Chucky Season 2 Offers The Most Meta Moment Yet For The Horror Franchise
Don Mancini's "Chucky/Child's Play" franchise is undoubtedly one of the greatest in horror history, with seven movies, a season of television, and a new second season currently playing on USA and Syfy. As Mancini has been involved with the franchise since the very beginning, the lore of "Child's Play" has never had to endure revisionist history, retcons of memorable events, or even different screenwriters like most of its contemporaries. This has allowed the mythos in the Chuckyverse to be rich, scary, and effortlessly hilarious.
There are constant throwbacks to previous films throughout the series, regardless if it's one of the "serious slashers" like "Child's Play" and "Child's Play II," or the camp-as-hell installments like "Bride of Chucky" or "Seed of Chucky." All of the films are weighted equally in terms of continued storytelling, which allows a character like the now-adult version of Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent), the child gifted the original Chucky doll, to exist in the same universe as a Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly) possessed Jennifer Tilly (also Jennifer Tilly).
With Tilly playing a fictional version of herself, Mancini has had a lot of fun including references to her previous film roles. "Seed of Chucky" is littered with references to her performance in the seductive noir film "Bound," and even made a little mention of it during "Chucky" season 1. This current season of the show has also promised an in-universe "Bound" reunion between Tilly and her co-stars Gina Gershon and Joe Pantoliano, because Don Mancini loves us and wants us to be happy. Season 2 of "Chucky" delivered an even more meta moment in the debut episode, with the "Chucky" references coming full circle.
The real Bride of Chucky
Season 1 of "Chucky" saw middle schoolers Jake (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Björgvin Arnarson), and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) faceoff with not just the serial killer possessed Chucky doll (Brad Dourif), but also his followers like the Tiffany Valentine possessed Jennifer Tilly. This would imply that the events of "The Bride of Chucky" and "Seed of Chucky" happened in real life, as the trio knows that Ms. Tilly is more than just a Hollywood actor. The events of the "Chucky" films have always been presented as canon, but a moment in last night's episode also established a reality where the films as we know and love them, also exist in-universe. Unlike the "Stab" meta-movies of the "Scream" franchise, the "Chucky" films just kept the same name.
Lexy's little sister Caroline was gifted a doll by her therapist, a bridal doll named Wedding Belle. Lexy rightfully believes "all dolls are f***** up," and snaps a picture of it for Devon to investigate. He gets to the bottom of it, and flags the doll as the same model used in "The Bride of Chucky." He calls out the film by name, before turning to Jake and asking "Remember that movie?" Jake nods and replies, "Yeah, with Jennifer Tilly, who we know really is the Bride of Chucky ...Tiffany Valentine." So not only are the "Chucky" movies both canonical in universe as events that really happened and the subject of popular films, but this insinuates that Jennifer Tilly also starred in the films based on her own experiences. *head explosion*