Cult of Chucky (2017)

“You thought I was the only one?”

 I think it's well-established by now that this is possibly the most consistently excellent long-running horror movie franchise, given the high average quality of the seven films. And this film, by the same team as the superb and splendidly back-to-basics Curse of Chucky, is very good indeed, if perhaps slightly eclipsed by its predecessor. What a shame that both films were straight to DVD.

The film, unlike most modern Hollywood horror, looks superb, with the grainy picture quality avoiding the inappropriate glossiness that we so often see these days. The setting, too- a mental institution- is milked for maximum levels of disturbing horror. Mixed to the inherent and very deep darkness of the Catch-22 nature of having to prove your sanity in a world of straitjackets, sedation, electric shock treatment and absolute lack of freedom is the fact that the perverted Dr Foley hypnotises and rapes his horribly vulnerable victims. Even Chucky is not sure which of the two is the more evil, and that's saying something.

The conceit of the film is, of course, that the incanted spell can bring to life any Good Guy doll as Chucky, and on top of this he can now possess people, leading to a gloriously developing and fun slasher which ends up with three Chuckies, a possessed Nica, Andy in considerable trouble and a deliciously warped, silly, sequel-hunting final scene. This franchise is on fire, and is worth seeing for the skylight scene alone.

I have to single out Fiona Dourif for another outstanding performance, but the film as a whole is superb and deserves to be seen by far more people than, sadly, it will be.

True Blood: Soul of Fire

"Why are you on top of me?"

"Because you're handsome."

This penultimate episode starts from Jessica's POV, as the cavalry starts their assault on Marnie and her hostages. Unfortunately Marnie's binding spell, plus Sookie being inside, throws a spanner into the works and delays the final confrontation until the season finale. Who'd have thunk it?

Jesus, however, has a plan. It better work, because Marnie is increasingly revealing herself as the psychopath that always lurked beneath the diffident outsider; hers is a deep and complex character realised superbly by Fiona Shaw.

In other plot lines Sam and Luna find Emma and fight Marcus, and Andy has random sex with a fairy called Maurella, an act which is bound to have consequences. Meanwhile Alcide, seeing Debbie with Marcus, abjures her, but all of this is a fascinating sideshow. We return to the main event as Jesus' spell works. But there's an episode to go...

This is an intense, action-packed episode with relatively little timely stop and breathe, but that's all part of the True Blood tapestry. Brilliant.

True Blood: Burning Down the House

"You were the best part of my life..."

A lot of things are upended in an episode which sees Tommy's tragic ebbing away with Sam at his side while everything starts to gear up for the season finale.

But first we have all the chaos and confusion as Antonia/Marcie attacks Bill's reconciliation event. One early consequence is Sookie zapping Eric with her powers, causing his memories to come back; that's goodbye to the innocent Eric of recent episodes. The question of whether he loves her as much hangs in the air. It's a nicely simmering will-they-won't-they dynamic.

Jessica is having a hard time of it; she dumped Hoyt for him but Jason is not only siding with his friend but wants her to glamour away his feelings for her. Ouch. It's not a good day for Nan Flanagan either as Bill tells her flatly that she's no longer in charge. Politics again.

Eric insists he still loves Sookie, but she's unsure. He's less reassuring to Pam, his own offspring, which seems ominous. So does Bill's determination to confront Antonia, even if this means the death of Tara and all other hostages. Bill is slowly becoming less and less likeable and I think this is deliberate. He's no longer the romantic lead, a brave move.

There's hope, though, as Terry helps Andy to kick his V addiction. There's also shock, as Antonia and Marcie clash: Marnie is horrified by what they've done. It's Marnie who's the true monster. 

Things are at fever pitch as we end the episode about to start the final confrontation. This excellent season is nearing its end...

True Blood: Let's Get Out of Here

"Blame the witches. America's had no problem doing it in the past." 

We begin with both Alcide and Bill desperately trying to save Sookie; Eric is Antonia's bitch. Antonia is determined to wage all out war on vampires, and to do it at Bill's long-planned tolerance event; according to Nan Flanagan, cancelling is not an option.

But much of this episode consists of a possessed Lafayette, and the hostage situation with Arlene's baby, whose Damian-line tendencies were all to do with the ghost, Mavis. Meanwhile, Andy is taking V, Sookie is dreaming of Eric, pondering the fact she loves both him and Eric. What to do? She points out the gender double standards with polyamory, but where is this going?

Nelsan Ellis is outstanding as the Macis stand-off is resolved by a heroic Jesus; these are superb and emotional scenes. 

Sookie, with help from Debbie of all people, discovers that Tara and the others are all being held hostage by Antonia. And we get juxtaposed scenes of sex and death in artily directed and cut scenes; Sam cums inside Luna while Tommy, in the shape of Sam, is fatally wounded in a "duel" with Marcus. This is symbolic of their divergent fates, and a reminder that not all people born into poverty can rise as Sam did.

There is also some apparently good Dec between Jessica and Jason, but we end with all Hell about to break loose as Marcie interrupts Bill's tolerance event. Chaos erupts. I'm loving the topsy-the Y unpredictability of this season.

True Blood: Spellbound

"Jesus, tits and God America, Jason!"

Now here's a tune I recognise- classic early period Siouxie and the Banshees!

Anyway... Jason saves Jessica- and she's very grateful. But vampires are still not safe until nightfall as the spell may happen again: they must chain themselves indoors with silver. How very kinky.

On the one hand, this brings Sookie erotically closer to amnesiac Eric. On the other, Jessica brutally dumps Hoyt, and he doesn't react well.

But this is a very romantic episode nonetheless, with extended erotic sequences of Sookie and Eric in bed together in the artily shot snow. But Antonia/Marcie are planning full vampire genocide. Tara seems quite happy with this. We know that Bill's offer of a parley cannot go well.

Meanwhile Lafayette again sees the ghostly Creole lady with little Mikey. We discover that she lived a few decades ago, and that she and her baby were killed by her white lover, afraid of being caught having fathered a mixed race child. It's a reminder that this sort of racist horror is never far from the surface in the Deep South.

Meanwhile, we and Sam discover that her menacing ex, and Emma's father, is local werewolf packmaster Marcus, whom we've got to know a little through Alcide and Debbie. It's the sort of shock revelation that True Blood does very well.

Cruelly, Jessica is rejected by Jason out of loyalty for his best friend, even though she left Hoyt for him. Even more cruel is Lafayette's possession by the Creole lady, and his swift seizing of baby Mikey. But we end with the parley, swiftly degenerating into fast and confusing scenes of fighting. It's all beautifully shot, but Sookie uses her powers and receives a bullet, there is much commotion and Antonia bewitches Eric...

Superb stuff.

True Blood: If You Love Me, Why Am I Dying?

"You just killed my fairy godmother!"

"Sorry."

This episode is largely about the amnesiac Eric, and how, vampire or not, he's so sweet, innocent and loving without memories to define who he is- a comment on human nature there, I feel.

Jason, meanwhile, is to be made a werepanther so the somewhat inbred tribe can survive another generation. It seems that panthers rules the Earth once, but were eventually eclipsed by what sound an awful lot like fairies. Jason is fed viagra, tied to a bed and... well, raped by Crystal and all the other women of child-bearing age. It's horrible. 

Jessica finally admits she's been unfaithful to Hoyt and he takes it badly... so she glamours him into forgetting. And so the relationship crosses the line into abuse. Again we have the theme, unusually, of women abusing vulnerable men. Tommy and Maxineare perhaps another example- her need for an obedient son figure is a little disturbing, but at least she's teaching him to read.

The episode ends with Marnie casting a big necromancy spell to raise the dead, with the process seeming very sexual. But Pam is after her. Meanwhile, Eric innocently murders Claudine at an awkward moment. Oops.

I'm loving this season and have no idea where it's going. Addictive as ever.

True Blood: You Smell Like Dinner

"It's Bon Temps, Sook. Not like I expected the red fucking carpet!"

So Eric bought the house because he wants to protect Sookie, a fairy, from other vampires. He's even made himself a little cubby hole. Hmm. Not stalkerish at all then.

Less creepy is Sam's relationship with fellow shifter Luna, which is developing nicely. And equally intriguing is the flashback to a punk rock Bill(!) in the London of 1982, looking very much like Sid Vicious and being seemingly recruited by Nan Flanagan into an assimilist conspiracy within the Authority. My, that Stephen Moyer does a rather good English accent.

Oh, and Louis Pasteur is a vampire. Cool. So is the way True Blood is like a gradually unpeeling onion of complex vampire political agendas.

Tara, meanwhile, finally comes back to visit Bon Temps, her girlfriend in New Orleans believing her to be another identity entirely. The plot thickens as Bill explains that Marnie's Wiccans are necromancers and therefore a threat which Eric is to neutralise. Unfortunately he loses his memory while doing so. Isn't that a bummer?

In other bombshells, Jessica is starting to cheat on Foyt- is monogamy for her?- while Felton and Crystal are back. It seems that Felton, with all that inbreeding, has nothing in the tank and he thus wants Jason to inpregnate his sister-wife. True Blood certainly knows how to do a good twist..!

This is shaping up to be good season. I'm addicted as ever...

Curse of Chucky (2013)

"It's a doll. What's the worst that can happen, eh?"

This film is genuinely bewildering. After two comedy instalments the franchise returns to its roots with an absolutely first class straight-up horror film. So why on earth did this triumph of a film go straight to video? A pen pusher somewhere has some explaining to do.

We are first introduced to the characters trapped inside this particularly large house, none of whom are likeable aside from the wheelchair-using Nica who, according to the grammar of these sorts of horror films is fated to be the only survivor. The snobbish, grasping  and unpleasant Barb, we know from the start, is due a particularly nasty death. She's a bad sort, plotting to put Nica in a home so she gets the house. Still, she's really struggling financially; she and her odious partner Ian may have to send their daughter Alice to state school. Grr! Oh, and Barb is having an affair with Alice's nanny Jill. As the only sexually active couple in the film they obviously have to die. Nice bit of misdirection, though; we're initially led to think it's Ian.

The scene with the rat poison in the food sets the tone nicely; this is how to do Chucky, with humour, yes, but real menace. On top of this, like any good slasher this is grounded in solid characterisation of the potential victims

. 

The ending is excellent, too, with a flashback connecting things nicely to the first film, and if that's not enough we even get a particularly nice cameo at the end. This is one of the best slashers ever. Really.