Damballa is an ancient Haitian deity.
He is one of the Lwa, the spirits observed in the African religion known as Haitian Vodou.
In Vodou, Damballa is a great white serpent deity associated with water.
Some versions of the religion believe Damballa was the primordial creator of life, while
others believe he was the first creation of God; that Damballa shed his skin to create
water and thus generate life throughout the Earth.
In the Chucky franchise, Damballa is tied to water in a slightly different way.
Whenever the deity is called upon, he manifests himself in the form of storm clouds, and usually
takes action as a great strike of lighting.
Both the Haitian Vodou and Child’s Play versions seem to have a say in all things concerning
life, death and overall: a whole lot of power.
- [Chucky] Give me the power I beg of you!!!
(thunder)
- To learn how the infamous American criminal Charles Lee Ray got mixed up with this eternal
Haitian deity, stick around to the end of this video.
(metal music)
Ade due Susanballa.
Give me the views I beg of you!!!
Welcome to Horror History.
In today’s lesson we’re looking beyond the evil of a man driven to beat death to
continue his crime career, to the ancient misused power that enabled him.
The voodoo lore aspect of the Child’s Play franchise is mostly not expanded upon in the
movies, in fact, series creator Don Mancini acknowledges that he never even planned to
include it; it was actually added by the director and other screenwriters.
In his 2017 interview with Slashfilm, he admits that he didn’t create the voodoo stuff,
he didn’t really like it, but he acknowledges that it’s a useful plot device that resonated
with audiences.
It seems that’s why he uses it in a comedic fashion later on in the franchise, and probably
the answer for why “The Heart of Damballa” is such a poorly implemented retcon.
We’ll get to that, but first, to get to the origins of Damballa, from my observations
for your education -- I’ve gotta take it back to the creation of the Haitian nation.
(mysterious music)
According to Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou, the religion is a blend of even more ancient
religions brought to the island nation of Haiti in the slave trade that occured starting
in 1500s.
This caused those religions to blend with European religions practiced by slave merchants,
and the culture started to spread out from the western half of this Caribbean island.
The word ‘Vodou’ means spirit in Fang (fong), a language used in Western Africa.
Historians have theorized that the religion resonated with slaves because they felt powerless
in their situation and these spirits seemed to offer them an ancient power.
We see a similar scenario play out in Child’s Play, where Charles Lee Ray is dying and he
seeks out Damballa’s power in a moment of desperation.
But, we’ll get to that.
If you’re like me, when you think of Voodoo there are a few things that come to mind.
The Diablo Swing Orchestra song, the third level in Sly Cooper, Voodoo Donuts, Voodoo dolls and some
of the earliest zombie movies.
It’s not difficult to see that pop culture is partially responsible for the western idea
that Vodou is rooted in evil, when that's not necessarily the case.
For example, take Voodoo dolls.
Believers could attempt to use them for medicinal purposes to drive energy to one part of the
body for healing, or as a token to help communicate with passed family members.
But we all know the other side of Voodoo dolls, they are believed to act as an effigy, or
sculptural representation of a real person, and are often seen being pricked or stabbed
with needles in order to bring pain to that person, or worse.
- AUUGHHHH!!!!
- So long, John.
- Items like Voodoo dolls are called pwen; they are essentially items crafted with components
that appeal to the lwa, the Voodoo spirits that I mentioned earlier, and Damballa is one of,
if not the most prominent of these spirits.
It stands to reason that Damballa operates under the same neutrality that a Voodoo doll
does.
When put into the hands of someone good, they will attempt to use it for communication and healing.
But put the power into the hands of an evil doer, and that person may use it for revenge,
destruction, or completely destroying the reputation of a toy company, desecrating a
military academy and driving an entire middle school to near insanity.
Vodou worshippers pay their respects to Damballa in a serpent temple in Benin, West
Africa, one of the countries that Haitian Vodou is said to have derived from.
Unlike depictions of serpents in major western religions, Damballa is often depicted standing
upright, separating it from the negative snakey depictions in Judaism, Christianity and Harry
Potter.
During slavery, the Haitians were not allowed to practice their religion due to growing
fears of their power from slave owners.
According to a voodoo exploration on Ancient Mysteries, they instead honored the image
of St. Patrick of Ireland, like the guy who has his own day named after him, because he
supposedly was responsible for helping banish snakes from Ireland.
Not sure what the story is there, but it sounds like the slaves had the same strategy as Lexi
in the Chucky series.
If they got caught, they could just say they were trying to do the right thing.
- [Mrs. Fairchild] I want you to take the page down.
Right now.
- [Lexi] But Mrs. Fairchild, I’ve already raised $75.
In real life, Damballa is viewed as a bestower of health, prosperity, and fertility and in
a small way, the Chucky version of Damballa holds true to that, giving several characters
a second chance at life by granting their wish to inhabit a new body, and even at one
point helping initiate a Voodoo pregnancy.
- [Chucky] I don't think I can take nine months of this sh*t.
- [Tiffany] Silly Chucky.
It's a voodoo pregnancy.
It's accelerated.
- How accelerated?
- In a sense, Damballa touches on another common Voodoo trope: zombies.
It’s weird to think of Chucky as a zombie, because most modern zombies are tied to some
kind of disease, radiation, experiment or Cranberries song.
But the word ‘Zombie’ actually derives from the Haitian French word ‘Zombi’,
meaning dead person reanimated through voodoo.
What happens with Chucky is very similar, only instead of a body coming back to life
at the command of a Voodoo spell, it’s a toy coming to life for the first time.
And then that toy is brought back again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and
so on.
In the early days of the United States, Damballa and the Vodou religion did make it over to
America, once again, unfortunately traveling overseas by way of the transport of enslaved
Africans.
Louisiana would become the centerplace for Voodoo in the US, and Damballa was mostly
worshipped by those of African descent, who over time spread out to other areas of the country.
Things would change in the 1980s, when one Voodoo devotee spread word of Damballa’s
power to an outsider.
One of the voodoo families was the Bishop family.
I’m assuming they were one of the most proficient in the use of Voodoo magic and contacting
the Lwa.
They distanced themselves from New Orleans and ended up in Chicago, Illinois.
One day, John Aelsop Bishop was approached by a man named Charles Lee Ray, who was interested
in learning about the power to beat death, and John taught him the ways of Damballa,
not knowing that Charles would be using his teachings for evil.
Chucky completely devotes himself to Damballa, repainting his apartment to murals worshipping
the great serpent deity, with text that reads: “Oh thank you Mighty Damballa for life after
death.”
He also collects a variety of Voodoo artifacts.
It’s likely that John also taught Charles about a magical amulet called The Heart of
Damballa.
It seems the heart gives it’s wearer enhanced capabilities, and it is likely that Chucky
stole it from John and started wearing it whenever he went on a dangerous crime spree
in case he sustained a life threatening injury.
We’re first introduced to Damballa early in the morning on November 9th, 1988, the
same day as Charles Lee Ray’s death.
At least in his original body.
Charles is badly injured in a gunfight with police and wanders into a toy store to find
a subject for his ritual.
Unable to, he decides to try using it on a Good Guy doll.
- [Charles] Ade due Damballa.
Give me the power I beg of you!
(thunder)
- [Zac] Dark storm clouds roll into the neighborhood at an alarming rate and a thunderstorm suddenly begins.
As Charles finishes the chant, lighting strikes the top of the building, shattering the glass
and creating an explosive amount of energy sending a police officer and many toys flying
through the front windows.
(explosion)
The power of Damballa has allowed Charles to transfer his soul into the doll, but there
is a caveat.
Chucky will slowly turn human over the next 48 hours, and if time expires, he will be
unable to transfer back into a human body during this incarnation.
- The more time you spend in that body, the more human you become.
- The next day, Chucky demands that John help him get out of the doll’s body, and abuses
John’s own personal voodoo doll to try to coerce him, eventually learning he must perform
the Damballa chant again to transfer his soul into the first human being he revealed his
true self to.
Not staying true to his word, he finishes John off using the doll anyway.
He calls on Damballa again on November 11th to try to transfer his soul into the body
of 6-year-old Andy Barclay.
The storm clouds appear as they had before, and bolts of lightning come down to signify Damballa
offering his power, but Andy’s mom interrupts the ritual before it is completed, so the
soul transfer never takes place.
Chucky is reconstructed in October of 1990.
Once he is fully reassembled, we see Damballa’s power activate once again in the powerful
lightning bolts that seem to come out from within Chucky.
It seems that by transferring his soul into the doll, Damballa would allow him to possess
that doll and have life again whenever the doll is reformed.
Chucky catches up with Andy and tries to perform the soul-transfer ritual again, but this time
is interrupted even earlier in the process.
He tries again two days later, and this time he’s able to complete the chant on Andy
for the first time, but the soul transfer still does not occur, and Damballa’s storm
clouds roll back after the failed attempt.
Chucky’s first inclination is that he was too late.
Since his heart had turned human before completing the ritual, he was no longer able to do it.
However, it’s unclear at this stage if that was the reason, or if it was because he no
longer had the Heart of Damballa with him.
I’ll answer that a little bit later.
His next attempt is in Spring of 1999 when he’s reincarnated again and tries to transfer his
soul into a new target, this time a military school student named Ronald Tyler.
This time he succeeds in summoning the storm clouds, but again, cannot complete the chant
due to an interruption by two superior officers, who confiscate the doll.
He eventually does catch up with Tyler inside of the coolest carnival dark-ride ever.
- [Chucky] Give me the power I beg of you!!!
- You must DIE!
(thunder)
- Morteisme lieu de vocuier de mieu vochette. Endelieu pour de boisette Damballa!!!
- [Zac] This time, he’s unable to complete the chant because Andy shoots him, though he does get
really close.
I’m guessing that Damballa was itching for action at this point, and was probably disappointed
he didn’t get to do his thing.
However he would get back into the swing of things not long after that, when Chucky’s
ex-girlfriend, Tiffany Valentine, reassembled the doll and placed it on a pentagram in her
trailer, apparently trying to mix Haitian Vodou with Satanism.
I guess merely reassembling the doll again no longer worked, possibly because it wasn’t
a perfect recreation, so she calls upon Damballa’s power to help her out.
Using a book called Voodoo For Dummies, she finds a new spell capable of bringing Chucky
back to life.
It doesn’t appear to be effective at first…
- Awake!!
Awake!
Awake, awake, awake!
...but Chucky does regain consciousness that evening.
The next day he electrocutes Tiffany, but in an attempt to salvage her, calls on Damballa
again to transfer her soul from her human body into the body of this doll.
She desperately searches for another spell to revert her back to a human body, and Chucky
informs her that the only way to do it is with the amulet known as The Heart of Damballa.
This brings up the question: why did Chucky ever attempt to transfer into a human body
before, without first retrieving the amulet?
Is this what prevented him from being successful with Andy, or was it actually because he was
too late and had already turned part-human?
The closest I can get to answering that question is the Slashfilm article I referenced earlier.
Don Mancini addresses the issue when the interviewer asks why Chucky suddenly needs the amulet
four movies into the franchise.
"Hey, that contradicts what Chucky's been trying to do in the first three movies," but
my feeling was no, maybe that's why he was unsuccessful in the first three movies.
He wasn't using the Heart of Damballa.
He was a student of voodoo so I went with the logic that he was constantly learning
about this very complicated mythology.
Obviously this is just a quote in an interview, not necessarily canon, but it’s the closest
we’re ever going to get to an answer, so I’ll roll with that.
To this point, Damballa’s power is mostly used unsuccessfully for soul transfer rituals
with the occasional awakening ritual thrown in, but things were about to get more complicated,
and we would see the true scope of Damballa’s power for the first time.
After retrieving the amulet, Chucky makes yet another attempt to perform Damballa’s
soul transfer ritual.
This time, his wife Tiffany is the one to foil him by stabbing him in the back.
Kind of a tease from Damballa’s point of view.
Chucky and Tiffany are both dead in a matter of minutes, but with her last ounce of life,
Tiffany gives birth to their child, Glen.
Glen is found in the cemetery with the Heart of Damballa and holds onto it, not knowing
the truth behind its power until 5 years later in March of 2004, when he finds his parents,
who have now been relegated to inanimate movie props.
He reads the inscription on the back of it, which happens to be the same awaken spell
that Tiffany used to bring back Chucky in ‘99.
- [Glen] Ade due Damballa.
Awake.
- As usual, the result is an overload of electricity, but the spell is successful in bringing both
dolls back to life, which later results in Chucky trying to transfer all three of their
souls into human bodies, this time with the Heart of Damballa in hand to aid him.
This 8th attempt is, of course, unsuccessful, but this time Chucky himself is the one to
stop it.
- This is nuts, and I have a very high tolerance for nuts.
If this is what it takes to be human, then I would rather take my chances as a supernaturally
possessed doll, it’s less complicated.
- Chucky decides he’d rather remain in doll form because he feels that version of him
is a more infamous killer than his human form, Charles Lee Ray.
As I discussed earlier, Damballa has, and will always be impartial to good vs. evil,
and allows Chucky to go on living as a doll most likely forever.
However, that does not spell the end of Damballa’s involvement, because Tiffany still wants a
human body for her and her child.
She knocks out Hollywood actress Jennifer Tilly and performs the chant on her.
It takes a few moments after completing the ritual, but she is successfully switched into
the human body.
Just in time too.
- AHH!
- Noooo!!!
- Nobody leaves me...
Tiffany takes the amulet, and uses it to transfer Glen’s soul into one of a pair of human
twins, or possibly both twins.
It’s never explicitly explained how that all went down.
Either Glen is able to possess both human bodies at once, or he or she is switching
back and forth between the two whenever he or she pleases.
Many years go by before Chucky attempts to contact Damballa again.
He does so on April 8th, 2013 with Alice Pierce, the granddaughter of one of his love interests
from 25 years ago.
- [Chucky] Ade due Damballa.
Give me the power I beg of you.
We don’t actually know if he was successful with this though, but according to Chucky
himself, he is able to transfer his own soul back into a human body with the help of a
brand new voodoo spell that he discovered on the internet…
- ****ing internet.
- [Zac] ...that allows him to transfer his soul into more than one body at a time.
- [Chucky] A few years ago I came across this groovy new spell on voodoofordummies.com that changed everything.
Now, I can be me.
- And me.
- And theoretically anyone or anything with two legs and a hand for stabbing.
Like Alice.
He takes advantage of this by transferring himself into two duplicate Good Guy dolls,
so he’s now inhabiting three bodies thanks to Damballa.
- [Zac] One of them is most likely killed, and the other is captured.
If you want to know more about that, you gotta watch my Andy Barclay Horror History.
- Actually there’s three of us at the moment.
And the Cult is growing.
All the time.
- [Zac] In January 2017, the remaining one free Chucky doll goes to Harrogate Psychiatric Hospital,
where he encounters two more Good Guy dolls, and expands his cult out into them.
One interesting note about this new Damballa spell is that after the transfer, the Chuckys
appear to operate independently.
That is, they aren’t a hive mind.
If you share information with just one of them, the others aren’t necessarily going
to know that information.
One of the three Chuckys at the asylum has one more task for his Voodoo overlord though.
Roll it.
- Ade boku Damballa, give me all the power I beg of you!!!
He uses the spell on the 29 year old parapeligec woman Nica Pierce, and it’s here we see
one more interesting side effect of the power of Voodoo.
For the first time since she was born, Nica is able to walk.
Her legs are functional with Charles Lee Ray’s soul taking over her body.
When you think about it, this makes a lot of sense.
Non-disabled people are able to stand up and walk because of the muscles in our legs exerting force.
A good guy doll has no muscles, but Chucky has always been able to walk while inhabiting them.
That means it’s Damballa’s magic that's moving them.
Nica’s legs don’t work, but it’s OK, because they are also moved thanks to the
might of Damballa.
There is one more Damballa intervention that we know of, which is Tiffany using the voodoofordummies.com
curse to split her soul back into the female doll -- we don’t know exactly when this
happens, but it’s most likely the last one chronologically.
With Chucky back again in the 20s, it is likely that Damballa will strike again in the near future.
I think this is the perfect place to end this lesson on Damballa.
If you like what you saw, check that playlist on the left where I analyze the histories
of other Chucky franchise characters.
I’ve also covered deities and spirits from other franchises, such as The Conjuring franchise,
the world of Stephen King and others, so if that interests you, make sure you subscribe
to CZsWorld for new horrors every week, ring the deathbell for all notifications and I’ll
see you in the next one, assuming we both survive.