Movies
This Week’s Episode of “Chucky” Revealed Charles Lee Ray’s Serial Killer Origin Story
Warning: This article contains spoilers.
It was well over 30 years ago that we first met Charles Lee Ray in the original Child’s Play, a serial killer known as the “Lakeshore Strangler” who’s gunned down in a toy shop one night. Of course, Charles Lee Ray uses dark voodoo magic to transfer his soul into a Good Guys doll before he takes his final breath, giving birth to the horror icon we know and love as Chucky.
Throughout the course of seven movies in the original Child’s Play franchise, we’ve become well acquainted with the killer doll, but we still don’t know all that much about the early days of Charles Lee Ray. That was until last night’s episode of brand new television series “Chucky,” of course, which made good on creator Don Mancini‘s promise of “exploring Chucky’s character with a depth that is uniquely afforded by the television series format.”
This week’s brand new third episode, titled “I Like To Be Hugged,” delved into the origin story of Charles Lee Ray, which had been teased in the very first episode. Flashbacks throughout the new episode gave us some insight into Charles Lee Ray’s early days as a child, witnessing the brutal and bloody murder of his father at the hands of a serial killer one fateful night.
In response to witnessing the horrific act, a young Charles Lee Ray picks up a knife and murders his own mother in the same fashion, inspired by the killer to become a killer himself. It’s a twisted first kill for the Lakeshore Strangler, to say the very least, revealing an entirely new wrinkle in the story of a character we’ve spent the past 30 years hanging out with.
Mind you, films including Mancini’s Curse of Chucky have touched upon the pre-Chucky days of Charles Lee Ray, but this is first time we’ve gotten any actual insight into the killer’s childhood. And the flashbacks in the episode provide key insight into Chucky’s latest adventure as well, cluing us into precisely why he’s trying to pass the knife, so to speak, to Jake Wheeler.
For those wondering, young Charles Lee Ray is played by actor David Kohlsmith in “Chucky,” who also played young Teddy in The Christmas Chronicles and young Billy in Shazam!
New episodes of “Chucky” premiere Tuesday nights on SYFY and USA.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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