Doc of Chucky
Directed by Thommy Hutson
Unrated
Runtime: 256 minutes
Streaming on Shudder November 1

by Avery Coffey, Staff Writer

“Each sold separately:” an advertising fine print that we’ve all fallen victim to. I wanted a Baby Alive doll more than anything as a kid–diapers and clothes sold separately. Don Mancini picked up on this sales tactic and other advertising methods having been raised by a dad whose 9-to-5 was just that. I’ve always understood that Child’s Play is an allegory for consumerism in America. What I didn’t know was that Mancini’s observations during the height of the Cabbage Patch Kids launch directly inspired the original script that he turned over to his agent. 

Directed by Thommy Hutson (best known for Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy and Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th), Doc of Chucky brings familiar faces from past films and modern renditions to our screens to recount the impact of Chucky as a horror icon and Child’s Play as a genre franchise. While the timing is coincidental, this couldn’t come at a better time. After three seasons, Chucky was canceled by Syfy and USA despite it being one of the networks’ best performing original scripted series. 

The documentary feels transparent in a way that allows its stars to openly discuss their experiences within the franchise and the creative directions that the film took (or didn’t for that matter). Especially with Don Mancini involved, it was refreshing to hear his account of the specific changes to his original script. I suppose I’ve always understood script changes to be a diversion from the original vision and intention of the film if carried out by someone other than the screenwriter. However, Mancini provides key insight that ultimately crafts a new narrative for the franchise, like his perspective on Tom Holland’s script changes. 

I also questioned the release of another Child’s Play documentary so soon after Living With Chucky (2022), directed by Kyra Gardner. Her storytelling was well-rounded enough. What more is there to tell and discover? In reality, these films compliment each other well! Each provides context that the other doesn’t spend quite enough time on. 

With similar talking points as Kyra Garnder’s documentary, Hutson focuses more on the production and business of the franchise instead of the personal stories that Kyra spotlights. I relished the anecdotes about the way in which the industry impacted the creative decisions for the production. Disney having set a particular mold for child actors at the time, Alex Vincent didn’t align with their sunshine smile facade. This fundamentally made him the perfect choice for Andy Barclay. 

If you ask any Millennial or GenZ person for their memory of their first scary movie, Child’s Play will probably be their top answer. It was a ripple effect of the slasher boom in the early ‘80s. However, it made its own imprint in the genre for being inclusive in a way that’s taken us decades to understand. Hutson’s framework for this documentary trails you through the intricacies of the franchise: including the ways that it has been forward-thinking. Sure, Charles Lee Ray haunted my prepubescent dreams. Seed of Chucky did introduce me to the intricacies of gender identity, though. Two things can most certainly be true at once. Chucky continues to sneak into children’s dreams to this day. I just hope that his legacy doesn’t end with Universal: #RenewChucky