Who knew a campy slasher sequel would have so much to say about parenting queer kids?
'Seed Of Chucky' took the 'Child's Play' franchise to campy new heights while also featuring some pretty nuanced commentary on queer youth.
Mark
Welcome back to our queer film retrospective, “A Gay Old Time.” To celebrate “Spooky Season,” this month we’re doing a miniseries focused on horror sequels that are even gayer than the original, and this week’s pick? 2004’s Seed Of Chucky, which took the Child’s Play series to campier, queerer new heights.
To celebrate one of our community’s favorite holidays, all throughout October we’ve been diving into horror sequels that have made their franchises gayer. This week, we’ll revisit a slasher that’s become a particular favorite of ours by putting its iconic actress front-and-center while also tackling some remarkably nuanced issues on parenting queer children. For a movie about killer dolls, at least.
The Set-Up
How about we take this to the next level?
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Openly gay writer, director, and producer Don Mancini created the now iconic Child’s Play franchise in the late 1980s as a dark satire responding to American consumerism and the Cabbage Patch Kids craze. The series follows a friendly doll named Chucky (exquisitely voiced by Brad Dourif) who gets possessed by the spirit of a serial killer, now going on murderous rampages in pint-sized form. The hit gilm spawned six sequels, a reboot and a TV show—in addition to the nightmares of an entire generation who thought they saw the dolls in the corner of their room move.
While the first installment is arguably its most straight-forward horror—establishing the series’ penchant for macabre humor & gore early on—each successive filmed leaned leaned further into laughs, camp aesthetics, and quippy one-liners. The mythology and lore of the characters also grew, with Chucky eventually getting a bride named Tiffany in 1998’s Bride Of Chucky (Jennifer Tilly, giving one of the most memorable voiceover performances in modern horror), and eventually a child.
Spilling The Seed
2004’s Seed Of Chucky follows the offspring of Chucky and Tiffany, a ventriloquist dummy named Glen(da). After learning their parents died with a movie about them in the works, Glen(da) decides to go to Hollywood and brings them back to life using their prop counterparts. But old habits die hard, and Chucky and Tiffany embark on a new killing spree, much to Glen(da)’s dismay, who seems to have not inherited their parents’ taste for murder.
The film was written and directed by Don Mancini (who creatively oversaw every installment of the franchise), with Dourif and Tilly returning to voice Chucky and Tiffany, and Billy Boyd as the voice of Glen(da). Additionally, Tilly plays a fictionalized version of herself, and iconic queer director John Waters has a small part as a paparazzo. Seed Of Chucky is one of the most comedic entries in the Child’s Play series, perhaps more successful as a Hollywood satire than a horror film with scare factor.
Getting Meta With It
Recently in this column we’ve discussed the ways horror series tend to get progressively gayer as they go, but they also tend to get more meta. Nearly every franchise that runs long enough has an entry with multiple narrative layers, usually focusing on movie adaptations of the original events that took place, with the “real” movie monsters haunting the newly fictionalized productions. From Wes Craven’s New Nightmare to the majority of the Scream franchise, going meta is a reliable way to continue the story while adding a new element that comments on itself.
Seed of Chucky follows this tried-and-true formula, focusing its main plot on a fictionalized attempt to bring Chucky and Tiffany to the big screen, and what happens when those dolls actually get possessed. But the film also devotes time to the “Jennifer Tilly” character striving for bigger and more prestigious roles until she becomes one of the dolls’ targets.
Tilly gives a fully committed (and absolutely camp) performance as herself, cementing her presence as one of the most delightful aspects of the franchise—and one of the biggest reasons the queer community gravitates towards it. Plus, the presence of John Waters as a lascivious paparazzo obsessed with the actress gives this an additional layer of queerness that’s impossible to ignore.
Protect The Dolls
But there’s also some refreshing and groundbreaking textual queer content in the film. When Chucky and Tiffany meet Glen(da), they realize they are unsure about their child’s gender (after all, a doll has no clear genital parts). At one point, Glen(da) explains they don’t feel like a boy or a girl, and they experiment with clothing, makeup, and gender expression. It’s mostly played for comedic effect, but it’s done so with remarkable empathy and without judgment. Chucky and Tiffany are more concerned about helping Glen(da) tap into their killer instincts than whatever gender they may identify with.
The 2021 TV series expanded on this concept again (when asked if he is cool with his genderfluid child, Chucky famously replies, “I’m not a monster”), and speaks to the inherent queer sensibility that’s been embedded in the franchise from the beginning by its out creator Don Mancini. Considering the series is nearly 40 years old, it’s remained remarkably consistent in tone, quality, inner lore and mythology.
Furthermore, it’s only with a queer creators pulling the strings that a franchise like Child’s Play can balance campy outrageousness (Tiffany’s outfit and demeanor has become an all-time favorite of ours), with thoughtful, nuanced discussions around identity.
Yes, Seed Of Chucky is a movie about dolls being possessed by serial killers. But that doesn’t mean they can’t also be inclusive to everyone.
Seed Of Chucky is currently streaming on Netflix, and is available or digital rental or purchase via Amazon Prime Video & AppleTV.
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