Back in 1998, I was probably the only film critic who saw "Bride of Chucky" and "Beloved" on the same day. I became fascinated with the similarites between these two movies. How could I ignore such an incredible discovery? At the risk of alienating Oprah Winfrey fans, I threw caution to the wind and revealed my findings in the following article for San Diego's Forum Publications:
Neither “Beloved,” the film version of Toni Morrison’s acclaimed anti-slavery novel, nor “Bride of Chucky,” another campy sequel to Child’s Play, should be viewed by the faint of heart. Moviegoers brave enough to see these two films will be surprised at the gruesome plot points they share, in spite of their very different subject matter.
Both movies deal with the supernatural. “Beloved” features the ghost of a dead child returning to haunt its killer. “Bride of Chucky” presents the further misadventures of a psychopathic doll that comes to life after a dying serial killer transfers his soul into the doll’s body. Blood and gore fill the screen in both movies. Beatings, lynchings, and baby killings make up most of the violence in “Beloved,” while “Chucky” concentrates on explosions, severed body parts, and deaths by shattered mirror glass.
An eyeball figures prominently in each film. In “Beloved,” former slave Sethe (Oprah Winfrey) puts her dog’s eyeball back into its socket after the animal is slammed into a wall by a ghost. In “Bride of Chucky,” the woman who was once Chucky’s girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly) places a toy eyeball into his doll face before bringing him back to life while performing a "Voodoo for Dummies" ritual.
Believe it or not, both Sethe and Chucky’s girlfriend purchase dolls for their loved ones. Sethe spends the last of her meager funds on a doll for the ghost child. Chucky gets (you guessed it!) a bride doll. A strange pregnancy occurs in each film also. The ghost becomes pregnant by Sethe’s boyfriend (Danny Glover), and Chucky impregnates his re-vamped bride doll. Does this mean sequels are on the way?
“Bride of Chucky” mixes weird humor with its scare tactics, including Tilly’s wickedly amusing bubble bath while watching the classic “Bride of Frankenstein” on TV. But there is nothing funny about “Beloved.” Instead, it reveals the intense pain and suffering of a woman who will do anything to keep her children from becoming slaves. Clearly, imaginary evils like those in the latest Chucky flick are no match for the real horrors of slavery depicted so graphically in “Beloved.”
(From CONFESSIONS OF A MOVIE ADDICT, published by Hats Off Books, and posted here as your Halloween trick or treat.)
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Enjoyed your Trick or Treat Horror Review, Betty Jo.