Review: 'Living with Chucky' Traces the (Queer) Evolution of Horror's Favorite Toy Boy

Kyra Elise Gardner grew up with the evil doll Chucky. She's the daughter of one of the film's special effects makeup artists, and brings her lifelong knowledge of the freaky puppet and his franchise to the documentary "Living with Chucky."

This affectionate 100-minute film features clips from the eight "Child's Play" movies and 2021 TV series (eight episodes shot in Toronto), and interviews with stars including Brad Dourif, who voices the homicidal "Good Guy," Jennifer Tilly, the live action and voiceover actor for his bride Tiffany, and creator Don Mancini.

Chucky was one of a new kind of "relatable monsters" like Freddy Krueger, who peppered malice with humor, and were "hated but attractive." His genesis followed the possessed ventriloquist dummy Fats in Anthony Hopkins' "Magic" and the Talky Tina doll threatening Telly Savalas in a "Twilight Zone" episode.

The success of the "Gremlins" movie, which purveyed evil in small packages as well, heralded improvements in animatronics that allowed puppets to more effectively emote. Chucky's creative team was also inspired by the Cabbage Patch doll fad, wherein Madison Avenue advertisers set out to make children into "consumer trainees." They took the doll's full name from assassins James Earl Ray, Lee Harvey Oswald and Charles Manson: Thus, Charles Lee Ray, a.k.a. Chucky, was born (well, transferred Dourif's criminal soul into the doll by a voodoo ritual).

The possessed doll's receding hairline was inspired by Jack Nicholson, and his red hair by "evil archetypes." The creators consider Chucky a "resilient underdog," and say that part of his appeal is that "there's something funny about a child cursing." They also know that many people are afraid of dolls, because "their frozen expressions often cover misdeeds," and note that they can be "a gateway drug to horror for children."

"I never dreamed there would a sequel," one says when "Child's Play 2" was greenlit. Chucky's puppetry grew more complex, utilizing sometimes as many as nine puppeteers.

"Child's Play 3" premiered less than a year later, and was populated with more catch phrases like "Don't fuck with the Chuck." "Bride of Chucky" premiered in 1998, and the franchise continued to become more comedic and "pretty gay." The 2004 offering "Seed of Chucky" did what it could with a much-reduced budget, and featured a meta-turn by Tilly as Tiffany and as herself.

"Curse of Chucky" came in 2013, starring Dourif's daughter Fiona in a wheelchair. "Cult of Chucky" was shot in Winnipeg in winter, and debuted in 2017.

Queer camp filmmaker John Waters is another featured interviewee who reflects on Chucky's place in the evolution of the American horror genre. He notes that genuinely scary movies like the Halloween franchise became "ugly," like with the first "Scream" movie, then moved into torture porn with the "Saw" series. Next was funny horror ("Shaun of the Dead"), then ridiculous ("Scream III"), and now they're back to being straightforward scary.

There's also talk about why computer-generated effects don't work with Chucky, and why each iteration has stuck to all-practical effects. "Perfect fluid form wouldn't be as frightening," notes one. From the inspiration of pediophobia (fear of inanimate objects that look real), Chucky found his place in the pantheon of fright. This documentary also points to the inclusivity of the franchise and the embrace of outsiders onscreen and off. Waters says that "gay people like horror because they're drama queens."

"Living with Chucky" will stream on all major video-on-demand platforms starting April 4.