“Chucky” review | The first season is a synthesis of the franchise itself.

Launched in the late 1980s, the franchise starring Chucky has seen its ups and downs. Created as a horror, it ended up repeating itself a lot and betting on self-parody to revitalize itself over the next decade and into the 2000s. Then, in 2013, franchise creator Don Mancini launched a reboot that brought the Killer Toy back to horror, but without ignoring the character’s comedic phase. Then, following the events of the 2017 film, came the Star + series, the first season of which ended this week, bringing various elements from the last forty years of the possessed puppet to a teen production that manages to honor the past and to walk an interesting path. way to the future.

The plot is very simple and the arrival of this young cast makes it possible to draw a parallel with another franchise of the 80s which has been relaunched in the series: Cobra Kai. Either for bad or for good. Like the Karate Kid series, centered on the “bad guy” Johnny Lawrence, Chucky begins with the puppet, one of the emblematic villains of cinema, serving as a mentor to an excluded young man. But here, instead of teaching the teenager to fuck everyone else, the “guru” wants to turn his student into Serial Killer. In this process, we see Chucky interacting with more modern themes, such as video games and other electronics, and even discussing the LGBT theme.

One of the funniest moments of this first season is when Chucky calls young Jake Wheeler to talk to him and tells him that he understands what the boy is going through because he has a “queer” son. It was unexpected, but it makes sense in the show’s proposal. Thus, their relationship develops, while the boy is reluctant to kill, forcing the toy to do what he knows best.

The new characters also perform well, especially the protagonist quartet, which spins and moves and develops their relationships, moving from friends to foes and back again depending on the situations Chucky puts them.

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The point is, as the series progresses, the comedic vein breaks down, giving way to the terror and tension, which marked the beginning of the franchise in 1989. Down the home stretch, it is. is therefore one tense moment after another, especially when the adults step into the story and the classic characters of this universe return to solve their problems with the red doll, the case of the boy Andy, who is no longer a child, but an adult focused on destroying the raptor of his childhood.

The dead were also moving into something more cinematic, so to speak. Instead of this overt bloodshed, as seen in The Cult of Chucky (2017), the management is working to kill innocent people in more creative ways. So, we even have explicit murders, but we also see murders happening by suggestion, like the nanny, who is pushed over a cover without showing the doll’s participation, simply suggesting her presence and then revealing her face through a reflection. .

The stop where he goes to the hospital is also fantastic, exploring different ways to kill someone in a place that should theoretically save lives.

Finally, the highlight of this first season is Brad Dourif, the interpreter of Chucky since the beginning of the franchise. Now in his sixth decade of life, the actor is still putting on a show in front of the killer doll, making it menacing and funny, giving that heap of plastic a lot of charisma and personality. The use of CGI is to the extent, mixed with the practical effects. Another highlight, also involving Dourif, are the flashbacks, which tell more about the childhood and youth of murderer Charles Lee Ray, who then transferred his soul to the puppet. They were a wonderful addition, which added a lot to the mythology of the villain.

Summarizing the essence of the franchise well, the first season of Chucky was a breath of fresh air in this universe, showing that there is still a lot of firewood to be found. However, it should be noted that some episodes have a little problem with the pacing… Just like the killer toy franchise itself. Regardless, the second season has already been confirmed and anyone who has watched that first season will be anxious to revisit this universe and see who will be the next victim of the clueless good guy.

The first season of Chucky is available on Star +.

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