Meet Chucky's playmate.
Tiffany: Stabbings went out with Bundy and Dahmer. You look like Martha Stewart with that thing.
Chucky: Who the fuck is Martha Stewart?
Chucky: Who the fuck is Martha Stewart?
The fourth film of the Child's Play series is actually a horror comedy, with an emphasis on comedy.
The Chucky doll has been destroyed and Charles may be gone for good. However, his former lover and accomplice Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) has other ideas. She crudely stitches Chucky's remains back together and reenacts the voodoo ritual which instilled Ray inside the doll a decade ago. Charles is successfully revived. Tiffany at first makes fun of his condition and torments him. He retaliates by killing her body and transferring her soul to a female doll. Now they both need new bodies and local teenage rebels Jade (Katherine Heigl) and Jesse (Nick Stabile) seem good candidates. Meanwhile Charles and Tiffany explore their mutual feelings of love, lust and hate for each other.
This film provides examples of:
- All There in the Manual: Tiffany’s last name is Valentine.
- Asshole Victim: Diane and Russ, the honeymoon couple who steal Jesse and Jade's money, Jade's Uncle Warren, and police officers Robert Bailey and Norton.
- Awful Wedded Life: Both Chucky and Tiffany and Jesse and Jade experience this; the latter immediately regret getting married and due to their interference, the former argue about both Tiffany's cooking and their sex life.
- Big Fancy House: Warren and Jade live in a pretty nice mansion, initially.
- Big "NO!":
- Chucky cries this out after Jade kicks Tiffany into a hot oven.
- Jade also cries this out after David is killed after being struck by an eighteen-wheeler.
- Big "SHUT UP!": Tiffany cries in front of Chucky, who doesn't have the most sympathetic ears. This occurs when they realize the Black Amulet needed to help them regain human bodies is many miles away, and they can't drive a car. See also Dinky Drivers below.Tiffany: (starts to cry) OH MY GOD, WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?!!! (cries)
Chucky: Hey, ay, ay.... (Tiffany still cries) SHUT UP!!
Tiffany: (stops crying) You shut up! - Body Horror: Happens to Tiffany after suffering from third-degree burns, Chucky's reconstruction from being diced to pieces in the previous movie is... slapdash to say the best.
- Book Ends: Tiffany wishes for true love, mentioning, "My mother always said love was supposed to set you free."
- Brick Joke: When Chucky starts unzipping Tiffany's dress, we see Tiffany's butt. Later on, Tiffany says Martha Stewart should kiss her plastic shiny butt.
- Bury Your Gays: Poor David dies midway through the movie...by being struck by a truck.
- Camp Gay/Straight Gay: David balances the line between being both of these.
- Car Fu: David gets killed by an incoming truck going at 70+ mph when Chucky orders him at gunpoint to back up in the middle of a highway. Chucky comments, "That works too!"
- Celebrity Paradox:
- While in the bathtub, Tiffany was watching Murder, She Wrote on the television, which its episodes featured guest appearances by Jack Colvin (who played Dr. Ardmore in Childs Play), Peter Haskell (who played Mr. Sullivan in Child's Play 2 and Child's Play 3), Beth Grant (who played Ms. Kettlewell in Child's Play 2) and her husband Michael Chieffo (who played a carnival security guard in Child's Play 3), Jenny Agutter (who played Joanne Simpson in Child's Play 2), Dakin Matthews (who played Colonel Cochrane in Child's Play 3) and finally Brad Dourif (voice of Chucky himself).
- After Chucky gives a guy's face full of nails, Chucky refers to Hellraiser (which the first film featured Andrew Robinson, who played Sgt. Botnick in Child's Play 3).
- Conveniently an Orphan: Although never stated outright, it's implied that Jade is one.
- Cooked to Death: Jade tries to kill Tiffany by stuffing her inside the oven the latter used to bake cookies for Chucky. It doesn't kill Tiffany, but it does leave her horribly burnt.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Damian (handcuffed to a bed, had his lip ring ripped out of his mouth, causing excessive bleeding and then smothered with a pillow), the thieving honeymoon couple (impaled by the glass ceiling after Tiffany threw a champagne bottle at it), Officer Norton (car turned into a Molotov Cocktail via burning rag placed inside the gas cap.)
- Dating What Uncle Hates: Warren is not fond of Jesse, calling him a trailer-trash lowlife.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts:
- When Warren won't die simply due to a bunch of nails pierced into his face, Chucky stabs him to death.
- Diane and Ross, the crooks who steal Jesse's wallet, also die this way when Tiffany throws a champagne bottle at the glass ceiling right above them in their suite room as they make love.
- Deadly Hug: Double subverted, as it was more of a deadly kiss than anything else that Tiffany delivered to Chucky in the climax, and in spite of stabbing him in the back, he wasn't truly dead.
- Dies Wide Open: How Damian, Chief Kincaid, the thieving honeymoon couple and the hapless couple whose RV the killer dolls stole in switching vehicles end up. Subverted in Warren's case, as he wasn’t really dead.
- Dinky Drivers: Mockingly discussed.Tiffany: All right, let's go [to Charles Lee Ray's grave].
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Damian Baylock decided that it would be a good idea to punch Chucky, insult him, throw him on the ground and call him a schmuck.
- Electrified Bathtub: Chucky kills Tiffany this way.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Chucky does seem to truly love Tiffany, which can arguably make him a bit less villainous than before.
- Evil Laugh: Chucky’s iconic laugh.
- Evil Redhead: Guess, although you can notice how much thinner his hairline is compared to the older films.
- "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner: Chucky as he’s about to be shot to death by Jade:
- Female Gaze: Damien and Jesse's Shirtless Scenes do a good job displaying their toned chests.
- Fingore: Diane's finger ends up being chopped off by the glass. It’s just by coincidence that the finger has the engagement ring on it, which Chucky proceeds to yank out and propose to Tiffany, whose fingers are too small for it.
- Food Fight: Chucky and Tiffany have one inside the RV when they argue about domestic duties. Tiffany starts by throwing dirty dishes at Chucky for nagging her into washing them, then Chucky gets mad about Tiffany insulting his penis when they had sex last night so he throws the cookie she made for him back at her.
- Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind: Damian, who in spite of his name and apparently being a Goth, is shown to be a normal guy who wouldn't kill anyone, even to please Tiffany and is afraid of spiders. Even better, after his murder, the news report on his death reveals his real name to be Howard Fitzwater and he has short hair and nerdy-looking glasses.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: According to the news report on the couple for the serial killings, Jesse's last name is Miller.
- Genre Shift: While the series was always darkly humorous, this marks it becoming much more self-aware and fully dipping into Black Comedy with Chucky as the Villain Protagonist rather than him constantly battling with Andy.
- Goth:
- Tiffany. She's a unique mixture of the Lone Psycho variety (being a sadistic serial killer) and Perky Goth variety since she's often quite bubbly and amiable when interacting with other people in a non-threatening context. Not to mention that she's a diehard romantic at heart.
- Damien, Tiffany's Marilyn Manson-lookalike boyfriend, tries to put on this image to impress her. In reality, he's a dorky poser named Howard Fitzwater.
- Guile Hero: Upon learning who Chucky and Tiffany are, Jesse recalls Tiffany's comment from earlier about how if it's a woman's job to cook then it's a man's job to do the dishes and uses it to play to Chucky's misogynistic tendencies, with Jade quickly catching on and using the argument to drive him and Tiffany apart.
- Horrifying the Horror:
- Chucky screams in horror when the seemingly dead Tiffany suddenly rises up from the bathtub and does a Peek-a-Boo Corpse on Chucky before her soul is transferred into the doll.
- Chucky also gets really freaked out when he comes face to face to with his own human corpse.
- I Can Change My Beloved: Tiffany believed this to be true. She is proven to be very, very wrong.
- Idiot Ball: Despite knowing how emotionally unstable Tiffany is, rather than play along with her misunderstanding of the ring she found as being him planning to propose to her, Chucky instead reveals that he only stole it from one his victims to pawn it and never had any intention of marrying her. This angers her enough to lock him in a playpen and treat him like a pet.
- Inappropriate Speak-and-Spell: Done once again in the beginning of the film. Upon being locked into a playpen by Tiffany, Chucky plays with a Speak and Spell toy that asks him to spell the word "woman". He spells out the word "bitch" instead.
- Ineffectual Death Threat: Played With. After being disgusted by Norton's behavior and him mocking them about how much Warren pays him to continue harassing them, Jade screams, in front of a large group of people, "I swear to God, I’ll fucking vaporize you!". Jade isn't the one to follow through with the threat, but Chucky and Tiffany are.
- Insistent Terminology: Jesse and Jade are involved in multiple murders, not mass murders.
- In the Back: Angry at Jesse and Jade being reunited, an angry Chucky throws a knife at the couple. It initially was supposed to hit Jade, but Jesse turned around and took the knife in his own back. Tiffany also did the same thing to Chucky.
- In the Style of: This film can be considered a Scream film featuring killer dolls, due to its Postmodernism horror film Shout-Out humor and the poster advertising the fourth installment parodying the Scream 2 poster.
- Irony: Tiffany, a doll herself, at one point plays makeover with Jade, her human hostage.
- Jerkass: Many people in the film, but particularly (and obviously) serial killers Chucky and Tiffany and Jade's Uncle, Chief Kincaid.
- Joisey: We learn that Charles Lee Ray's remains are buried in Hackensack.
- Jump Scare:
- Chief Kincaid scares the dickens out of the dolls after they believed he was killed.
- Tiffany after being not-dead after being thrown into the hot oven by Jade. and after her human form was electrocuted and did a Peek-a-Boo Corpse on Chucky after he transferred her soul into the doll.
- Kick the Dog: While Tiffany calls Jesse to manipulate him to transport the dolls to New Jersey, Chucky is drinking a fish bowl's water for no reason other than just petty cruelty.
- Killer Rabbit: Tiffany. Even in human form, she's pretty cute, mainly due to her somewhat high-pitched voice.
- Lampshade Hanging: When faced with an obstacle, Chucky gets ready to use his knife. Tiffany says times have changed since Chucky was last at it and that one has to be more creative than merely stabbing someone.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
- Damien says Chucky is way too 80s to still be considered scary.
- After Jesse and Jade learn the truth about Chucky and Tiffany, Chucky acknowledges that it's complicated and that if it were a movie "it would take three or four sequels to do it justice".
- After Jade cracks open Charles Lee Ray's coffin revealing his skeletal, rat-infested remains, Chucky himself says to her and quite possibly the audience, "You didn't really need to see that".
- Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: Jade and Tiffany, respectively. Both are reasonably feminine female characters who are smitten with their male cohorts. However, Jade is a naïve, sheltered teenage orphan who is sweet and kind, if somewhat rebellious. Tiffany on the other hand is an older and more experienced woman who smokes, dons sexy and dark outfits with heavy makeup accented by a Lascivious Beauty Mark, and is a seductive and sadistic Serial Killer.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Tiffany. Sure, she’s a serial killer like her boyfriend, but she’s not as ruthless as he is, having a soft spot for her former neighbor Jesse and even letting him and Jade successfully get away. She even tries to stop Chucky when she realizes the two of them have gone too far. She also starts crying while watching Bride of Frankenstein, which serves to humanize her a little.
- Ludicrous Gibs: David explodes when he gets hit by a truck.
- MacGuffin: The Heart of Damballa, a voodoo amulet Charles Lee Ray was wearing the night of his death. Chucky and Tiffany need to retrieve it from his grave so they can transfer their souls into any host body they choose.
- Makeover Montage: Doll Tiffany dresses herself up using hair dye, black nail polish, makeup, adding a fake mole and even gets a "Chucky" tattoo on her breast and smokes, all to the tune of Blondie’s "Call Me".
- Meaningful Name:
- Surprisingly averted with Damian Baylock, who was named after the evil child, Damian, in The Omen and "Baylock" was the name of his evil nanny, Mrs. Baylock. His name and his persona may have been evil, but he was not.
- Played straight with Tiffany’s maiden name of "Valentine". Considering her romantic mindset, it’s more than fitting.
- Money Dumb: Even during the economic boom of the Clinton years, a mere thousand dollars isn't the life-changing windfall Jesse and Jade act like it is.
- Mrs. Robinson: Played with in regards to Tiffany's relationship with Jesse; although his age is undisclosed, he seems to be closer in age to late high-schooler Jade and Tiffany seems to be in her mid to late 30s.
- Ms. Fanservice: Human and doll Tiffany, as played by Jennifer Tilly. Chucky, Damian and even Officer Bailey lampshade her beauty/sex appeal.
- Nightmare Face: Chucky's face, which has been sliced up and sewn back together. Ergh. Not that this is a bother to him or Tiffany.
- Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: While briefly being imprisoned by Tiffany, Chucky makes some very disturbing crayon drawings of ways that he would like to kill her.
- Nipple and Dimed: When Tiffany is dancing for Damien and the still inanimate Chucky, one of her nipples is briefly flashed, as mentioned by Jennifer Tilly in the film’s DVD commentary.
- Oh, Crap!: Plenty of times, especially upon one too many fated victims who realize all too late that they’re going to die.
- Only a Flesh Wound: Chucky's body was absolutely shredded at the end of the last film, but Tiffany is able to stitch him back together with relative ease.
- Parodies for Dummies: Tiffany resurrects Chucky by using a book called Voodoo for Dummies, which also contains info about the Heart of Damballa.
- Police Are Useless: Not the first film in the series to use this trope; here, the cops are corrupt or just too incompetent to be of any use to the protagonists and are easily offed by Chucky who has the element of surprise.
- Precision F-Strike: Perhaps even bordering on Cluster F-Bomb:
- "What are ya, fucking nuts?!"
- "Who the fuck is Martha Stewart?"
- "I swear to God, I'll fucking vaporize you!"
- "Fuck Martha Stewart!"
- “I’m trying, you fucking midget!”
- "You're in a lot of trouble, kid. Now don't you fucking move!"
- This Is Reality: After being turned into a doll, Tiffany suggests that they drive to New Jersey to get an amulet (The Heart of Damballa), to which Chucky shoots her down, angrily reminding her they're dolls.
- Relationship Sabotage: Done towards Chucky and Tiffany by the couple they took hostage. Tiffany made Swedish meatballs and cookies, but then Jesse tells Chucky about the dirty plates. So Chucky orders Tiffany to wash them. Tiffany gets pissed off, which worsens when Jade tells Tiffany that's selfish of Chucky. Cue Tiffany throwing the plates at Chucky.
- Remember the New Guy?:
- Tiffany was apparently Charles Lee Ray/Chucky's accomplice prior to the events of this film, however, she is never mentioned once during the first three movies, though it's not like Chucky would have any real reason to talk about old flames when he's trying to kill or possess people.
- A story element example: this film changes the rules for how the Demonic Possession chant works so that you need an amulet called the "Heart Of Damballa". In the first three movies, Chucky just has to say the magic words, yet here he acts like the amulet has always existed. The Heart did exist in an earlier version of the first movie, and a scene was even filmed with it that got cut and has never been released.
- Screaming at Squick: Chucky after discovering his decade-old, rat-infested skeleton in his coffin.
- Screaming Birth: Tiffany at the end, which sets up the plot of the next movie.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: “I’m the Chief of Police, sport! I can do whatever I want!”
- See You in Hell: Said by Tiffany after stabbing Chucky In the Back:Tiffany: Look at us. Don't you see? We belong dead. Goodbye, darling...I'll See You in Hell.
- Sequel Hook: Tiffany giving birth to Glen at the end.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Chucky and Tiffany engage in intercourse only in silhouette. For obvious reasons, though, this scene is usually either trimmed down or cut out completely on network television.
- Shout-Out:
- References to Bride of Frankenstein (Tiffany watches this very film while bathing, and even quotes later, "We belong dead") and Hellraiser ("Why does that look so familiar?" as a guy gets nails in his face). The latter also doubles as a Shout-Out to Hellraiser's Andrew Robinson, who appeared in Child's Play 3 as a Psycho for Hire barber who ends up an Asshole Victim of Chucky after engaging in Ham-to-Ham Combat with the Killer Doll.
- The part where Chucky is playing with a Speak & Spell and types in 'bitch' when it asks him to spell 'woman' is a reference to the scene in Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III where Leatherface is playing an electronic word game and he keeps typing in 'food' when it's showing a picture of a clown.
- The evidence room in the opening contains several pieces of evidence that are shout-outs to other movies, including Jason's hockey mask from Friday the 13th and Michael Myers' mask from Halloween (which the fifth film features an appearance by Matthew Walker, who played Major Ellis in Child's Play 3). Jason's mask is next to a chainsaw, and in another shot Freddy's glove can be seen briefly.
- After kidnapping Jesse and Jade, Chucky says that he and Tiffany are moving on up "like George and Wheezie!"
- When David mentions that Jesse and Jade are now considered multiple murderers, he compares them both to "Mickey and Mallory."
- Tiffany has a pet tarantula named Charlotte.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Tiffany, who even lampshades this, "Why can’t I get it on with the really good guys?"
- Soft Glass: Inverted, as breaking a ceiling mirror is enough to dismember everyone beneath it. Later played straight when Chucky is thrown out of a car window while said car is in motion.
- Something Else Also Rises: Chucky, before he and Tiffany engage in sex:"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starting to feel like Pinocchio...I am anatomically-correct, you know."
- Special Effects Failure: In-Universe, Damian shows off a Polaroid of a man he killed to Tiffany, who was really impressed…only to find out it was really him posing for a mock picture.
- Tailor-Made Prison: Tiffany locks Chucky in a playpen with a lock on top of it.
- Take That!:
- Warren will have no problem fudging the results of Jesse’s DUI tests and making him look like “Christian Slater on New Year’s Eve.”
- Chucky at one point complains about a radio that says violence in the media has an impact on the real world. The previous entry, Child's Play 3 was accused of just that.
- Tears of Joy: Tiffany after Chucky proposes to her.
- Teeny Weenie:
- Damian teases Chucky about having this, to which he then comes alive and informs him, “It ain’t the size that counts, asshole; it’s what you do with it!”
- Tiffany used this against Chucky herself when they get into a fight over who should be washing the dishes. Chucky lashes back at her that he felt nothing out of her in bed.
- Too Dumb to Live: David for wandering out in the path of a speeding truck on a highway (though Chucky coming alive and spooking him is the main cause) and Damian Baylock for mocking a serial killer known for practicing voodoo, and for dating a woman like Tiffany.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Chucky acts this way around Tiffany.
- After Tiffany resurrects him with Damballa's magic, Chucky refuses to marry Tiffany even with a whole pan of Swedish meatballs Tiffany made right in front of him.
- How does Chucky thank Tiffany for the Swedish meatballs and the chocolate chip cookies she made for him? Tell her to wash the dishes next.
- Unwitting Pawn: Jesse and Jade brought Chucky and Tiffany along on their road trip, not knowing that they killed many people along the way, murders which they end up being blamed for (and even at each other).
- Villains Out Shopping: First film in the series where Chucky is shown to have leisure activities and not just pursue serial killing; Chucky here is seen rocking out to heavy metal, smoking marijuana, dining on Swedish meatballs and cookies, getting a girlfriend and having sex with her.
- Villainous Crush: Tiffany has the hots for Jesse who has a muscular body. Not that she would take him over Chucky, but the minute she hears Chucky never intended on marrying her, Tiffany locks him in a playpen and starts flirting with Jesse. But he's already with Jade, so Tiffany laments, "All the good guys are taken."
- Villain Has a Point: Despite not being above thievery herself ( demonstrated by how she steals Officer Bailey's lighter right after killing him), Tiffany is rightly upset after seeing the promiscuous female con artist stealing Jade and Jesse's wallet in Bride. She even rebukes the woman's behavior to Chucky.
- Villain Protagonist: The film focuses more on Chucky and Tiffany than the heroes. Tiffany definitely counts, however, in Seed of Chucky as a villain deuteragonist. Chucky can also overlap as an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist due to him being a Laughably Evil Jerkass and this and the succeeding film being a Horror Comedy.
- Vorpal Pillow: How Damian is dispatched.
- What Would X Do?: Chucky asks, "What would Martha Stewart say?" when Tiffany starts throwing plates at him after he pisses her off about the dirty dishes even after Tiffany cooked up food.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Damian is shown to be afraid of spiders.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Chucky says Chapter Six referring to the book Tiffany is reading (Voodoo for Dummies) but the book's page says Chapter Eleven.
