Don Mancini for Seed Of Chucky (2004) Interview

The Life and Deaths of Chucky
5th May 2006
Posted by: Ryan Izay

On the night of November 9th, 1988 in the land of horror films, Charles Lee Ray, otherwise known as The Lakeside Strangler, was pursued and shot by Detective Mike Norris. Ray was then abandoned by his partner Eddie Caputo and was forced to retreat to a toy store, where he performed a dark voodoo ritual to insure his survival. Charles Lee Ray’s soul was transferred into a red headed doll creating a horror legend we now know as Chucky.

It was in 1988 that Don Mancini created and wrote the character Chucky into life, and he has been the driving force of the series for over fifteen years. Child’s Play was directed by horror veteran Tom Holland, and each film following had a new director, but in 2004’s The Seed of Chucky, Mancini finally had the opportunity to take the reins himself.

As the writer of all five of the Chucky films, Mancini has done something amazing in horror history. When Child’s Play first came out the Halloween and Nightmare on Elm Street series had both released four films each, and the Friday the 13th series was well into its seventh already. None of these popular horror franchises had been able to keep the creator attached beyond the first or second film. With Child’s Play Mancini not only stayed onboard, but when the field of horror changed in the seven year gap between the third and fourth film in the series, Mancini was able to adapt Chucky with the times, proving him to be a horror icon that may die but could very easily come back for another sequel.

While the original Child’s Play films had a great deal of one-liners, the emphasis was mainly on horror, and people were sincerely afraid of the films. Chucky was the first full-fledged killer doll with a character, and he happened to look somewhat like My Buddy Dolls, which were popular at the time of the film’s release. The idea that a popular toy (Good Guy Doll within the films) could try and take your child’s life was a concept that sincerely frightened many people. There was also a great deal of controversy over the series when a UK tabloid paper printed an article stating that Jon Venables and Robert Thompson had watched Child’s Play 3 in the weeks before they killed Liverpool toddler Jamie Bulger in a way that was similar to scenes from the film. This resulted in many video retailers pulling the films from their shelves. When the series was revived seven years later, however, horror had taken a turn for the comedic. The gore remained, but comedy was essential, giving the wise-cracking smart-ass Chucky the perfect opportunity for a comeback.

The Bride of Chucky allowed for the dolls/puppets to become the focus of the film, concerning the audience less and less with the victims. The Seed of Chucky has taken this one step further, now having a majority of the cast as puppets, leaving only a few survivors in the wake of their destruction. The films still have horror elements, but they have become more parodies than anything else. I had the chance to speak with Mancini and he said, “It just seemed natural that we would now evolve into a domestic drama. So whereas the last one was a parody of romantic comedies, this one is a parody of domestic dramas like Ordinary People or Kramer vs. Kramer.”

The Seed of Chucky demanded a great deal more of the filmmakers with the additional puppet characters, so new methods were adopted. The puppetry in Seed of Chucky was done in a way similar to animation. The voices were recorded before principle photography began, and the voices were synched up to the mouth movement of the puppets, and locked in. Since this work is done beforehand, other aspects can be focused on during filming. The good thing about using puppets instead of actors, says Mancini, “is that you never have to worry about forgotten lines.” The downside, however, is the difficulty in moving the puppets in a lifelike manner. There are several different puppets, with different heads for different emotions, and “in order for a puppet to walk across the room it takes a small army,” Mancini explained to me. Yet however difficult it may be, Mancini thinks that it is all worthwhile, saying, “There’s something really magical about puppetry in general. Puppets are a distortion of the human form.”

With the fifth and latest addition to the series coming out on home video this Tuesday, June 7th, I have to wonder if this is the last we will see of Chucky. “I think there will definitely be more” Mancini said, “although I don’t think it would or should be immediately.” It occurred to me that the latest in many franchises have been a combination of two horror legends. With Alien vs. Predator and Freddy vs. Jason, I began to wonder who Chucky could be matched against. “Chucky vs. The Leprechaun would be too obvious,” Mancini stated immediately, letting me know that this was a question he had given some serious thought, “I would like to see Chucky go up against Freddy because they are so different.”

So, although there are no definite plans to resurrect Chucky again, there is always the possibility to hope for. In the meanwhile Mancini is working on another horror/comedy he describes as being more in the vein of Beetlejuice. While we wait for that, or another Chucky film, the unrated version of The Seed of Chucky promises to have a number of perks to hold us horror fans over for the time being.

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