Editorials
The Queer Horror of “Chucky” – Episode 3, “I Like To Be Hugged’
Each week Joe Lipsett will highlight a key scene or interaction in Don Mancini’s “Chucky” series to consider how the show is engaging with and contributing to queer horror.
Last week the discussion of episode two focused on how Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) used his non-binary, gender fluid child as a bridge to connect to Jake (Zackary Arthur). I observed that it was a great moment of representation for a character that the franchise hasn’t publicly addressed in many years, but there’s also a dark angle to what Chucky is trying to do with Jake, namely to turn him into a killer.
“I Like To Be Hugged” takes the latter element and runs with it (quite literally in some scenes). This third episode of Chucky is pointedly less about Jake and more about Chucky than the two previous episodes, although both Jake and Chucky do embark on killer missions. As Chucky orchestrates a scenario that gets him closer to Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) via her younger sister Caroline (Carina Battrick), Jake works out his (rightful) aggression about the queen bee.
Most of this is played as either thrilling diversion, such as the gotcha moment when Jake nearly stabs an identically dressed Junior (Teo Briones), or as comedy, like when Jake repeatedly stabs what remains of his art piece from the first episode, now adorned with a Lexy wig.
But what Chucky is doing, and how it is presented, gives me pause.
Throughout the first two episodes, there have been plenty of glimpses of young Charles Lee Ray (David Kohlsmith). The vignettes have frequently acted as framing devices, bookending the beginning or the end of episodes. In “I Like To Be Hugged”, writers Don Mancini and Kim Garland sprinkle more of Chucky’s backstory throughout, narrated in voice-over by Chucky as he dictates to Jake the details of his very first kill.
The language here is vital: Chucky uses phrases that are interchangeable with losing one’s virginity, immediately equating the act of killing with sex. This makes sense – a lot of the discussion about slashers conflate sex with death (see: every analysis of the Final Girl in existence). The difference is that “I Like To Be Hugged” is putting a LGBT spin on this because it involves a young, impressionable queer boy developing a friendship/mentorship with an older, predatory serial killer.
And therein lies the discomfort: at episode’s end, it is revealed that young Charles Lee Ray committed his first murder in an effort to impress the serial killer who broke into his house and murdered his father. Charles does so by murdering his mother, with whom he is hiding in a closet (in a queer text, that’s significant). Hell, the episode even ends with a quip about nature vs nurture, which brings to mind issues of LGBT rights and acceptance.
The reality is that predatory older men adopting sexually codified language to proposition boys into becoming like them, even when the older man is trapped in the plastic body of a knee high doll, has icky connotations. In the real world, homophobes have long tried to wield the narrative about gay men who prey on young and/or underage men in an effort to “convert” them as a means to brew fear and mistrust.
That’s not quite the world we see in Chucky. The serial killer who murdered Chucky’s father isn’t queer coded, and while Chucky himself supports the queer agenda, his primary orientation is more homicidal than anything else. Still, there’s no discounting the uncomfortable connection between murder and (gay) sexuality in Chucky and Jake’s relationship in this third episode and how easily it could be misinterpreted.
As a gay man, Don Mancini is undoubtedly aware of these issues, and thus far he has steered this very queer franchise through far more turbulent waters than this. Out of context from the rest of the semester, this isn’t a great development, but it speaks to the challenges of watching and analyzing serialized TV episode by episode.
This aspect of this storyline may well turn into nothing. Or it may be the start of something the whole series hinges on. Only time will tell.
Chucky airs Tuesdays on Syfy and USA Network. For more coverage, see Meagan’s review of episode three.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
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