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A Definitive Ranking of EVERY Kill in the ‘Child’s Play’ Franchise from Worst to Best!

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As terrifying and effective as notorious franchise slashers like Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers or Leatherface might be, it could be argued that their sheer indestructibility and power gives them a huge advantage in doing what they do best – kill. Freddy Krueger, likewise, relies on being the master of dreams and bender of reality for his murderous escapades.
What sets apart Chucky, the psychopathic doll of Child’s Play fame, is that he is a psycho stuck inside the body of a doll, which requires him to devise more cerebral, devious and psychological methods of slaughter compared to his more able-bodied counterparts. He can’t rip your head off or travel through dimensions, but he will trick your foster Dad into believing Chucky is just a ‘silly old doll’ regardless of your desperate pleas, right up until the moment the ‘silly old doll’ springs to life with a wicked grin and murders him in some ironic way.

Chucky has stayed constant for almost 30 years, even as the series ebbed and flowed with pop culture through the 80s, 90s and 2000s. From the pure terror of his 1988 introduction in Child’s Play, to (arguably) the series’ tonal and quality peak in Child’s Play 2, the mediocrity of Child’s Play 3 (or “Chucky Goes to Bootcamp”), the shift towards the comical in Bride of Chucky, the expansion of Chucky’s family in Seed of Chucky, the return to its horror roots in Curse of Chucky, and finally, the gleeful weirdness of the most recent outing, Cult of Chucky.

Here we present a definitive list ranking all of Chucky’s (and his family’s) kills throughout all seven films, from worst to best. We ranked them based on creativity, gore, filmic qualities, and how memorable they were.

Needless to say, many spoilers are ahead…

  1. A gravedigger is shot in the head, Bride of Chucky

It seems that when Chucky is rushed, his kills suffer as a result. On his way to his own grave to retrieve the Heart of Damballa amulet, Chucky quickly shoots the gravedigger tending to the grave, in the head. The method and execution lacks Chuckiness; it feels like he was pressed for time here or just merely lazy. We also do not see the gravedigger or get to know anything about him before he is suddenly killed. For these reasons, this murder is the nadir of Chucky’s murderous escapades.

  1. (+54) Three men are killed off-screen, corpses fall out of closet, Seed of Chucky

It’s great when Chucky goes on his little killing sprees! But not so great when they happen off-screen, and we merely get to see the end result via some anonymous dudes falling out of a wardrobe. One had some blood on him, another had a bag over his head. That’s all well and good, but at least a montage of these blokes getting offed would have been better than what we got. The earlier films treated each of Chucky’s kills as a meticulously crafted sequence, with tense beginnings, middles, and brutal ends – this was bad.

  1. Nurse Ashley gets a stomach ache, Cult of Chucky

Cult’s worst kill suffers as a result of lack of creativity and for being another off-screen death. Blonde bombshell asylum nurse Ashley meets her end via a drill to the stomach. Further to the detriment of this kill, the perpetrator is not even technically Chucky, but Multiple Malcolm, another inmate possessed by the spirit of Charles Lee Ray. If Ashley’s death was given actual screen time it would have ranked higher on this list.

  1. (+51) An old man and woman are shot for their RV, Bride of Chucky

Another multi-kill where we only see the aftermath. At least here, we are treated to an essential element in Chucky kills: the macabre after-death corpse shot. Tiffany opens a door in the RV they just carjacked, revealing the mouth-agape visages of its previous occupants: a nameless old man and woman. Chilling, but one element of a Chucky kill is still lacking all the others: the creepy pre-murder stalking, Chucky springing to life, and the kill itself. For this reason, this double murder ranks quite low.

  1. Nameless Carnival guard is shot in the head, Child’s Play 3

This security guard at the carnival didn’t believe little Tyler about Chucky being alive, which is a running theme throughout the series. You don’t believe Chucky is alive, you die. Another example of Chucky losing his flair for creativity when he’s running short on time, the poor guy gets shot in the head. Again the audience doesn’t get to witness the murder, netting this kill a low rank.

  1. Jennifer Tilly is killed by having her soul replaced with that of Tiffany, Seed of Chucky

Okay this one is weird. The actress Jennifer Tilly plays herself in the 5th movie, while also voice-acting the evil Tiffany doll, who was originally human (and played by Jennifer Tilly in the 4th movie) until her soul got transferred into a doll too. Seed ends with Tiffany successfully transferring her soul into that of Jennifer Tilly, effectively killing Jennifer but allowing Tiffany to live on in the body of a woman who looks strangely like her past human self. The breaking of the fourth wall here is a massive tonal shift from the previous films, which diminishes the death’s overall rank.

  1. Officer Robert Bailey meets Tiffany and her nail file, Bride of Chucky

A quick, cold, brutal introduction to Tiffany. Before being turned into a doll herself, Tiffany first obtains Chucky’s corpse in order to reanimate him. A quick throat slash from Tiff’s sharpened nail file spells the end for Officer Robert Bailey. Sucking the blood off her fingers was a nice touch, but this was too quick and uncreative to rank higher on the list.

  1. Officer Stanton meets Tiffany and her nail file, Curse of Chucky

Ditto Officer Stanton. Jennifer Tilly makes a cameo in the most recent film by recreating her introduction – a quick slash to a cop’s throat in a police car. The motive is largely the same this time: liberating Chucky. The surprise factor here allows this one to rank slightly higher on the list, as Tiffany had not made an appearance in the film until gloriously erupting from the back seat of said police car.

  1. Nameless asylum security guard meets Tiffany and her nail file, Cult of Chucky

The most recent Tiffany nail-file kill is the best one since it’s now officially a running theme. Slicing the throats of law enforcement dudes with her nail file in the vicinity of cars. Still, these rank quite low overall, as Tiff once admonished Chucky for a perceived lack of creativity in his kills in Bride.

  1. Claudia’s mother meets Glen in Glen’s nightmare, Seed of Chucky

This kill loses points based purely on the fact that it didn’t really happen, and was merely Glen’s dream; a manifestation of his innate evil. Filmed from Glen’s POV, a rich English family is tormented violently, culminating in the Psycho-style stabbing of Claudia’s naked mother in the shower.

  1. Claudia’s father meets Glen in Glen’s nightmare, Seed of Chucky

Claudia’s pompous father is stabbed violently in the chest while holding Glen, proceeding to plummet from the 2nd floor balcony. As mentioned, these “kills” would have ranked significantly higher if they actually happened in the canon of the Child’s Play universe. Instead, they existed merely in the dreams of Glen, serving as an introduction to the conflicted character.

  1. Fulvia learns not to bad-mouth Glenda, Seed of Chucky

At the end of Seed, Tiffany inhabits the body of Jennifer Tilly, and is raising the twins Glen and Glenda, themselves the split souls of Chucky and Tiffany’s offspring – makes sense, right? Their housekeeper Fulvia is suspicious and distrusting of Glenda, who she fears has psychopathic tendencies. Tiffany/Jennifer allows her to start leaving, but then proceeds to bludgeon her violently to death using the Tiffany doll, itself a vessel that her soul used to inhabit. A quick death which pales in comparison to more creative kills which happened to more unpleasant individuals throughout the series.

  1. Harold Whitehurst redeems himself via grenade sacrifice, Child’s Play 3

Whitehurst’s character actually had one of the stronger subplots in the weak third film – a nerdy army cadet who initially shows fear by refusing to tell Andy about witnessing Chucky moving around and killing. He redeems himself by throwing himself on a grenade thrown by Chucky during the wargames exercise, overcoming his cowardice but dying for his efforts. Here’s to you, nerdlinger.

  1. Stan the chauffeur takes a knife for his unrequited love, Seed of Chucky

In a similar vein to Whitehurst, Stan – Jennifer Tilly’s chauffeur in the silly fifth film – is killed right as he redeems his character arc. In Stan’s case, this is telling J.Till of his love for her. A knife thrown by Chucky at Tiffany is the method here, hitting Stan in the chest as he foolishly jumps in its way. Choking on his own blood, he manages to tell Tilly of his love before succumbing. Still, this kill is brought down by the fact that Chucky probably didn’t even mean to kill poor Stan here.

  1. Sarah Pierce is visited by an old family friend, Curse of Chucky

Curse shone a light on some previously unexplored relationships from Charles Lee Ray’s past, namely his twisted connection to the Pierce family. The apparent suicide by scissor-stabbing of matriarch Sarah Pierce, which kicks off the events of the sixth film, is far from its best kill due to it happening off-screen. However it is propped up slightly by virtue of Chucky’s revealed connection to the family – unsurprisingly, one of murder and demented obsession.

  1. Officer “Needlenose” Norton is exploded, Bride of Chucky

The old lit rag in the gas tank trick turns Needlenose’s police car into a Molotov cocktail. A meddling and smug cop who tried to make life difficult for Bride’s protagonists Jesse and Jade, Needlenose’s fiery death is slightly let down by its suddenness and lack of an aftermath shot. A horrified scream of realisation is this kill’s best feature just before Norton goes boom-boom.

  1. Truck turns David Plummens into a meat explosion, Bride of Chucky

While technically not a direct Chucky or Tiffany murder, David’s sudden death can be deemed a ‘Chucky-by-proxy’ kill. In a state of aghast disbelief, hapless David steps out onto a busy highway, only to be met with a big truck. Squish.

  1. Joanne Simpson’s corpse is discovered, Child’s Play 2

The weakest kill in CP2 is still damn effective. Andy’s foster mum’s death adheres to the classic horror trope of a gruesome corpse being discovered sitting in a chair, with a spooky swivel revealing Chucky’s cruelty – eyes open in terror, throat cut.

  1. Angela’s corpse is discovered, Cult of Chucky

An off-screen kill which is salvaged by virtue of Chucky’s sheer deviousness here. Angela, an inmate in the asylum, is murdered during the night by having her wrists slit open – using Nica’s wheelchair spoke, potentially implicating her in the murder. The Chuck can certainly mess with your mind.

  1. Lt. Brett Shelton gets a surprise during team war-games, Child’s Play 3

Shelton probably deserved a more elaborate, painful send-off on the basis of being one of the series’ more unlikeable characters: he made Andy’s life hell during his stay at Kent Military Academy. What we got was the Chuckster switching out fake rounds for live ones in the war-games exercise, and Shelton being shot dramatically in the chest. Clever on Chucky’s part.

  1. Eddie Caputo blows himself up, Child’s Play

A cold, calculated kill spurned on by Charles Lee Ray’s desire to tie up loose ends: Caputo was his partner and abandoned him prior to Ray’s own ‘death’. Chucky’s little hands can be seen turning on a gas pipe, prompting Caputo to shoot blindly and incinerate himself and his house in the process. Loses a few spots due to the lack of Chucky’s reveal to the victim.

  1. Britney Spears meets a fiery end, Seed of Chucky

The peak of Seed’s silliness. Chucky and his son Glen are on a joyride when they run into Ms Spears on the road; she’s run off the road and turned into a fireball. Too ridiculous to be either terrible or great. Chucky witticism: “Oops! I did it again!”.

  1. Jennifer Tilly’s agent Joan is “fired”, Seed of Chucky

Joan was cute and innocent, which makes her horrifying death all the more upsetting. A candle and hairspray combo sets her alight, followed by a screaming fall from a balcony. Glenda is the perpetrator here, highlighting this side of the conflicted doll’s dual personality as the more psychotic one.

  1. Nameless doll technician is electrocuted by Chucky’s evil eyes, Child’s Play 2

The spirit of Charles Lee Ray lingers within the Chucky doll at the start of CP2. A hapless technician meets his end as strange electricity emanating from the doll’s eyes send him flying across the room. Great bloody-faced post-death shot, but otherwise a fairly bland kill.

  1. Nurse Carlos meets multiple Chuckies, Cult of Chucky

May as well spill the beans here, we said there’d be spoilers: there are multiple Chuckies in Cult of Chucky. Turns out Chucky learned a new voodoo incantation allowing him to separate his soul into multiple vessels (hence, the cult!). Asylum nurse Carlos is the unlucky recipient of the wrath of three Chuckies at once, who gleefully stab, drill and slice him in a horrible frenzy.

  1. Garbage man is crushed in his own garbage truck, Child’s Play 3

Chucky will murder you if you’re innocent or guilty, as this unnamed garbage man found out. The dude was just doing his job when Chucky tricked him into entering his own garbage truck’s compactor. A horrible scream, a crushed arm, and bloodstains are the result. Chucky’s kills are more fun when he goes after unpleasant individuals.

  1. Lt. Preston meets Chucky’s spawn, Bride of Chucky

The end of Bride features the reveal of a disgusting little bloody goblin: Chucky’s child. Found in a field by the grizzled Lt. Preston, the burnt corpse of the Tiff doll somehow gives birth. The ‘child’ screeches and lunges towards the policeman’s face, with a cut to black. Though his death is technically inconclusive, we can only assume that his face was probably chewed off.

  1. SFX legend Tony Gardner loses his head, Seed of Chucky

In an example of Seed’s propensity to break the fourth wall, Chucky and Tiffany gruesomely murder the special effects maestro Tony Gardner with piano wire, causing his decapitated CGI head to fly through the air. Tony worked on effects for the Chucky film within the film, as well as the actual film itself. Clever, but this was the series becoming too silly and light-hearted.

  1. Father Frank loses his head, Curse of Chucky

A darker, more effective decapitation than the one preceding it. After Chucky devilishly sprinkles rat poison into only one guest’s dinner bowl, the priest Father Frank becomes the unlucky diner. Excusing himself to drive home, Frank’s state causes a horrifying vehicle crash. The aftermath is seen, with Frank’s head seemingly sliding off his body. Chilling.

  1. Sgt. Botnick meets Chucky, Child’s Play 3

Underrated character actor Andrew Robinson plays the demented barber Sgt Botnick, who loves tormenting the recruits of Kent Military Academy in CP3. Following the classic Child’s Play murder formula of Chucky suddenly springing awake, Botnick meets his end when he decides he wants to cut the doll’s hair for some reason. A straight-razor to the throat is Chucky’s tool here. Lots of blood and a great death-shot of Botnick sprawled across the barber’s chair follows. Chucky witticism: “Presto! You’re dead.”

  1. Multiple Malcolm has something in his eye, Cult of Chucky

Poor Multiple Malcolm. A schizophrenic suffering from multiple personality disorder, Malcolm eventually joins the cult, and is imbued with part of Charles Lee Ray’s soul. Seemingly wishing to impress the now-similarly-possessed Nica, he even murders poor nurse Ashley. Chucky doesn’t care. Malcolm gets a drill through the back of the skull as a reward, with the drill gruesomely emerging through his eye in what is surely one of the series’ goriest kills.

  1. Tiffany takes her last bath, Bride of Chucky

Tiffany’s death as a human is a testament to her and Chucky’s volatile and demented relationship. Tiff meets her end via Chucky furiously throwing a TV into her bath, but what brings this death up in rank are some minor details: Bride of Frankenstein is playing on the TV, as well as the bubbles as she flails around helplessly.

  1. Ian loses his jaw, Curse of Chucky

We’re into the good stuff now. Ian from the latest film was a truly unpleasant character; he laughed at the idea of Chucky being alive and hindered the main character by tying up Nica. Ian’s death is protracted and chilling: after viewing the footage from the nanny-cam that he himself planted on Chucky, he learns the truth, but by then it’s too late. He’s bowled over by Nica’s wheelchair, and gets an axe to the jaw mid-scream. Brutal.

  1. Colonel Francis Cochrane has a heart attack, Child’s Play 3

Another Chucky-by-proxy kill. Cochrane incurs Chucky’s wrath by throwing him into a garbage can. As Chucky jumps out with a knife, Cochrane’s heart gives out, robbing the Chuck of doing the deed himself. A kill which explored the terrifying concept of simply seeing a doll spring to life.

  1. Madeline checks out, Cult of Chucky

Madeline is a true tragic figure in Cult, and her death is equally poignant and gruesome. An inmate who was institutionalised for murdering her own baby, Madeline turns one of the Chuckies into a surrogate, before the doll/s reveal their true selves. After attempting to do to Chucky what she did to her child, Madeline is placed on suicide watch. Seemingly unable to deal with reality, she asks the now-fully-alive Chucky for an escape. Chucky grants her wish by sticking his little hand down her throat and pulling out a chunk of spine. Chilling.

  1. (+18) Russ & Diane have a honeymoon to remember, Bride of Chucky

Obnoxious honeymooners Russ & Diane meet their end via a champagne bottle being thrown at a mirrored ceiling by Tiffany. Shards of glass ruin their consummation night, exploding their waterbed in a sea of blood and.. water. A housekeeper discovers their gruesome corpses, providing the necessary post-death aftermath shot.

  1. Phil Simpson falls on his neck, Child’s Play 2

The archetypal ‘doesn’t believe in Chucky’ character, Phil was Andy’s reluctant foster dad up until the moment Chucky trips him with a fireplace poker while ascending some basement stairs. An all-time great Chucky witticism follows as Phil is suspended upside down momentarily: “How’s it hanging, Phil?”. A fall and a neck-break later, and the pyjama-clad Mr. Simpson is gone.

  1. Redman loses his guts, Seed of Chucky

Rapper Redman was inexplicably cast as himself in Seed, in a possible sign the franchise needed a reboot. After failing to bed Jennifer Tilly, Redman becomes the catalyst for Tiffany giving into her addiction to murder. A fillet knife to the stomach causes the rapper’s intestines to plop onto the floor, steaming. Tiff at her sadistic best.

  1. Jill Taylor is electrocuted in a state of undress, Curse of Chucky

One of the oldest horror tropes state that if a cute girl appears in her bra and panties voluntarily, she must die. Sexy nanny Jill found this out when a late-night webcam session turned into a nightmare via Chucky and an overturned bucket of water. What brings this kill up is that the electrocution somehow inexplicably overloaded her eye.

  1. Dr. Foley gets his head smashed, Cult of Chucky

Truly a vile character, Dr. Foley – the head of the asylum in Cult – takes a sick personal interest in Nica, with the knowledge that her paralysis makes her vulnerable to his advances. It’s fitting then that possibly the series most violent and bloody death should befall such a morally bankrupt individual. Nica, now possessed by Chucky and having full use of her legs, stomps the doctor’s head in until it resembles a rotting pumpkin. Satisfying and disturbing simultaneously, this kill proves the almost 30-year old series is not afraid to push some boundaries in gore.

  1. John Aelsop Bishop is voodoo-ed to death, Child’s Play

The voodoo master who taught Charles Lee Ray about Damballa and soul transfers had a change of heart, calling Chucky an “abomination”. Big mistake. In one of Chucky’s most original kills, a voodoo effigy is used to supernaturally break Bishop’s limbs and stab his chest. Ouch.

  1. Damien Baylock welcomes Chucky back for the 4th time, Bride of Chucky

You have to give it to the late Alexis Arquette. He played the obnoxious goth Damien Baylock to a tee in Bride, virtually begging to be killed by poking fun at Chucky, even humping him at one point. Tied up and helpless on a bed, old mate Damo gets his lip ring gruesomely ripped out before being suffocated with a pillow, all the while Chucky and Tiffany share a loving reunion.

  1. Barb Pierce loses an eye, Curse of Chucky

Curse spent a lot of its time establishing the unpleasantness of its expendable characters, with the domineering and unfaithful Barb as its most death-worthy individual. “Mommy’s sick to death of all of you”, Nica’s sister exclaims, shortly before Chucky appears to stab her in the eye in gruesome close-up. The film’s best death doesn’t end there as Barb later appears again, shambling eyelessly, to tumble down a flight of stairs and further traumatise poor Nica before finally dying.

  1. Claire loses her head, Cult of Chucky

Even though the newest film’s best kill is a recreation of an older murder, it surpasses the original by being better in almost every way. Meddling Claire, who blames Nica for the string of bizarre occurrences within the asylum, is sedated and tied up on a gurney. Chucky makes his entrance, and in a tribute to Bride’s honeymoon glass ceiling murder, launches an air canister at the ceiling… which is again made of glass. A gorgeous slow-mo minimalist shot of glass falling follows, alongside a single tear rolling down Claire’s face as she watches her doom descend. To top it off, the glass perfectly decapitates her, resulting in a kill which is not only filmically well-done but turns up the gore-factor too. Top notch.

  1. Pete Peters’ face is burnt off with acid, Seed of Chucky

The great cult film legend John Waters provides Seed’s best death, portraying the opportunistic paparazzo Pete Peters. A run-in with a murderous Chucky and a tentative Glen in his own dark-room ends in horror as Peters is tripped and stumbles into some chemicals, with a vial of sulphuric acid burning off his face. An excellent cameo coupled with a fantastic effects shot combine to make the highest point of arguably the series’ lowest point.

  1. Maggie Peterson is the first to meet Chucky, Child’s Play

An intense and genuinely frightening build-up underlines Chucky’s true introduction in the series. We see Andy’s innocent babysitter Maggie stalked and unsettled by an unseen entity before Chucky makes his terrifying first appearance. A simple hammer to the face causes Maggie to fall out of the 6th storey window. The same hammer to the face causes Chucky to be instantly embedded in the nightmares of many children for years to come, this author included.

  1. Mattson has a date with a plastic bag, Child’s Play 2

Slimy toy executive Mattson never made it to his hot date, since the newly-resurrected Chucky hitched a ride in his car. The insult that sealed Mattson’s fate could have been him banging Chucky with his car boot, but the Chuck probably would have killed him regardless. Chucky torments the doomed businessman with a toy gun, before suffocating him with a plastic bag. Chucky’s demented cackling throughout this murder set the tone of this sequel as “the first film but turned up a notch”.

  1. Grace Poole makes some photocopies, Child’s Play 2

Foster center manager Grace Poole meets her end through a rather mundane method – being stabbed a couple of times. It’s the small details around her death that bring this murder into the top 10. First, Chucky’s exclamation of “Amazing, isn’t it?!” as he springs to life in Grace’s arms, followed by her shocked expression, is simply perfect. Secondly: after being stabbed, Grace falls into a nearby photocopier for some reason, managing to activate it and making some copies of her grotesque deathly visage in the process. An example of the first sequel being playful and horrifying at the same time.

  1. Christopher Sullivan is tormented by his own toys, Child’s Play 3

The second sequel starts with a bang and gets progressively worse. Sullivan, the greedy CEO of the company behind the Good Guys dolls, reboots the infamous toy line, resurrecting Chucky in the process. For his troubles, he is sadistically stalked in his own home by Chucky, who proceeds to torture Sullivan with ballbearings, a golf club to the head, a dart to the back, before offing him with a yo-yo, of all things. A sequence made all the more terrifying by Chucky’s slow reveal, and all the more satisfying by the nature of Sullivan’s smug, pompous personality. A Chucky torture tour-de-force.

  1. Chief Warren Kincaid gets a face-ful of nails, Bride of Chucky

The late, great John Ritter portrays Police Chief Warren Kincaid in Bride’s highest point, and possibly the series’ most gruesome, protracted death. The chief’s snooping in the van which hides Chucky and Tiffany causes the dolls to improvise a devious murder plot: an airbag combined with some nails. When activated, the Chief gets a faceful of embedded nails, providing one hell of a post-death shot.

Except that he’s not quite dead yet. He comes back later, exploding screaming from the container hiding his presumed-dead body, only to trip and fall onto his own face, still embedded with nails. Six knife stabs to the back from Chucky later, and the series achieves arguably its most macabre moment.

  1. Dr. Philip Ardmore gets a taste of his own medicine, Child’s Play

In the first film’s most satisfying moment, the psychiatric doctor who locks up Andy and scoffs at the idea of Chucky is first incapacitated with a scalpel to the leg. In a fiendish twist, Chucky then places an electroconvulsive device on his head, overloading it and frying the good doctor to a crisp. Throughout the series one finds themselves either siding with the protagonists against Chucky, or rooting for Chucky against horrible individuals – this instance marked the first occurrence of the latter.

  1. A doll factory technician gets a new set of eyes, Child’s Play 2

It’s odd that a nameless character would be given the honor of 2nd best death in the series, but the sheer fun of this kill cannot be overstated. During the 2nd film’s final showdown in the doll factory, a machine which inserts eyes into dolls is overloaded; a tech is called to investigate. Immediately we know this schmoe is doomed. A slice to the cheek from Chucky sends this poor guy tumbling into the doll-eye machine, which proceeds to smush two googly doll eyes into his actual eyes. Possibly the greatest post-death shot of the series follows. An expert combination of horror and humour.

That’s not the final time this guy makes an appearance, too! He comes back later, his corpse suspended upside down from a hoist, and is used to knock down Kyle during the final showdown. Amazing.

  1. Miss Kettlewell meets Chucky, Child’s Play 2

Several factors combine here to create the best kill in Child’s Play franchise history. One is that Andy’s teacher Miss Kettlewell is played by excellent character actor Beth Grant, famous for portraying overbearing and annoying characters (Kitty Farmer in Donnie Darko, among others). Another is the archetypal Chuckiness of her death: she doesn’t believe in him, and is menaced before the big reveal.

Yet another is the inventive method of her death; she’s stabbed in the midsection with an air pump and pumped with some air, which begs the question of what would actually happen if that was to occur. Chucky’s terrifying, gleefully evil figure descending on Kettlewell while stating “You’ve been very naughty Miss Kettlewell!” has become an iconic image for the franchise. The shot through the window of the yardstick wielded by Chucky as it comes down again and again also bears mentioning as a great cinematic touch. To summarise, this death represents Chucky at his most devilish, much as this film represents the series at its most fun.

Editorials

Nintendo Wii’s ‘Ju-On: The Grudge’ Video Game 15 Years Later

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Nintendo Wii Ju-On

There was a moment in Japanese culture when writers and filmmakers began to update centuries-old fears so that they could still be effective storytelling tools in the modern world. One of the best examples of this is how extremely popular stories like Ringu and Parasite Eve began re-interpreting the cyclical nature of curses as pseudo-scientific “infections,” with this new take on J-Horror even making its way over to the world of video games in titles like Resident Evil (a sci-fi deconstruction of a classic haunted house yarn).

However, there is one survival horror game that is rarely brought up during discussions about interactive J-Horror despite being part of a franchise that helped to popularize Japanese genre cinema around the world. Naturally, that game is the Nintendo Wii exclusive Ju-On: The Grudge, a self-professed haunted house simulator that was mostly forgotten by horror fans and gamers alike despite being a legitimately creative experience devised by a true master of the craft. And with the title celebrating its 15th anniversary this year (and the Ju-On franchise its 25th), I think this is the perfect time to look back on what I believe to be an unfairly maligned J-Horror gem.

After dozens of sequels, spin-offs and crossovers, it’s hard to believe that the Ju-On franchise originally began as a pair of low-budget short films directed by Takashi Shimizu while he was still in film school. However, these humble origins are precisely why Shimizu remained dead-set on retaining creative control of his cinematic brainchild for as long as he could, with the filmmaker even going so far as to insist on directing the video game adaptation of his work alongside Feelplus’ Daisuke Fukugawa as a part of Ju-On’s 10th anniversary celebration.

Rather than forcing the franchise’s core concepts into a pre-existing survival-horror mold like some other licensed horror titles (such as the oddly action-packed Blair Witch trilogy), the developers decided that their game should be a “haunted house simulator” instead, with the team focusing more on slow-paced cinematic scares than the action-adventure elements that were popular at the time.

While there are rumors that this decision was reached due to Shimizu’s lack of industry experience (as well as the source material’s lack of shootable monsters like zombies and demons), several interviews suggest that Shimizu’s role during development wasn’t as megalomaniacal as the marketing initially suggested. In fact, the filmmaker’s input was mostly relegated to coming up with basic story ideas and advising the team on cut-scenes and how the antagonists should look and act. He also directed the game’s excellent live-action cut-scenes, which add even more legitimacy to the project.

Nintendo Wii Ju-On video game

The end result was a digital gauntlet of interactive jump-scares that put players in the shoes of the ill-fated Yamada family as they each explore different abandoned locations inspired by classic horror tropes (ranging from haunted hospitals to a mannequin factory and even the iconic Saeki house) in order to put an end to the titular curse that haunts them.

In gameplay terms, this means navigating five chapters of poorly lit haunts in first person while using the Wii-mote as a flashlight to fend off a series of increasingly spooky jump-scares through Dragon’s-Lair-like quick-time events – all the while collecting items, managing battery life and solving a few easy puzzles. There also some bizarre yet highly creative gameplay additions like a “multiplayer” mode where a second Wii-mote can activate additional scares as the other player attempts to complete the game.

When it works, the title immerses players in a dark and dingy world of generational curses and ghostly apparitions, with hand-crafted jump-scares testing your resolve as the game attempts to emulate the experience of actually living through the twists and turns of a classic Ju-On flick – complete with sickly black hair sprouting in unlikely places and disembodied heads watching you from inside of cupboards.

The title also borrows the narrative puzzle elements from the movies, forcing players to juggle multiple timelines and intentionally obtuse clues in order to piece together exactly what’s happening to the Yamada family (though you’ll likely only fully understand the story once you find all of the game’s well-hidden collectables). While I admit that this overly convoluted storytelling approach isn’t for everyone and likely sparked some of the game’s scathing reviews, I appreciate how the title refuses to look down on gamers and provides us with a complex narrative that fits right in with its cinematic peers.

Unfortunately, the experience is held back by some severe technical issues due to the decision to measure player movement through the Wii’s extremely inaccurate accelerometer rather than its infrared functionality (probably because the developers wanted to measure micro-movements in order to calculate how “scared” you were while playing). This means that you’ll often succumb to unfair deaths despite moving the controller in the right direction, which is a pretty big flaw when you consider that this is the title’s main gameplay mechanic.

Ju-on The Grudge Haunted House Simulator 2

In 2024, these issues can easily be mitigated by emulating the game on a computer, which I’d argue is the best way to experience the title (though I won’t go into detail about this due to Nintendo’s infamously ravenous legal team). However, no amount of post-release tinkering can undo the damage that this broken mechanic did on the game’s reputation.

That being said, I think it’s pretty clear that Shimizu and company intended this to be a difficult ordeal, with the slow pace and frequent deaths meant to guide players into experiencing the title as more of a grisly interactive movie than a regular video game. It’s either that or Shimizu took his original premise about the “Grudge” being born from violent deaths a little too seriously and wanted to see if the curse also worked on gamers inhabiting a virtual realm.

Regardless, once you accept that the odd gameplay loop and janky controls are simply part of the horror experience, it becomes a lot easier to accept the title’s mechanical failings. After all, this wouldn’t be much a Ju-On adaptation if you could completely avoid the scares through skill alone, though I don’t think there’s an excuse for the lack of checkpoints (which is another point for emulation).

It’s difficult to recommend Ju-On: The Grudge as a product; the controls and story seem hell-bent on frustrating the player into giving up entirely and it’s unlikely that you’ll unlock the final – not to mention best – level without a guide to the collectables. However, video games are more than just toys to be measured by their entertainment factor, and if you consider the thought and care that went into crafting the game’s chilling atmosphere and its beautifully orchestrated frights, I think you’ll find that this is a fascinating experience worth revisiting as an unfairly forgotten part of the Ju-On series.

Now all we have to do is chat with Nintendo so we can play this one again without resorting to emulation.

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