No Surrender Cinema: Chucky (S2 Ep1) “Halloween II”
After terrorizing us all in seven films and inspiring a remake that original Child’s Play franchise creator Don Mancini disavowed, Chucky returned to torment a new batch of unsuspecting civilians on television. The first season of Chucky premiered last year and became a huge hit for SyFy and USA Network, drawing viewers in with the perfect mixture of outlandish violence, dark humor, and a story that connects this new world to everything we’ve come to know and love about the killer doll. So here we go, one year later, with another edition of No Surrender Cinema that puts a spotlight on the serial killing kid’s toy yet again. Strap in for the season premiere of Chucky Season 2!
The end of the inaugural season of Chucky saw Andy (Alex Vincent, who’s been at this since way back in the first film) attempt to thwart Chucky and Tiffany’s master plan of releasing an army of evil Good Guy dolls out into the world. Remember, since Chucky can do his little soul-splitting trick, he can pass his essence into more than one host. When we last left Andy, he hijacked a truck full of Chucky dolls, only to be held at gunpoint by the Bride of Chucky herself, Tiffany. In an opening sequence that’s going to be nightmare fuel for any mint in box toy collectors out there, Andy offs Tiffany and has to contend with an onslaught of dolls who have cut their way out of their window boxes and are climbing all over the van. With time and options running low, Andy makes a last ditch effort to save the world from the same horrors he’s endured for the last 35 years and sends the vehicle (and numerous knife-wiedling Chucky’s) speeding off of a cliff, sacrificing himself for the greater good.
After that opening, we jump ahead to six months in the future, where the young heroes from Season 1 (Jake, Devon, and Lexi) are all trying to move on from their Chucky experience. The kids have all splintered off into their new lives while coping with the PTSD of what Chucky put them through. Jake has been sent to live with a new foster family, complete with a little brother named Gary who is the Robin to his Batman (Literally. It is Halloween after all.) The bad news is that this forces him to relocate from Devon just as they were officially becoming an item, although their survival of last year’s insanity has led to them being more expressive with their feelings for each other. Lexy and her family are out of the mayor’s mansion and living in a regular old house (by Lexy’s standards), and her trauma is being kept in a self-inflicted, drug-induced haze. The return of their three foot tormentor brings everyone together, wondering if this is all just someone’s idea of a sick joke or if Chucky has survived death and come back to finish the job. Since we can’t have Chucky without the title character, the answer is obvious, and this Chucky has a new master plan. Thanks to Andy making the ultimate sacrifice, the idea of world domination via an army of possessed dolls is out the window, so Chucky is looking for payback against the “meddling kids”. His plan is also a lot darker than any episode of Scooby-Doo I’ve ever seen, considering he shows up holding Jake’s new little brother hostage and holding an IED. Even when our young heroes go on the offense, they’re unable to stop Chucky from setting off the bomb, resulting in Gary’s death.
Naturally, none of the adults believe that Chucky is the one responsible for the construction and detonation of the bomb, so the blame falls on our trio of protagonists. Jake, Devon, and Lexy have gotten the reunion that they were hoping for, only it’s under much more sinister circumstances. The three of them are shipped off to a Catholic reform school as a result of the bomb incident, and it’s on the bus ride there that Devon suddenly realizes that they’re not just heading to any old reform school…it’s the same school that Charles Lee Ray in his human form once resided at! Surely this can’t be a coincidence, and when the episode ends with a delivery driver dropping off a large package (get your minds out of the gutter), it’s a foregone conclusion that Chucky (or at least one of the Chucky dolls) will turn up to wreak havoc. This is also a plot point made obvious by Season 2 trailer, which showed Chucky stalking his prey throughout the school at various points.
I really enjoyed the premiere of Chucky Season 2. The show is still wacky in its own charming way, but it retains a level of creepiness that at one point was lacking in the film series (looking at you, Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky). It’s even gone more than a little meta, like a scene where the kids are working out the whole Jennifer Tilly is Tiffany in the movies and within the confines of the show scenario. The death of the foster brother was unexpected, and I like that they “went there” instead of having Chucky kill off another useless adult character. The kids are the core of the show, and other than Lexy’s mom and sister, there wasn’t a character left with a close relationship to Jake or Devon. Building Gary up as a bright spot in Jake’s miserably scarred life in a short amount of time, only to have him in a grave by the end of the hour shows that Chucky will pull no punches, and that’s the type of horror that I appreciate.
Just like last year, I’ll be giving my thoughts on this season in its entirety once it finishes up, so fans of the show and this column can look for that in a future edition of No Surrender Cinema. We still have a lot of Wednesdays to go and questions to be answered (how many Chucky dolls are out there? Is Andy really dead? What’s going to happen with Nica and Tiffany? When do Glen and Glenda arrive?) and tonight provided us with a strong start. Make sure you tune into Syfy, USA, or Peacock each week to let the evil doll guide you through his path of carnage, that way you’re ready for my breakdown of Chucky Season 2 once the credits roll on the season finale.
