Look, let's be as fair about this as possible. 'Seed of Chucky' is not a good film at all but there is more to it than your average bad sequel. Writer/Director Don Mancini knew he had reached the point of parody with the 'Child's Play' series and with 'Seed' he decided to roll with it and create a full fledged spoof of the franchise as a whole. Sadly, even knowing what Mancini wanted to achieve here the film is simply not a good one. The film at times can reach 'Troma' levels at times, but it feels like a cheap imitator, rather than the genuine article. It even tries to give itself some kind of sleaze credit by casting John Waters in a minor but entertaining role but even these minor welcomes are few and far between.
I think the main flaws of 'Seed of Chucky' comes down to two things: it's cheap production value and it's juvenile humor. The production here is shockingly bad considering that the film was a wide release theatrical film yet it looks worse than 2013's 'Curse of Chucky'. The doll animatronics and overall gore effects are also a big letdown. Chucky and Tiffany look no different here than a cheap knockoff at your local Spencer's Gifts and their child Glen/Glenda is so ugly and stupid looking, I can't believe that Don wanted this to be his directorial debut to the series he helped create. The second biggest flaw is the humor. Now, I have no problem with dark comedies or comedic horror flicks but 'Seed of Chucky' seems like it was written by a ten year old who just learned how to swear. As previously mentioned, films like 'The Toxic Avenger' or 'Pink Flamingos' work despite their crudeness because it takes the humor and twists it into something thoughtful or a satire of the time in which they were made. 'Seed of Chucky' discusses Chucky's bodily fluids at great length and shows his masturbating silhouette. This is just gross humor for the sake of being gross and add that to the extreme and over the top gore scenes that linger a bit too long and you have a pretty disturbing film and not in a good way.
But 'Seed' does manage to get some things right despite its overwhelming negatives. Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly return with Tilly playing both herself and the killer doll Tiffany which leads to many self referential jokes that are an example of the few sprinkles of good well written humor in the script. Dourif and Tilly are always excellent no matter what sequel they're in as they treat it like their winning an Oscar rather than the schlock it is and you have to commend them there. I also enjoy the parody scenes that take a stab at the Hollywood system, such as Redman wishing to make his own 'Passion of the Christ' and Chucky running Brittany Spears off the road. It's those little moments that kept me watching 'Seed of Chucky' all the way through at least once.
Don Mancini is a talented man and he's created one of my favorite horror franchises of all time. Even his contributions to the television show 'Hannibal' were welcome, but despite his defense of it I cannot stand behind the man on 'Seed of Chucky'. I get where he wanted to go with it, but the crude humor and TV movie quality really holds the film back. It's a dirty, gross, and perverted monster whose flaws stand out even more due to the films in between being so damn good. The light at the end of the tunnel here is that you can easily skip the film and go right to 'Curse of Chucky' with little to no questions or backstory needed.
( D - )
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