There hasn’t been a long-running slasher villain turned almost hero like Chucky. Ever since Child’s Play, he’s become a cultural icon of horror. The new documentary Living With Chucky from Bloody Disgusting and filmmaker Kyra Elise Gardner describes the family behind Chucky. Whether that’s the series creator and shepherd Don Mancini or voice actor Brad Dourif, everyone involved with Chucky is in for life.

It’s not limited to the creative team or performers behind Chucky, though; we get plenty of interviews from fans of Chuck like Abigail Breslin, Marlon Wayans, and Lin Shaye. The most interesting aspect of Living With Chucky though is the behind-the-scenes work from people like Tony Gardner and producer David Kirschner. It was fascinating to see how Child’s Play went from being about Buddy the doll to Chucky the doll. Kirschner even drops a bit of trivia that Charles Lee Ray comes from three infamous serial killers in history, Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray.

Living With Chucky focuses more on the people involved with the films than the films themselves though. If you’re looking for new takes on Child’s Play 2 or 3, this documentary doesn’t give much. Those films are given about five minutes apiece in the series retrospective section of the documentary.

For Fans Of Later Stage-Chucky, This Is A Dream

Don Mancini in Living With Chucky documentary.

Chucky and Child’s Play are the rare horror series that get stranger and better as they go on. If you like Curse of Chucky, Cult of Chucky, or Bride of Chucky, there are some really great nuggets. The documentary also takes a bit of a detour with a focus on practical effects and horror, in the context of Chucky. People out there don’t want CGI versions of Chucky. It’s a fascinating conversation about what makes Chucky so special because he’s imperfect. The “doll-factor” about Chucky is what makes him an icon.

It’s also a showcase for Alex Vincent and Fiona Dourif, who are really the stars of the “new era” of Child’s Play and Chucky. It’s awesome that Fiona Dourif can encapsulate the performance her dad gives as Chucky in these new films.

That father-daughter dynamic comes into play once again near the end of the film when Kyra Elise Gardner introduces her own perspective and experiences with Chucky as the daughter of one of the men behind the technical performance of Chucky. The bit of family is what makes Chucky so great, and what stands Living With Chucky apart from being just a series retrospective.

Living With Chucky Ends Up Being A Comment On Movies In General

The last third of Living With Chucky is actually just about living with creating Chucky. The people who created the character and the movies go through a lot. Whether that’s being away from their families, or missing their kids, or whatever else. The family they’ve created through Chucky fills that gap they’re all missing while on set.

Living With Chucky doesn’t necessarily act as a series retrospective for Child’s Play, which might disappoint people looking for that, but it does give you some interesting perspective behind creating the series and the people behind it.

You can watch Living With Chucky on Amazon, Apple, Google Play, VUDU, Hoopla, Xbox, ScreamBox, and more starting April 4th.

The Blu-ray will release on April 18th.

For more reviews or horror movies, make sure to check back to That Hashtag Show.

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