the door with an axe and kills Tiffany after she possesses Tilly. Glen/Glenda becomes enraged by this and attacks Chucky, Jennifer then passed the axe to Glen/Glenda which he/she then throws at Chucky. Chucky believed it was Glenda who attacked him but it turns out it was Glen, then he cuts off Chucky's arms and legs then he cuts off Chucky's head. After suffering an emotional breakdown, Jennifer (really Tiffany in Tilly's body) comforts her son.

Five years later, in 2009, in a middle of a birthday party, a woman quits her job as a nanny because Jennifer's daughter stares at her with hate. Jennifer gradually lets her quit, only to kill her when she turns away, and Jennifer's eyes switch to Tiffany's, meaning they have now switched places; Tiffany in Jennifer's body, while the real Jennifer is assumed to be dead. Glen now takes the body of the son, and at the twins' birthday party, receives a strange present with no name. When Glen opens the present, he sees it's Chucky's right arm. Glen, frightened, starts twitching and wets his pants (for the third time). When he turns around, Chucky's arm grabs him and he begins screaming while Chucky's laugh is heard, meaning he will return.

Cast

• Jennifer Tilly as Herself / Voice of Tiffany
• Brad Dourif as Voice of Chucky
• Billy Boyd as Voice of Glen Ray/Glenda Ray
• Redman as Himself
• Hannah Spearritt as Joan
• John Waters as Pete Peters
• Jason Flemyng as Santa
• Steve Lawton as Stan
• Tony Gardner as Himself
• Martha Stewart (uncredited, archive footage) as Herself
• Nadia Dina Ariqat as Britney Spears

Production

There was an opening scene cut from the final script of the film. Originally, Jesse (Nick Stabile) and Jade (Katherine Heigl) from Bride of Chucky were to be killed in the opening in what appeared to be Glen's dream sequence, only for him to wake up on a playground covered in blood, meaning he really killed them. This idea was dropped in the final draft of the film.

Release and reception

Box office

Seed of Chucky opened at #4 with $8,774,520 on November 12–14, 2004. When the film closed on December 23, 2004, the domestic gross was $17,083,732 and $24,829,644 worldwide.^[2]

In Australia, Seed of Chucky opened at #8 with $260,958 for the week of February 6–8, 2005 behind Million Dollar Baby (#2) and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (#6). In Australia, Seed of Chucky was distributed by United International Pictures.

In France, Seed of Chucky opened at #11 with $694,948 for the week of March 2–8, 2005. It opened behind Le Couperet (#2) and the remake of Assault of Precinct 13 (#4). In France, Seed of Chucky was distributed by SND Distribution.

In the United Kingdom, Seed of Chucky opened at #10 with $202,022 for the week of May 13–15, 2005. It opened behind Monster-in-Law (#2), The Jacket (#8), and A Good Woman (#9). In the United Kingdom, Seed of Chucky was distributed by Momentum Pictures.

Critical reception

The film received negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a certified 32% rating with 23 fresh ratings. On Metacritic, it has an average score of 46, indicated mixed to average reviews.

Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four stating, "Seed of Chucky is actually two movies, one wretched, the other funny."^[3] Leonard Maltin regarded this film as a "travesty" to the Child's Play film franchise.

The film was considered by fans to be non-canon to the series because there were little to no references to any of the last four films (other than the Chucky and Tiffany storyline), but they did mention they recovered the dolls from the scene.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ Seed of Chucky at Box Office Mojo
2. ^ "Seed of Chucky (2004) - Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=seedofchucky.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-05. 
3. ^ http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041111/REVIEWS/41110001

External links

• Official website
• Seed of Chucky at the Internet Movie Database
• Seed of Chucky at AllRovi
• Seed of Chucky at Box Office Mojo
• Seed of Chucky at Rotten Tomatoes