Have an appreciation for the horror genre, although there is a preference for other genres. Mainly watched 'Bride of Chucky' having decided to recently watch and review all the films in the 'Child's Play'/Chucky series, having been intrigued for a long time by Chucky the doll's horror icon status, a deserved distinction.

Do feel that the character himself is better than the films, as has been said before. Having said that, enough of the films are watchable and a few are even good. 'Bride of Chucky' is one of the good ones. It is not the very best of the 'Child's Play'/Chucky films, it for me will always be the original. It is though one of the best and one of the franchise's most entertaining. Was expecting it to be really dumb, weird and near-intelligence insulting, as the premise sort of indicated, 'Bride of Chucky' by some miracle managed to be neither.

There are faults in 'Bride of Chucky' but actually there is not an awful lot wrong. The story is extremely lightweight and tends to be predictable and at times contrived. There is occasionally some clunky dialogue and some characters are more interesting than others.

Pacing is not always secure, again with a rushed feel in spots.

However, 'Bride of Chucky' looks slick and suitably ominous and the special effects are far from underwhelming, they blend very well, look eerily life-like and move easily. Quite great in fact. The music fits very well and is suitably haunting. Ronny Yu's direction is suitably colourful and of all the directing jobs for me it is second to the original 'Child's Play' in terms of the most personality and panache.

Chucky's lines are like in the first two films, darkly witty and clever with one-liners that are smart, frighteningly sarcastic and entertainingly twisted. 'Bride of Chucky' is one of the better scripted 'Child's Play'/Chucky films, with its wicked humour, irresistibly entertaining interplay between Chucky and Tiffany and witty classic past and present horror film references. Intimacy has rarely been more hilarious. Some may not like that 'Bride of Chucky' takes more of a wickedly comedic route rather than providing lots of scares, it wasn't a problem for me and that it went that route was what makes it stand out amongst the rest of the 'Child's Play'/Chucky films. Like the first 'Child's Play', it mostly avoided going the cheesy, goofy and formulaic route that it could easily have done considering the premise.

'Bride of Chucky' does have some creepiness despite the more comedic tone, with some genuinely unsettling set pieces. Chucky is an ever unforgettable character, the writers, Brad Dourif and the effects team clearly let loose and had a great time. 'Bride of Chucky' is one of the better acted films in the franchise, with appealing performances from John Ritter and Katherine Heigl in a relatively early role.

Even better are the performances for Chucky and Tiffany. Am not usually the biggest fan of Jennifer Tilly, but she is hard to resist here and matches Dourif's Chucky in the darkly wise-cracking stakes. The biggest acting plus though once again is Dourif, again personifying malevolence and is also wickedly funny.

Overall, well worth watching and one of the best in the series. 7/10 Bethany Cox

As post-modern, self-referential horror comedies go, this one isn't bad. With a tongue firmly in cheek, BRIDE OF CHUCKY is definitely more comedy than horror. As a horror film, it's a total failure, with a string of gory murders having little impact on the viewer. It could be viewed as a shining example of all that's wrong with the genre at the moment - a lack of the real understanding of horror. As a comedy, though, there are plenty of laughs to be had from the two bickering dolls and the amusing storyline which recalls NATURAL BORN KILLERS. Another plus is that it's an improvement on the previous sequels in the series - but then what couldn't be? Besides, how can you not laugh at a film where two dolls share a very intimate scene?

The violence here is played for laughs and there's a lot of it. The puppet animation is rather good too, coming from old hand Kevin Yagher. Coming after SCREAM, there are lots of references to horror films, as you would expect. The obvious influence here, though, is THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, seen playing on television at one point.

Brad Dourif returns as the voice of the foul-mouthed doll, Chucky. However it's Jennifer Tilly who provides the most laughs as his bad-tempered and psychotic companion, Tiffany, both in human and doll form. Other characters come and go (usually in bloody ways) and make little impact, apart from the leads playing the teenage couple - the usual flawless and talentless young actors. Apart from this, the plot is contrived and hopeless, and far too simplistic. The film works best when focusing on the love/hate banter between Chucky and Tiffany. It's worth a few laughs, but viewers looking for serious horror should go elsewhere as this is just the latest in a long line of recent lame-brain good-to-look-at glossy films catering for the mainstream crowd.

In the Lockport Police Dept Evidence Depository, there is Chucky along with the remains of the greatest horror villains. Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) was serial killer Charles Lee Ray's girlfriend. She gets a young policeman to steal Chucky and then murders him. She reassembles him into a cooler looking Chucky. She does the voodoo rituals again and Chucky comes alive to kill Tiffany's admirer Damian. Tiffany gets angry that Chucky doesn't want to marry her. Later he electrocutes her and using the same voodoo, puts her soul into a bride doll. Chucky needs the amulet Heart of Damballa buried with his body in Hackensack, New Jersey to return to human form. Tiffany gets his neighbor Jesse (Nick Stabile) to drive the dolls there. Jesse convinces Jade (Katherine Heigl) to come with him despite the objections of her police chief uncle Warren Kincaid (John Ritter).

It's fun to have Jennifer Tilly introduced into the franchise. She is the best part of this movie. Chucky is still kind of fun too. The two characters have good banter. I could do without the teenage melodrama. It only serves to take time away from the fun of Tiffany and Chucky. Jesse and Jade are annoying and not worthwhile. They are a major decline from child Andy.