Chucky: Killer Doll Slays in New SyFy Series

I can’t say I’m a huge Chucky fan but I have seen all of his movies. When I heard he was getting his own television series I (and many others I’m sure) thought “Oh, brother!” But I have to admit the first episode wasn’t that bad. A lot of the credit for the success of the franchise is undoubtedly due to Brad Dourif who plays Charles Lee Ray, a serial killer who uses voodoo to transfer his soul into a Good Guys Doll upon his death. Dourif has supplied the voice of the murderous doll in seven Child’s Play/Chucky films–Child’s Play, Child’s Play 2, Child’s Play 3, Bride Of Chucky, Seed Of Chucky, Curse Of Chucky, and Cult Of Chucky. Mark Hamill did the voice in an attempted reboot of the original movie in 2019 which was not well received. An interesting tidbit of trivia: did you know who was the original voice of Chucky? Jessica Walter, a fantastic, multitalented actress who once played villain Morgan Le Fey in the first Dr. Strange film, a 1977 Made-For-TV movie.

But Brad Dourif is now the one who owns the role of Chuck and is now reprising it in the new Chucky TV series which premiered this week on SyFy and the USA channels. For a series on this one note premise to work, however, it has got to have an engaging cast of characters beyond the killer doll. Dan Mancini returns to the original concept of his first Child’s Play film–juxtaposing childhood innocence against a serial killer trapped in a children’s toy. And lest you fret that television might water down the R rated franchise’s violence and foul mouthed doll fear not. It is translated intact and, according to Mancini, Chucky will be able to drop 8-10 f-bombs per episode.

The series is set in Hackensack, New Jersey, the home town of serial killer Charles Lee Ray. It centers around young Jake Wheeler played by Zackary Arthur. Jake is a 14 year old middle school student who faces bullying in school from other students, chief of which is his cousin Junior Wheeler, for being gay. Jake lives with his homophobic dad Lucas (played by actor Devon Sawa who also plays Jake’s uncle Logan, Lucas’ twin). Jake purchases the Good Guy doll from a garage sale with the intention of using it in an art creation composed of doll heads. Lucas eschews the typical homophobic parent we’ve seen before and is against his son playing with dolls. After Jake throws away the doll in the garbage can it shows up later at Jake’s school and forces Jake into a twisted ventriloquist act at the school’s talent show which gets Jake suspended.

Björgvin Arnarson plays another gay student who has a podcast about the town called “Hackenslash” which Jake listens to. Coming episodes are said to be bringing in Chucky’s “bride” Tiffany Valentine, Fiona Dourif as paraplegic Neca from Cult Of Chucky, and Alex Vincent as Andy Barclay who starred in the first Child’s Play film. In spite of being pulled out of the moment a few time’s by the series’ use of pop songs instead of original music, I found Jake to be an engaging protagonist and fully related to him and his situation–particularly when a female student embarrasses him on stage. I’d rather not give more of the story away and recommend horror fans to give the show a look.