Did Chucky Just Wander Into The Biggest Horror Crossover Ever?
This article contains spoilers for "Chucky" season 3, episode 3.
Alien vs. Predator. Freddy vs. Jason. Sadako vs. Kayako. Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash."
Throughout horror genre history, there have been numerous examples of characters crossing over into one another's universes, continuity, and canon. While cinematic universes featuring characters from other genres are all the rage these days (especially with regard to action and comic book superheroes), there remains something special about the horror crossover.
For one thing, horror was the first genre to birth a cinematic universe long before it became a buzzworthy term, thanks to Universal Pictures' "Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man" in 1943. For another, a horror crossover typically isn't like a Marvel Cinematic Universe film, where heroes from their own separate franchises team up to hang out, crack wise, and eventually take on a doomsday villain. Instead, it's all about the thematic weight of not one, but two (or more) monsters menacing innocent bystanders; as the tagline for 2004's "AvP" so succinctly put it, "Whoever wins, we lose."
Don Mancini's "Chucky" series has continued where the cinematic "Child's Play/Chucky" film franchise left off, as seen in its commitment to an ongoing continuity, its interest in playing with classic horror movie tropes, and its paying homage to the classics. Now in its third season, the show shows no signs of stopping these trends, and the latest episode goes one further by not only presenting Chucky's first big horror crossover but making it quite possibly the biggest horror crossover ever.
The Amityville Chuck-er
Despite the fact that the "Chucky" franchise has been around for 35 years and boasts seven main films, three seasons of television, and an out-of-continuity remake, it's impressively never resorted to the usual late-stage horror franchise tropes. In other words, Chucky has never fought anyone like the Leprechaun or Brahms from "The Boy," and he's never been to outer space.
Fittingly enough for an egomaniac killer doll, until this latest episode of the series, Chucky's only really crossed over with himself. Beginning with 2004's "Seed of Chucky," the franchise has established the meta-joke that a series of "Chucky" movies exists within the "Chucky" universe. This has allowed him to cross paths with celebrities like John Waters, Redman, and, in the latest episode entitled "Jennifer's Body," Kenan Thompson, all while the spirit of Chucky's murderous girlfriend Tiffany is dealing with the repercussions of her soul being inside the body of actress Jennifer Tilly, who makes "Chucky" movies.
Meanwhile, ol' Chucky himself (voiced by Brad Dourif) is dealing with his own voodoo-related issues, as the exorcism foisted upon him at the end of season 2 has apparently upset his patron god Damballa, who is now causing Chucky to age within his Good Guy doll shell. In order to appease Damballa, Chucky discovers that he must make six sacrifices (re: murders) within the most evil place he can find. Before he ends up at the White House, it's revealed that Chucky went somewhere else first: 112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island. That's right: "Chucky" just crossed over with the "Amityville" franchise.
The biggest crossover ever?
To be technical, Chucky doesn't mention the events of any "Amityville" movie per se while he's causing mayhem in the house; all he describes to his tween protege, Caroline (Carina London Battrick), is the real-life murders perpetrated there by Ronald DeFeo, Jr., and the assertion by the house's subsequent resident, George Lutz, that evil spirits hung over the place after those crimes.
Yet because 1979's "The Amityville Horror," the 2005 remake, and the most direct, official cinematic sequels all take the DeFeo murders and the Lutz haunting into account, it can be said that "Chucky" crosses over with all 11 official entries into the series. What's more, another real-life event occurred at 112 Ocean Avenue: the demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren once went there to investigate the alleged hauntings, an occurrence depicted in the franchise adapted from the Warrens' exploits, "The Conjuring" (specifically 2016's "The Conjuring 2"). That series currently contains nine installments, so the seven "Chucky" films and three seasons plus 11 "Amityville" films plus nine "Conjuring" movies equals a whopping 30 entries within this crossover, something the likes of "Friday the 13th" or "Hellraiser" can't hope to touch.
However, we haven't even begun to take into account the overwhelming number of unofficial "Amityville" films, a list which includes such luminaries as "Amityville Karen" (2022), "Amityville Christmas Vacation" (2022), and the latest, "Amityville Shark House" (2023). Then there are the low-budget, direct-to-video films that only have "Amityville" in the title, such as "An Amityville Poltergeist" (2020) and "Amityville Thanksgiving" (2022).
Adding all of these up (or at least, as many as I could find), we end up with the ridiculous number of 76 films, give or take. The only other thing that could possibly compete with that number is if you considered every film with "Dracula" or "Frankenstein" in the title to be a part of the same series, and even then, it'd probably be close. That being said, I'm inclined to give this victory to Chucky. For such a little guy, he's accomplished some big things over his career, and this just might be the biggest.