Seed of Chucky (2004) - Mancini's gender-fluid horror-comedy is a weird trip

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An extreme eye closeup, - with semen cell retina details, - and a hilariously bent tagline distinguish this game poster for Don Mancini's Seed of Chucky

Deceased killer dolls Chucky & Tiffany have a gender-fluid son/daughter, who is searching for its parents - in Hollywood.

Seed of Chucky is written and directed by Don Mancini (Child's Play (1988, screenplay)), whose directing debut it is. It is the 5th film in the Child's Play/Chucky franchise.
It is a far out and really strange sequel, which is filthy enough to have been made by John Waters (Mangus! (2011)) himself, who actually has a funny role in it.
Jennifer Tilly (The Haunted Mansion (2003)) is funny in the film in a performance packed with self-irony.
Seed of Chucky's story is obscure and surprisingly difficult to really understand. In its intro sequence Chucky's sperm cells are seen entering a doll's vagina. - Weird!

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 24.8 mil. $
= Flop (returned 2.06 times its cost)
[Seed of Chucky was released 12 November (USA) and runs 86 minutes. Universal Pictures, the studio behind the previous 3 films, rejected the script as "too gay." Focus Features jumped in instead. Quentin Tarantino passed on a role as himself. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California and in Bucharest, Romania from November 2003 - March 2004. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit The Incredibles and fellow new releases The Polar Express and After the Sunset, to an 8.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 17 mil. $ (68.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 1.9 mil. $ (7.7 %) and Mexico with 1.1 mil. $ (4.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. Mancini returned with Curse of Chucky (2013, video), the next in the franchise, which went on with Cult of Chucky (2017, video, also by Mancini), before it was rebooted to cinemas with Child's Play (2019) and a coming TV-series. Brad Dourif (Pulse (2006)) returned in The Devil's Due at Midnight (2004, short), Chucky's Family Vacation (2004, short) and theatrically in Drop Dead Sexy (2005); Tilly in Chucky's Family Vacation, Li'l Pimp (2005, video) and theatrically in The Civilization of Maxwell Bright (2005). Seed of Chucky is rotten at 33 % with a 4.46/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Seed of Chucky?

Child's Play (1988) - Chucky comes to life in classic, great horror

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The exciting original poster for Tom Holland's Child's Play

QUICK REVIEW:

A really ugly S.O.B. with some black magic expertise elapses violently inside a toy store, and his soul gets transferred into a large doll, whom a single-mom subsequently buys cheap from a vagrant for her boy...

The boy seems extremely dumb at first, but Alex Vincent (Curse of Chucky (2013)) then actually plays him believably through the coming horrors. And two male police characters overdo their Chicago accents, - but aside from these minor detractors, Child's Play is a really terrific horror film, full of dark scenes and an underlying, semi-perverted atmosphere. (A seemingly innocent toy imbued with the spirit of a serial killer goes amok killing ... - you see?)
The laborious doll work and effects are sublime. Child's Play is a catchy classic and franchise-starter: 3 Child's Play and 3 (more humorous) Chucky-films have since been made, with a 4th Child's Play film scheduled for release this year.
Child's Play is co-written by Don Mancini (Child's Play 2 (1990)), John Lafia (The Blue Iguana (1988)) and director Tom Holland (Fright Night (1985)). 
Holland is busy at the moment in pre-production with Killing Frank (2016), an English horror movie with Freddie Highmore and Rebecca De Mornay.

Watch the awesome original trailer here

Cost: 9 mil. $
Box office: 44.2 mil. $
= Big hit
[Child's Play opened # 1 in the States with 6.5 mil. $ and ended its domestic run with 33.2 mil. $ (75 % of the total gross.) It was critically well-received, although the series was and continued to be plagued by accusations that it inspired violence in children.]

What do you think of Child's Play?
And the following sequels?