Chucky The Series Unleashes New Thrills, New Screams, And New Secretes To A New Generation Of Horror Fans

When good dolls go really, really bad. Alyvia Alyn Lind as Lexy Cross and Zackary Arthur as Jake Wheeler in Syfy’s latest Halloween thrill, Chucky The Series. Photo courtesy of Penn Live.

Since 1988 Chucky has been laughing, possessing, and slashing his way through our beloved genre and, for better or worse, in good reviews and in bad, is truly part of pop culture history. As the new series takes a stab (allow me just this one) at recreating the franchise, we’re left wondering where can the Child’s Play creator Don Mancini take this series where it hasn’t gone before? The answer is a lot of places. An acceptable answer would also be how about we just watch it before judging it.

Moving along.

In Episode 1 Death By Misadventure, we’re introduced to Jake Wheeler, a quiet kid with artist skills to spare who loves working in the medium of doll parts and cites the genius of Andy Warhol regularly. While at a local yard sale, Jake picks up a retro Good Guy Doll (You into vintage? Jake: No, I’m into retro. Woman: Oh, what’s the difference? Jake: About ten bucks. Woman: Fair enough. ) for use in a sculpture, and of course that’s where things start getting weird. That’s just proper horror movie etiquette.

High School is hard, but when you’re an introverted 14-year-old living in a less than ideal home environment and gay, you’re a prime target for harassment and bullying. Upon researching what a Good Guy Doll is worth (which is a lot apparently) Jake decides to sell the creepy little ginger, but until he finds a buyer, he needs to store it in a safer place than at home which is, unfortunately, school and from this seemingly harmless moment in time Jake and several of his classmates’ lives are irrevocably connected to the mass murderer and all-around asshole Charles Lee Ray, AKA Chucky (technically, he’s AKA Brad Dourif ) and oh yes, there will be blood.

So far, the storyline is solid (there are a few plot holes but none so big you could fall through them) and flows well, the cast is fantastic (the list of all cast and crew can be found here), and even though The Child’s Play franchise runs the gambet from all-out horror to campy slasher flick, Chucky The Series balances both campy and solid horror well, and adds a shot of serious social commentary that presents itself as discussion points. From what I’ve seen so far, this new incarnation of Chucky is absolutely worth your time.

Photo courtesy of Polygon.com