I think the Child’s Play movie franchise is one of the most consistent series ever made. Creator Don Mancini is involved in every single project, 8 movies, and now this TV show. I’ve watched them all except for the 2019 reboot. They’re all worth watching as Mancini always finds ways to make each story fun and wilder than the last. It helps that this series starts in the supernatural–Chucky is a doll possessed by the soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray.

This nearly 35-year-old franchise changes with the times. From straightforward horror with a psychological bend to slasher movies with dark humor similar to what the Nightmare on Elm Street series steered into. Then when Mancini cranked up the insanity with Bride and Seed of Chucky, it leaned more on black humor and camp. From the second movie onwards these films never took themselves seriously. Mancini just wanted to have more fun with a killer doll and he’s done so. There’s a high bar of suspense of disbelief when it comes to a psychopathic antagonist that’s a 2-foot-tall doll made come to life with a voodoo incantation and Mancini just wants you to take a ride with him.

Chucky is a direct follow-up to Cult of Chucky, with many returning franchise characters joining the new kids of this story arc. The pilot gets right to the point when the main character, Jake, finds a Good Guy doll at a yard sale. This vintage doll has Charles Lee Ray’s soul inside because it’s impossible to keep a bad guy down for long when they can transfer their soul around (a major point in this show). Chucky gets to work manipulating Jake and his friends (smart decision to go back to the series roots by Mancini) to try and achieve his devious end game.

Chucky is simply a long-form Child’s Play movie. Brad Dourif continues his voice work as Chucky, Jennifer Tilly eats up every scene she’s in and the kills are all varied and interesting. All the franchise staples are here. They got a good budget for this as the cinematography and sets don’t look cheap and most importantly, the puppet work and death scenes are all well done. The only glaring issue is that making Chucky walk/interact with actors in full frame is the most expensive effect so they use a child actor as a stand-in for the puppet. They do this sparingly but the child is at least a foot taller than the puppet so it’s crazy obvious when it happens. So far in season 2, it looks like they avoid this by doing full digital erasement of the puppeteers and it looks good enough.

I ran through the first season to catch up before the season 2 premier and I find myself looking forward to the 44 minutes of mayhem each week.