TV
“NOS4A2”: Meet Charlie Manx, the Soul-Stealing Monster of AMC’s Series
Just as the title NOS4A2 suggests, this series and the novel its based on features a great evil in the form a vampire. But this particular vampire bends the rules of traditional mythos to deliver something far more unique, creepy, and modern in many ways. The counterbalance to reluctant yet tough-as-nails heroine Vic McQueen, Charlie Manx presents as one dangerous, deadly foe that isn’t quite like any other villain. He’s something far more complex. And with one terrifying method of hunting prey.
Charlie Manx is a child predator. He drives his black 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith (its license plate reads NOS4A2) across the country, saving abused and neglected children from a life of sadness and bringing them back to Christmasland- a cheery world where it’s eternally Christmas. In actuality, Manx is luring children away with the promise of Christmasland and feeding off their souls until he’s regained his youth and what’s left of his victim is an unnerving, ghoulish shell of a child with pointy teeth and homicidal tendencies. Christmasland is merely his inscape where he deposits the empty human husks. He seeks out disturbed men to assist him in his kidnapping schemes; his henchman cruelly dispatches any parents that might stand in their way while Manx lures the child away with promises of presents, Christmas, and everlasting happiness. Most interesting of all, perhaps, is that he feels like he’s doing the child a great favor.
Author and executive producer Joe Hill explains how Manx doesn’t see himself as villainous at all, “In NOS4A2, Charlie is kidnapping these children and taking them away from their parents. Sometimes leaving the parents dead behind them. But it’s Charlie’s view that those parents are awful people. That those children are living lives of abuse and neglect. That they live in sorrow. If no one comes to save them, by the time they’re adults they’ll be empty shells. They’ll be abusers themselves. He’s taking them away from grief and pain and anger, and bringing them to a place where it’s Christmas every day. When you hear it that way, when the story is presented to you that way, suddenly Charlie sounds like a good guy.”
“Of course, the picture is a little more complicated than that. But Charlie sees himself as an avenging angel who’s standing up for abused children. I always think that’s a little more exciting, when you can present a bad guy who has their own moral code. His own system of beliefs.”
Zachary Quinto as Charlie Manx – NOS4A2 _ Season 1, Episode 1 – Photo Credit: Zach Dilgard/AMC
Make no mistake, though; as altruistic as Manx sees himself, he’s downright menacing. Hill warns that, “this rogue vampire who’s over a hundred years old, and he has very 19th century ideas about how women should behave. How children should behave. It’s real bad news if you can’t meet Charlie’s expectations.” Considering how stubborn and independent both Vic McQueen (Ashleigh Cummings) and Maggie Leigh (Jahkara Smith) are, well, they’re going to wind up on Charlie Manx’s naughty list sooner than later.
The sadistic yet complicated Charlie Manx is played by Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, American Horror Story), who was attracted to the character both because of the complexity of Charlie and the NOS4A2 world at large. Being that Manx undergoes a physical transformation as he feasts upon the souls of his young victims, he pulled in Academy Award winning makeup artist Joel Harlow (Star Trek, Hellboy) to design the five different stages of Manx’s aging process. The result is a character as visually interesting as his personality.
To see the monstrous, soul-stealing Charlie Manx and his ghoulish Christmasland children in action, tune in to AMC on June 2, 2019 for the premiere of NOS4A2.
Zachary Quinto as Charlie Manx – NOS4A2 _ Season 1, Episode 4 – Photo Credit: Zach Dilgard/AMC
Not even death can slow Chucky in “There Will Be Blood,” the penultimate episode of “Chucky” Season 3. With the killer receiving a mortal blow in the last episode, Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) can now take full advantage of the White House’s bizarre supernatural purgatory, leaving him free to continue his current reign of terror as a ghost. While that spells trouble for Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Bjorgvin Arnarson), and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind), it makes for an outrageously satisfying bloodbath heading into next week’s finale.
“There Will Be Blood” covers a lot of ground in short order, with Charles Lee Ray confronting his maker over his failures before he can continue his current path of destruction. Lexy, Jake, and Devon continue their desperate bid to find Lexy’s sister, which means seeking answers from the afterlife. They’re in luck, considering Warren Pryce (Gil Bellows) enlists the help of parapsychologists to solve the White House’s pesky paranormal problem. Of course, Warren also has unfinished business with the surviving First Family members, including the President’s assigned body double, Randall Jenkins (Devon Sawa). Then there’s Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly), who’s feeling the immense weight of her looming execution.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Brad Dourif as Charles Lee Ray, Chucky — (Photo by: SYFY)
Arguably, the most impressive aspect of “Chucky” is how series creator Don Mancini and his fantastic team of writers consistently swing for the fences. That constant “anything goes” spirit pervades the entire season, but especially this episode. Lexy’s new beau, Grant (Jackson Kelly), exemplifies this; he’s refreshingly quick to accept even the most outlandish concepts – namely, the White House as a paranormal hub and that his little brother’s doll happens to be inhabited by a serial killer.
But it’s also in the way that “There Will Be Blood” goes for broke in ensuring it’s the bloodiest episode of the series to date. Considering how over-the-top and grisly Chucky’s kills can be, that’s saying a lot. Mancini and crew pay tribute to The Shining in inspired ways, and that only hints at a fraction of the bloodletting in this week’s new episode.
CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: Brad Dourif as Charles Lee Ray — (Photo by: SYFY)
“Chucky” can get away with splattering an insane amount of blood on the small screen because it’s counterbalanced with a wry sense of humor and campy narrative turns that are just as endearing and fun as the SFX. Moreover, it’s the fantastic cast that sells it all. In an episode where Brad Dourif makes a rare appearance on screen, cutting loose and having a blast in Chucky’s incorporeal form, his mischievous turn is matched by Tiffany facing her own mortality and Nica Pierce’s (Fiona Dourif) emotionally charged confrontation with her former captor.
There’s also Devon Sawa, who amusingly continues to land in Chucky’s crosshairs no matter the character. Season 3 began with Sawa as the deeply haunted but kind President Collins, and Sawa upstages himself as the unflappably upbeat and eager-to-please doppelganger Randall Jenkins. That this episode gives Sawa plenty to do on the horror front while playing his most likable character yet on the series makes for one of the episode’s bigger surprises.
The penultimate episode of “Chucky” Season 3 unleashes an epic bloodbath. It delivers scares, gore, and franchise fan service in spades, anchored by an appropriate scene-chewing turn by Dourif. That alone makes this episode a series highlight. But the episode also neatly ties together its characters and plot threads to pave the way for the finale. No matter how this season wraps up, it’s been an absolute pleasure watching Chucky destroy the White House from the inside.
“Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on USA & SYFY.
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