'Cult Of Chucky' Officially Announced, Will Start Filming Next Week

In an age where seemingly every significant horror movie has been remade (or rebooted, pick your poison), there's something to be said about the Child's Play series continuing to pump out sequel after sequel to the original movie. You know, like proper horror franchise did back in the day. While the results have often been a little erratic, there's something undeniably magical about a long-running series churning out movies at a fairly consistent pace over thirty years. After all, what are horror fans to do with their time if they don't have movies to rank and compare and argue over into the wee hours of the night?

And that brings us to today's news: Universal has officially announced the existence of Cult of Chucky, the seventh movie in the Child's Play series the sequel to 2013's Curse of Chucky.

Cult of Chucky will see the return of Don Mancini (the writer of all seven movies and the director of the past two) in the director's chair, but he won't be the only familiar name in the credits. Brad Dourif will once again play the voice of Chucky, the doll possessed by the soul of a maniacal criminal, and Jennifer Tilly will return as his bride, Tiffany. On the human side of the equation, Fiona Dourif will return as Nica Pierce, one of the survivors of Curse of Chucky, while Alex Vincent reprises the role of original Chucky owner Andy Barclay for the the fifth time.

Here's the official synopsis:

Confined to an asylum for the criminally insane for the past four years, Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif) is erroneously convinced that she, not Chucky, murdered her entire family. But when her psychiatrist introduces a new therapeutic "tool" to facilitate his patients' group sessions — an all-too-familiar "Good Guy" doll with an innocently smiling face — a string of grisly deaths begins to plague the asylum, and Nica starts to wonder if maybe she isn't crazy after all. Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent), Chucky's now-grown-up nemesis from the original Child's Play, races to Nica's aid. But to save her he'll have to get past Tiffany (Oscar®-nominee Jennifer Tilly), Chucky's long-ago bride, who will do anything, no matter how deadly or depraved, to help her beloved devil doll.

And while cameras haven't begun rolling yet, a teaser consisting of footage from the previous six movies has been released:

While the original Child's Play remains as creepy and clever as ever, relying on genuine menace and terror to sell its high concept, I tend to run a little hot and cold on the sequels, which run the gamut from very good to, well, not so good. Still, the old school horror movie fan in me is beaming at the mere existence of Cult of Chucky – the longer the series, the nuttier the future discussions about the series as a whole will be! Bring on part seven.

Cult of Chucky doesn't have a release date yet, but Universal is promising a release on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD by Halloween.