- When you hear the title, "Bride of Chucky,"
the first thing you're probably gonna think of
is "Bride of Frankenstein,"
the 1935 sequel to "Frankenstein," starring Boris Karloff.
That's the movie we see Tiffany watching
in the bathtub early on in "Bride of Chucky."
- She's alive!
- If you haven't seen it, there are some similarities.
Primarily, the main message of "Frankenstein"
and "Bride of Frankenstein"
which is actually just told to us
at verbatim in the movie.
There's a character for Mary Shelley,
the author of the "Frankenstein" novel,
and she explains the moral of the story
before we jump into it.
- The punishment that befell a mortal man
who dared to emulate God.
- "Bride of Chucky" explores similar territory.
Although it has no opening were Don Mancini
just straight up tells the audience what the movie is about,
it tells the story of Tiffany Valentine,
who collects the pieces of the Chucky doll
and stitches them back together
to try to bring back her ex-boyfriend, Charles Lee Ray,
but ends up regretting it when she's treated poorly by him.
I'm gonna talk about the more specific homages
that "Bride of Chucky" paid to "Bride of Frankenstein,"
but there is another horror movie that, ironically,
probably influenced "Bride of Chucky" way more.
To learn the significance of Tiffany's nail file,
stick around to the end of this video.
(upbeat rock music)
Welcome to Things You Missed.
Back in 2019, I made a series of videos
on the "Child's Play" movies,
the first three movies in the Chucky franchise.
So if you wanna watch those,
you can check out to this playlist.
And if you're already watching that playlist,
now you know why I'm suddenly significantly less awkward.
"Bride of Chucky" is a sequel to "Child's Play 3,"
taking place no more than a couple of months after.
It would be the first movie
not to feature series protagonist Andy Barclay,
because they screwed themselves in the third one
by recasting Andy with an older actor,
and now that actor is too old to play Andy
because the movie is set while he's still a teen.
I mean, they could go back to the original Andy
who is now the perfect age,
but then it would clearly be two different people.
I think a lot of people probably just wanted
to see Brad Dourif back as Chucky though,
and they would've gotten their wish.
Let's get in to The Things You Missed.
(sword zings) (tense suspenseful music)
(air whooshing) (tense suspenseful music)
In both "Bride of Frankenstein" and "Bride of Chucky,"
the revivals are triggered by electricity.
The voodoo spell used to bring back Chucky
involves a supernatural storm cloud
issuing a strike of lightning.
Then Chucky kills Tiffany by electrocuting her in the bath
and uses the spell to transfer her soul
into another doll.
This time Chucky is stitched together by hand
after Tiffany retrieved the pieces
that were torn apart in the giant spinning fan
at the end of "Child's Play 3."
This gives him a similar look to Frankenstein's monster
who is famously stitched together by his creator.
In both movies,
the titular couples don't end up getting along.
(classical tense music)
- [Monster] Friend?
(bride chuckles)
Friend?
(footsteps thudding)
(bride screams)
- But as I mentioned,
I don't think "Bride of Frankenstein"
was the biggest inspiration for the fourth Chucky movie.
If you look at some of the marketing,
it becomes very clear that Universal Pictures
was trying to capitalize on the success
of a more recent franchise,
as the official poster is a direct parody of "Scream 2,"
and the logo with its pointy K
is basically rip off of the "Scream" logo.
"Scream" took the horror world by storm in 1996,
thanks in part to its horror genre satire
and abundant self-awareness.
"Scream" is basically a slasher movie
that knows it's a slasher movie,
and "Scream 2" satirizes the cliches
of horror movie sequels.
The opening scene of "Scream" references many horror movies
that came before it
in the iconic "Do you like scary movies?" dialogue,
which includes references to "Halloween,"
"Nightmare on Elm Street," and "Friday the 13th."
The opening scene of "Bride of Chucky"
does a very similar thing.
We look inside the evidence room
at the Lockport Police Department,
where we see Michael Myers's mask from "Halloween,"
Freddy Kruger's glove from "Nightmare on Elm Street,"
and Jason's mask from "Friday the 13th."
This may also be Leatherface's chainsaw
from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
A cop gathers up the remains of Chucky
and brings them to Tiffany,
who takes him out with her sharp nail file,
which has this curved tip
that makes it look like the knife used by Ghostface
in the "Scream" movies.
Additionally, there's a moment
during that opening scene of "Scream"
where the killer refers to Casey as Blondie.
- [Ghostface] Can you handle that? Blondie?
- Chucky's bride ends up being a blonde woman
who's soul gets transferred into a black haired-doll,
so she bleaches the hair back to blonde
while listening to Blondie.
The name of the Blondie song is "Call Me."
The killer in "Scream" intimidates victims
by calling them on the phone,
and Tiffany hires her neighbor
to transport the dolls in Bride
by calling him on the phone
so that he doesn't find out that she's one of the dolls.
Shout out to this guy for getting a couple of horror movies
into the top comments on the music video for "Call Me."
As I mentioned, Scream's biggest gimmick
is that it's very self-aware.
Now, I don't want to spoil it by showing the clip
in case there are people that haven't seen "Scream,"
but if I did show the clip, it would be this.
(tense foreboding music)
(air whooshing)
- Corn syrup.
Same stuff they use for pig's blood in "Carrie."
- So it's important to note
that the first three "Child's Play" movies
weren't like that,
they were just like regular movies,
and now all the sudden after "Scream,"
Chucky has become very self-aware.
- In fact, if it was a movie,
it would take three or four sequels just to do it justice.
- And there are all of these horror movie references,
such as Chucky's head spinning around 180 degrees
like the scene in "The Exorcist,"
the character Damien Blaylock
being a combination of two characters' names
from "The Omen,"
Chucky telling Tiff to turn to page 217
in the "Voodoo For Dummies" book,
which is the same as the haunted room number
in Stephen King's novel "The Shining,"
Jade asking David this question...
- David, do you remember when you were seeing Brad Barker?
- Which seems to be a combination of Brad Dourif,
who plays Chucky and Clive Barker who created "Hellraiser."
"Hellraiser" is also referenced
after Chucky and Tiffany take out Jade's uncle,
Chief Kincaid, by launching these nails
into his face using the van's airbag.
- Why does that look so familiar?
- That would be because he now resembles Pinhead,
the iconic character in the "Hellraiser" movies.
"Hellraiser" came out
a year before Charles Lee Ray originally died,
so it might've been one of the last movies he ever saw.
In fact, if we take a closer look
at this article about his death,
the newspaper reporter includes an interview
with Mike Norris, the police officer from "Child's Play."
He describes the scene
as being "like something out of a horror movie."
There are some other non-horror references,
like Tiffany's spider being named Charlotte
and officer Norton referring to Jesse as "Boogie Nights."
One of the mysteries of the franchise so far
regards to the Haitian deity Damballa,
who Chucky calls upon to give him the power
to transfer souls.
We've heard this Damballa chant many times before,
but this time we see it in writing
inside of Tiffany's "Voodoo For Dummies" manual.
That means that an English speaker
such as myself can properly translate it for the first time.
(thunder clapping)
(tense suspenseful music)
The Damballa chant is a French incantation meaning,
"To the almighty Damballa.
Give me the power I beg of you.
To the mercy of my soul.
To the point of my death.
Hear me out from my condemned voice."
Damballa is a Haitian entity, and if you're unaware,
in Haiti, the official language is French,
so that's why the incantation has to be in French.
There's actually a recurring theme of French phrases
being used in the movie.
When Damien is cringefully trying to seduce Tiffany
at the beginning,
he tells her about the French saying "La Petite Mort,"
the little death, and invites her onto the bed
to quote, unquote "die a little."
She asked him if he's ready for a menage a trois,
which is French for threesome,
which is also a clue that Chucky is actually alive,
but Damien doesn't quite get it.
- What's that?
- Finally, when Tiffany confronts the thieving couple
at the love motel,
she throws a bottle of champagne called Gout de Reims
or Taste of Reims,
which is the capital of the champagne
and wine growing region in France.
Now, if you would please draw your attention to the boobs,
you'll notice that Tiffany has a tattoo
with Chucky's name on it,
and the heart is getting stabbed by this little dagger.
She actually transfers this tattoo to her doll body
after her soul is transferred,
during the scene where she dyes her hair
and gives the doll a makeover to look more like her.
I don't know what the point of going through all that was,
because she's planning on transferring back
into a human body, like within the next 24 hours.
Seems like a lot of wasted effort.
But I think the tattoo shows
that losing Chucky in the 1980s broke her heart,
but I also find it interesting
because in the first movie, that's how you defeat Chucky,
Norris shoots him through the heart,
because his organs have turned human.
However, Bride gives new meaning to rules
from the first movie,
where John Bishop told them they had to destroy the heart.
Maybe he didn't mean
that they had to shoot Chucky in the heart,
because that obviously only puts them down temporarily,
maybe he meant that they needed to destroy this amulet,
The Heart of Damballa.
I don't quite get why they feel the need
to retrieve the amulet though,
because Chucky never attempts
to get it in the first three "Child's Play" movies,
and there is a later movie where he takes over a human body
without the amulet.
So...
I don't know. I don't have an answer on this one.
But on the way to retrieve it,
Chucky and Tiffany cause mayhem all around them,
taking out several police officers and other bystanders,
causing their chauffeurs, the young couple Jessie and Jade,
to look very guilty
as death follows them everywhere that they go.
As they drive through the night,
we hear one other song that I wanna talk about,
"See You In Hell" by Monster Magnet.
This song contains the following lyrics:
"What time and snow couldn't bury
Years of forgotten guilt.
That little body's calling, rising up
from under a Jersey landfill."
Well, it isn't a landfill,
but they're traveling to New Jersey
where the body of Charles Lee Ray would rise up
from underground when his skeleton is exhumed
to double-check that he's really dead
because Chucky's been leaving Charles Lee Ray fingerprints
behind at all the crime scenes.
There's also the title of the song to consider,
"See You In Hell."
Last episode, I talked about how Chucky falling
into the pit in The Devil's Lair dark ride,
symbolized him descending down into hell,
so the title foreshadows this parting line in Bride:
- [Tiffany] Goobye, Darling.
I'll see you in hell.
(Chucky exhales sharply)
- Chucky is able to finish Tiffany off though,
so it ends up being Jesse who shovel-yeets him
into his own casket, where he starts freaking out.
(dramatic music)
(Chucky screaming)
- What's the matter, Chucky?
You act like you've never seen a dead body before.
The very last thing in this movie
is the explosive birth of Chucky's offspring,
which leads us into the next Chucky movie: "Seed of Chucky."
I'm not thrilled about covering that one,
but if I wanna get to Curse,
I'm gonna have to get through it.
So, check out that video on the left
and remember to subscribe to CZsWorld
for new horrors every week,
ring the death bell and select All Notifications,
and I will see you in the next one.
Assuming we both survive.
(upbeat music)