Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Halloween Countdown (Day 24: Seedy Till(y) Death)

I find myself running behind with the blog posts, as I took a break from the horror motif when a mate of mine called to my gaff, and he wanted to watch "Quantum Of Solace", as he was a big James Bond fan, and he hadn't seen it yet. And I thought I may as well do with a refresher course on the story so far, since "Skyfall" may be the second or third time that I would go to the cinema to watch a James Bond film (I know I went to see "The World Is Not Enough", but I can't remember if I saw "Goldeneye" in the cinema).

Because of the short amount of time I have, what with Horrorthon starting on Thursday evening, I thought I'd watch "Saw 3D: The Final Chapter", and write about it, finishing my articles on the SAW series. But it was so bad the second time I watched it, I knew I had to save that for the final blog entry of the month. And because I wanted to watch something that was at least better than "SAW 7" (or whatever it's called), I picked a film I was going to watch another time, as I only bought it today.


There was some joke about "Made In Japan" in the film.....

As I said in my "Bride Of Chucky" blog entry, I saw this film before the preceding one. I remembered it being very strange, as I didn't see the other films except the beginning of "Child's Play" all those years ago. But I did catch on to the fact that the series was taking a weird turn anyway, so even if I didn't see the previous films in the series, I didn't need to, as I guessed the "seed" was conceived in the last film. Which is handy, as you can jump right in without worrying about an ongoing plotline. I thought it was silly, but entertaining all the same.....oh and it has this actress in it.....

Okay now I got that out of the way.....for now.....

87 minutes later.....


Back then I knew "Seed Of Chucky" was different compared to the rest of the "Child's Play" series. But I never knew it was that bit different, when compared to the twisted carnage that was "Bride Of Chucky". While the film does have some comedic gore throughout, it plays off as a weird gothic tale of the unification of the Chucky family, thrown in with a parody of Jennifer Tilly, in which self mocking jokes are made of her weight, age, and her declining status as a respected Hollywood actress.

While the film itself does make a self referential sarcastic comment about her as "perfect casting" by the dolls themselves, it's still a fun concept to have the original actress tormented by them. Plus she must have a sense of humour about herself when there are so many jokes that are made at her expense,  so we do know that this is only an exaggerated image of the image of Jennifer Tilly. So we can get the irony of her auditioning for the role as the Virgin Mary in rapper Redman's religious flick. Plus she's in the movie a lot longer than in "Bride Of Chucky", vocal work for Tiffany aside. Which means.....erm.....oh just look at the picture above, you get my drift.

Along with Jennifer Tilly and Redman playing as themselves, we also get two familiar faces (well, one if you happen to live on the other side of the Atlantic) who meet their doom in this flick. There is cult director John Waters playing a nosy paparazzi, and it even has Hannah from S-Club-7.....they were a British pop band in the late 90s/early '00s, so I don't think they ever made it big in the States. Although they did have a film based around them, so I'm not sure if it was released over there. Hell, I don't even know the name. But I digress.....

Hannah (far left)

While the domestic disputes that Chucky and Tiffany had in the previous film were just a few brief scenes that were interspersed among the scenes of violence for comedic effect, it's now one of the main focal points of the film, alongside the Jennifer Tilly storyline. While it is funny in a sense to see Chucky and Tiffany getting used to raising their boy or girl; Glen or Glenda (again, I must watch that Ed Wood film), trying to set a good example by quitting their murderous ways, and the usual bickering that they do, it does however slow down the movie at times.

At times it looks and feels more like an odd Tim Burton clone than an over the top comedic slasher. And while it is a fun way of looking at the characters, you do at times wish they would just kill somebody instead of watching some (twisted) soap opera storyline. It does take a while to get used to, and it has some laugh out moments, along with the gruesome, weird, or twisted scenes (I think those three describe the Chucky "cup filler" scene), it doesn't have the same level of fun as "Bride Of Chucky" did.

The humour seems to be a bit hit and miss, and I'm not sure if it's to do with the semi-serious tone that's played out onscreen, or if whether it is just forced at times. The "Britney" scene was just a poor attempt at a pop culture reference, with a forced punchline that not even the inclusion of the real Britney Spears could make it funny. Although the reference to "The Shining" was actually funny.

Is it just me, or does this look like an alternate version of "The Exorcist"?

The character of Glen/Glenda/Shithead (the latter being the name the doll gave on the first meeting with the parents) wasn't too bad. Shithead does take a bit of getting used to, but does provide some comic relief as playing the innocent one in the family, who then turns into a psychotic, gender confused maniac later on. But like I said, the focus on the drama does make the film tedious at times.

The film sets look like it was made on a smaller budget (it was filmed in England and Romania, which explains some of the English actors, including Hannah from S-Club), the CGI effects do look a bit cheap and stupid, especially with the doll walking movements, and overall it wasn't as gory as previous installments. But it's a fun little film regardless, where we get to see how the "Seed Of Chucky" would have turned out. Speaking of which, I haven't even posted a pic of the Shithead yet.

.....okay that's a little bit weird.....


And on a final note.....


After a search on YouTube, I now know that "Seeing Double" was the name of the S-Club-7 movie. S-Club to be precise, as one of them left the band before its release. Not that you would care.....or me for that matter.


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