Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Series / Chucky

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chucky.jpeg

"The mayor wants us to think we're all living on Main Street in Disneyland, but the truth is, Hackensack is a haven for the bizarre, the fucked-up, and the straight-up criminally insane."
— Devon Evans

Chucky is a supernatural slasher horror series created by Don Mancini. It is the ninth installment of the Child's Play franchise, a sequel to Cult of Chucky, and the first television adaptation in the series.

In the inner suburb of Hackensack, New Jersey, angsty teen Jake Wheeler (Zackary Arthur) comes across a retro Good Guy doll at a yard sale and takes it home. Unbeknownst to him, however, this is no mere toy — it's none other than Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif), the spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray stuck in the body of the doll. With Jake already vulnerable enough in his current state, it seems as though Chucky is perfectly positioned to take advantage of his new playmate...

Chucky returns the franchise to its original continuity (ignoring the 2019 remake) and with it brings back a host of cast members from its past, including Alex Vincent as Andy Barclay, Christine Elise as Kyle, Fiona Dourif as Nica Pierce, and Jennifer Tilly as Tiffany Valentine. Other cast include Björgvin Arnarson, Barbara Alyn Woods, Alyvia Alyn Lind, Lexa Doig, and Devon Sawa.

Chucky premiered on October 12, 2021, airing simultaneously on the USA Network and Syfy for its original run. Trailer 1. Trailer 2.

In November 2021, the show was renewed for a second season which premiered on October 5, 2022. A third season was confirmed in January 2023, and premiered on October 4, 2023.

Chucky contains examples of:

  • 20 Minutes into the Past: While the show was filmed and released in 2021, the fifth episode confirms that the show takes place just weeks after the events of Cult of Chucky, placing the action in October/November of 2017.
    • This is incorrect. The third episode shows the date of death of a recently deceased character on a tombstone as October 19, 2021. Which means Cult of Chucky actually took place 20 Minutes into the Future. Or it could be that 4 years have actually passed & Nica just got the date wrong. She was only told the month & day. She wouldn't have known what the year was, so she could have just assumed that 2 weeks have passed when in reality, it could have been 4 years.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: Due to everyone thinking it's All Part of the Show, the audience finds Chucky's invoking his Laughably Evil side on stage at the talent show hilarious, even while he insults Jake's classmates and family.
  • Afraid of Blood: When he has to dissect a frog in biology class, Jake voices his anxiety over it because he can’t stand the sight of blood.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In episode 8, Nica begs Tiffany not to kill her and later pleads with her not to inject her with a syringe.
  • Alpha Bitch: Lexy, who's self-centered, bullies Jake, and uses her familial connections to avoid facing punishment. Thankfully, she gets nicer as the series goes on.
  • All Part of the Show: Everyone thinks Chucky's sentience is part of Jake's ventriloquist act at the school's talent show.
  • Ambiguously Evil: To a certain degree, Bree, who seems as if she's being set up to take on a similar role to Phil Simpson from the second film. At the very least, we know she's having an affair behind her husband's back, so she's hardly an innocent angel. Episode 5 turns out to be not the case, as not only she's seemingly revealed to be Good All Along, but is Secretly Dying due to having stage 4 cancer and was really talking with her therapist.
  • An Arm and a Leg: When she learns Tiffany dismembered all her limbs, Nica understandably starts freaking out.
  • Antagonist Title: The series is titled simply Chucky and he's the main Villain Antagonist.
  • Anti-Villain: Caroline Cross in Season 3. She is unaware that Chucky is evil and assists him in committing sacrifices in order to save his life.
  • Artistic License – Biology: The frog Jake has to dissect for science class bleeds when he cuts into it despite surgical frogs being filled more with formaldehyde than anything.
  • Asshole Victim: As per norm for the series, there are a couple of examples.
  • Backhanded Apology: Lexy is made to apologize in "I Like to Be Hugged" for her recent behavior, and her response is basically a checklist of how not to say you're sorry — trivializing the incident and putting the blame on Jake (saying "I guess I could sort of see" why dressing up as someone's recently-deceased abusive father could be "take[n] the wrong way"), making excuses for her own behavior, apologizing for the way Jake felt rather than what she herself did, bringing up Jake previously insulting her as an equivalency... and, finally, implying that she's the better, humbler person for seeking forgiveness, which most people don't seem to notice. She also expects Jake to give her Chucky in return, and is infuriated when he refuses, meaning that she probably wouldn't have gone through with it at all if there hadn't been an ulterior motive.
  • Backstabbing the Alpha Bitch: Chucky humiliates Lexy at the talent show by revealing her embarrassing secrets to the audience.
  • Bad Liar: Chucky denies killing Annie in episode 2, but Jake sees right through him.
  • Bad People Abuse Animals: If Chucky killing Jake's cat and mutilating a frog at Jake's biology class says anything.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Episode 5 gives us two:
    • Throughout the series, it’s been hinted that Bree is hiding something from her family. It’s implied that she’s cheating on Logan, but it’s revealed in this episode to not be the case. She’s not seeing another person, she’s seeing a therapist… because she has stage 4 cancer.
    • The flashback. We see a young adult Charles Lee Ray hitting it off with a blonde exotic dancer at a club, who is heavily implied to be Tiffany. Later we see them pick up a red-headed woman. While the blonde and redhead are making out, Charles pulls out a knife and aims to stab the redhead. The blonde dancer is horrified, while the redhead surprisingly urges him on. Suddenly, he kills the blonde. And the red-headed woman joins him in stabbing her and lets out a familiar hysterical laugh. This is a young Tiffany Valentine.
  • Bait the Dog: Chucky's specialty. Whatever might seem like kindness or mercy is never without an ulterior motive, and any hug he offers is sure to lead to a knife in the back.
    • While stealing Lexy's phone and acting as Jake's ventriloquist dummy humiliates her in front of the whole student body, it never actually improves Jake's situation — he gets suspended from school and in more trouble with his father, and Jake and Lexy's animosity deepens to the point where he contemplates killing her. Ultimately, it's nothing more than a cruel prank that Chucky played to win points with Jake and amuse himself in the process.
    • Murdering Lucas gets rid of a dangerous, oppressive influence on Jake's life... and gives Chucky the ideal opening to fill, plus an argument that he can use ("only bad people that deserve to die") to spin being a serial killer into a positive, in the hopes that it might rub off on the boy.
    • Unlike Lucas, Chucky doesn't mind Jake being gay at all, and says it's fine by him. Like Lucas, he will physically beat you and threaten your life if you disobey him or go against what he wants for you, just not for homophobic reasons.
    • In a similar fashion, he seems to bond with, and act like a genuine friend to, Caroline — as a pretense to gain access to the Cross home so he can stalk and kill Lexy. He also sees "potential" in the kid, and tries to coax her to commit a murder, saying she might enjoy it. When Caroline is lying in a coma from smoke inhalation, he unplugs her life support and nearly kills her to taunt the others.
    • As a teenager in 1975, Charles Lee Ray was nothing but friendly and played long, imaginative games of pretend with the younger boys at the foster home — which had the effect of creating a cult of personality where they depended on him for guidance and leadership, and which he tried to test by showing them a freshly murdered corpse. Only one, Eddie Caputo, stayed behind, and later wound up a devoted follower of Charles when he became The Lakeshore Strangler, which didn't turn out well for Eddie in the end.
  • Big Bad Friend: Justified. Chucky really plays up the "friend" part to manipulate the emotionally vulnerable and bullied Jake into becoming a killer just like him.
  • Big "NO!": Tiffany screams "No!" in episode 8.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Wheeler family is this in regards to the twin brother patriarchs Logan and Luke being driven by their selfish vanities when they raised their families.
  • Bitch Alert: Lexy seems enthusiastic, if oblivious, to getting Jake financial support when she thinks he needs money. Later however, she publicly shares a GoFundMe charity in his name in the middle of class to humiliate him, and smugly excuses her behavior when the teacher holds her after class to admonish her for it.
  • Bittersweet Ending:
    • In season 1, Chucky's plan is thwarted by Jake, Devon and Lexy, the trio is closer than ever and Hackensack is saved, but not before each of the kids lose one parent to Chucky and Chucky kills several townspeople at the big town viewing of Frankenstein. Junior is killed by a Chucky doll while defending Lexy, leaving the entire Wheeler family dead and Jake completely without family. Poor Nica Pierce has all of her limbs severed by Tiffany/Jennifer Tilly in an attempt to keep the Chucky soul within her contained. Andy (and possibly Kyle) survived the house explosion Chucky set up to kill them both, but Andy is held captive by Tiffany while driving a truckload of Chucky dolls, and it's anyone's guess as to what plans Tiffany has in store.
    • Season 2 is similarly downbeat with a few notes of happiness. The trio manage to defeat and kill Chucky, but not before Chucky kills Lexy's mom Michelle, leaving Lexy an orphan. Caroline turns on the trio and escapes with Tiffany. And of course, Chucky and Tiffany left a wave of destruction behind them, murdering several people throughout the season, including both Tilly sisters. At the very least, Ms. Fairchild takes the trio in and believes them about Chucky, and the kids have accepted the fact that they'll be the next Kyle and Andy, spending their lives tracking and thwarting Chucky. Also Glen/Glenda are now reunited in their original doll and are traveling the world away from their murderous parents. Chucky is down to one doll to pass his soul to, and Nica has escaped and has her own plans to stop Tiffany once and for all.
  • Blood from the Mouth:
    • A non-lethal variation in episode 2; it revealed Charles Lee Ray once intentionally bit into a Razor Apple, causing his mouth to greatly bleed.
    • Right before Logan dies, he coughs out blood.
    • Blood emits from Nathan's mouth after Chucky kills him.
    • One Chucky doll leaks blood from his mouth right before Junior kills him.
  • Bloodier and Gorier: The first two seasons were already pretty bloody, but season three is shaping out to be the goriest of them all, with each episode featuring a Cruel and Unusual Death and more visceral, disgusting kills. This was very much intentional, according SFX supervisors Jeff Skochko and Josh Lacroix.
  • Blunt "No": In episode 6, Junior says "No" fairly sharply while breaking up with Lexy.
  • Bootstrapped Theme: A two-for-one. While Graeme Revell's theme from Child's Play 2 is used as the basis for the title card, making it clear it is now supposed to represent the series as a whole...
  • The Bus Came Back: The trailer for season two shows Glen and Glenda visiting their mother.
  • Call-Back:
    • Jake Googles Chucky and Good Guy doll-related incidents online and finds reference to Andy Barclay, Chucky's original owner, and several murders from the first, second, and third movies in the franchise.
    • The title music is a modified version of the theme heard in Child's Play 2 composed by Graeme Revell and adapted by Joseph LoDuca for the show when Chucky is about to kill Mrs. Kettlewell.
    • Jake demands that Chucky talk to him in much the same way Karen did in the first movie, even using the same words.
    • Chucky's ventriloquist act with Jake echoes both Psychs' and Glen's own ventriloquist act in Seed of Chucky and the actual real-life show "Chucky's Insult Emporium" hosted several times at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood until it was discontinued after 2008 due to complaints of its offensive and adult content (which Jake and Chucky being escorted off the stage following Jake getting suspended from school because of the act's own in-universe offensive and adult content could be a nod to).
    • In the second episode, Chucky actually references Glen/Glenda (although not by name), thus establishing Seed of Chucky as canon in the series' continuity.
    • While discussing Jake, Aunt Bree asks "Are we even qualified to take care of a boy like this?" This is a line said word for word by Phil regarding Andy in Child's Play 2.
    • In episode 3, Chucky accuses Jake of having completion anxiety, which is what Nica accused him of having in Curse of Chucky.
    • In episode 5, Chucky hides by replacing a Tommy Good Guy doll like he did in Child's Play 2. Also, there's a quick montage of scenes from Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky when Nica briefly regains control of her body.
    • Episode 6 has flashback montages to Andy and Kyle's conflict with Chucky in Child's Play 2 and Andy torturing Chucky's severed head in Cult of Chucky, while mention is also made of Andy's time in military school in Child's Play 3. Also, Tiffany narrates the Previously on… segment and mentions how she possessed Jennifer Tilly in Seed of Chucky, and later mentions her and Chucky's impromptu wedding/honeymoon at Niagara Falls in Bride of Chucky.
    • In the season 1 finale, Chucky references at least a couple of his previous defeats.
  • Cassandra Truth:
    • In typical fashion for the series, Chucky is literally able to get away with murder because nobody is able to believe the idea of a doll on a killing spree. Unless he wants something, you're a kid he can exploit for cover, or you somehow manage to get away, chances are – as Lucas, Detective Peyton, Bree, and Logan all find out – that if he's walking and talking in front of you, it'll be the last thing you ever see.
    • Andy and Kyle exploit this while they're travelling around the country killing Chucky's duplicates. If people alleging to be government agents come into someone's house and shoot their collectible vintage toy to pieces, they're calling the police; if that doll comes to life, screams obscenities at its killers, and bleeds from its wounds... that's harder to explain.
  • Cat Scare: Aunt Bree is scared by Binx, Jake's cat when she goes up to Jake's room to talk on the phone.
  • Celebrity Paradox: Jake tells Devon that his favorite Final Girl is Laurie Strode, which is weird considering that Bride of Chucky showed Michael Myers' mask in the evidence locker.
  • Character Aged with the Actor: Tiffany, Andy, Kyle, and Nica are all played by the same actors who originally played the characters in the theatrical movies and have all aged at the same rate as them. On a smaller scale, the one-year time skips between each season of the show also allow the child and teen characters to age at the same rate as the actors who play them.
  • The Corrupter: Chucky seems intent on turning Jake into a killer.
  • Couch Gag: The "Chucky" titlecard is formed of different items each episode, always with a thematic link to the events of the episode.
  • Credits Gag: "Special Guest Star Kenan Thompson" is displayed on Kenan's dead body after Chucky killed his character brutally with an umbrella.
  • Creepy Child: Unsurprisingly, Charles Lee Ray did some disturbing Troubling Unchildlike Behavior back in his day.
  • Crosscast Role: In a flashback, Fiona Dourif ends up playing her father in his younger years as a growing serial killer, with Brad overdubbing his voice over hers.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: So much so that it has its own page.
  • Deadpan Snarker:
    • When cousin Junior boasts about collecting books for the homeless, Jake remarks that "keeping up with Harry Potter is one of the pressing issues for the homeless".
    • Chucky, of course, snarks all the time.
  • Dead Star Walking:
    • Devon Sawa, the biggest name in the show amongst the horror genre, plays Luke and is killed in the first episode. He then appears playing a different character, and continues to reappear in a new role every time the character he is playing dies. So far, he's died five times: as Luke in the first episode, as Logan in the penultimate season 1 episode, as Father Bryce in the penultimate season 2 episode, as President James Collins in Season 3 episode 5, and as the President's body double in Season 3 Episode 7.
    • Meg Tilly gets killed in season two by Tiffany. The real Jennifer Tilly stuck in the body of the Tiffany doll meets her demise in the penultimate episode of season two when she gets hit with a semi-truck.
    • WWE superstar Liv Morgan makes a special guest appearance in season two, episode 4 during the Framing Device of the episode, only to get killed by Chucky. But considering it was Liv's wish to be brutally murdered by Chucky, she obviously didn't mind.
    • Kenan Thompson makes a special guest appearance in season three for a few scenes before getting killed when Chucky shoves an umbrella down his character's throat. Bonus points for the Credits Gag of "Special Guest Star Kenan Thompson" displaying over his dead body.
    • Nia Vardalos as Evelyn Elliott, Tiffany's celebrity hero, meets her demise via Voodoo Doll.
  • Death by Irony: Luke, Jake's alcoholic father, meets his demise by electrocution, after Chucky vomits alcohol on the floor while he's trying to fix the power after an outage.
  • Demonic Dummy: In what is easily the most memorable scene of the first episode, Chucky forces Jake to take him on stage in front of the whole school and mercilessly ridicules Alpha Bitch Lexy, and insults the audience, all while making them believe it's a ventriloquist act by Jake.
  • Destination Defenestration: In episode 6, Chucky rams Bree out of a window with a cart, sending her plummeting several stories to her death.
  • Distaff Counterpart: As of Episode 2, Aunt Bree is appearing to build up to be this to Phil Simpson from the second film, questioning the suspicious circumstances around the deaths of her brother-in-law and housekeeper surrounding her nephew Jake much like how Phil questioned Andy's sanity over believing Chucky being real and his own suspicious circumstances around the deaths. They both even asked if they're "qualified to look after a boy like this."
  • Disproportionate Retribution: In the second episode, Annie, the housemaid, sprays Chucky's face to clean a small bloodstain off his cheek. His response? To shove her from behind, making her fall throat first onto a washing machine with upward-facing knives.
  • Duplicate Divergence: By season 2, some Chucky duplicates have developed distinctive personalities and appearances. Notably, we have "Good Chucky" who's been brainwashed by the heroes, the muscular "Hulk Chucky" and the cunning bald chucky referred to as "The Colonel".
  • Eating the Eye Candy: Chucky once checked out Tiffany's breasts.
  • Everyone Has Standards:
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: Cat in this case. Binx, Jake's pet cat, immediately knows something's off about Chucky.
  • Evil Gloating: During his attempt to kill Jake, Chucky does some gloating.
  • Evil Mentor: Chucky is shown to have an interest in fostering what he sees as promising talent, having been given a chance of his own by the Hackensack Slasher decades before. Among the potential future killers he tries to encourage are Jake, Caroline, Junior, and — in a flashback to his teenage years — young Eddie Caputo, with the latter two taking him up on it.
  • Eye Scream: Chucky shoots Teddy, the Secret Service agent in the head, right through his chin. The exit wound is his eye socket, splattering blood everywhere and his deflated eyeball on a poster.
  • Face/Heel Double-Turn: Lexy and Junior. Both start as bullies towards Jake, with Junior being somewhat more sympathetic towards him. As Chucky's killing spree goes on, however, Lexy becomes nicer and friendlier as she tries to help Jake stop Chucky, while Junior becomes more aggressive as he comes to blame Jake for everything that's happening and is ultimately manipulated by Chucky into killing his own father.
  • Facepalm: At least once Chucky has facepalmed.
  • Facial Horror: Some glass gets stuck in Aunt Bree's face after Chucky caused her to fall through a window, which caused her face to fall in a car's windshield.
  • Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Luke disapproves of Jake's aspirations to become an artist. He claims it's because it's no sensible way to make a living, but it is heavily implied that he associates it with Jake being gay, which he disapproves of/is in denial about.
  • Feet-First Introduction: A Played With variant. We first see Tiffany (an evil serial killer) in episode 7 foot-first. This, nevertheless, wasn't the first time the franchise introduced her.
  • Flipping the Bird: Apparently Played for Laughs.
    • The fourth episode ends with Chucky flipping off several characters.
    • Andy flips off Tiffany in the season 1 finale.
  • Forced to Watch: In episode 6, Chucky has Lexy, Jake, and Devon watch as he kills Kim Evans.
  • Foreshadowing: When first seeing an inactive Chucky doll, Sister Ruth claims to see a vision of Jesus in his face. A few episodes later, she encounters Hulk Chucky, and becomes convinced that he's Jesus incarnate, dedicating herself to him.
  • For Halloween Im Going As Myself: In the second episode, Chucky freely walks around on Halloween with only a simple Hello Kitty mask covering his face. The rest of him is very obviously, well, Chucky, and he even introduces himself the usual way.
  • For the Evulz: A discussed variant. Lexy mentions that she thinks Chucky killed Luke and Kim "'cuz he's a dick".
  • Frame-Up:
    • It's heavily implied in episode 6 that Chucky framed Rachel Fairchild for his murders.
    • In the season one finale, Chucky tells his Good Guys to leave any kids from five or younger alone during their attack, partially out of Even Evil Has Standards, but also since they're the easiest to frame for their crimes.
  • Gaslighting: While Chucky has always had a habit of telling kids what they want to hear to get them to help him, in season one he's much more deliberate and insidious in how he manipulates Jake and his friends in order to get them on his side, even going so far as killing Annie only a week after killing Jake's father and still insisting it was merely an accident.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: In the penultimate season 1 episode, Junior uses Chucky's body as a weapon to kill his father with.
  • Harmful to Minors:
    • The titular Chucky has zero qualms with killing people while minors watch. For instance, in episode 6 he kills Kim Evans while Devon, Jake, and Lexy (who are all fourteen) watch.
    • Andy and Kyle have no issue repeatedly shooting a Chucky doll while a young girl watches.
    • In the Season Finale the army of Chuckies contemplate what age would be too young to kill kids at, once they walk? If twins are exempt? The response is eventually, an Evil Laugh.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: Not long after she starts to believe her son about Jake and accepts their relationship, Chucky kills Devon’s mother.
  • He Is Not My Boyfriend: In one episode, Jake denies that Devon is his boyfriend.
  • Hidden Agenda Villain: Chucky's endgame and reasoning for returning to Hackensack have remained a mystery even after the chips are down and he turns on Jake. It even gets lampshaded in episode 7. The Season 1 finale reveals that he needed to corrupt a child into committing a murder in order to power his soul-splitting spell enough to animate a large collection of Good Guy dolls, which he and Tiffany plan on dispersing across the country.
  • Hired Help as Family: Subverted. While talking with Detective Evans about their housekeeper Annie's very sudden death, Bree claims that the old cliché about being "part of the family" was true in her case; when Evans presses them for actual details, neither she nor Logan can remember where she lived, or if she had any next of kin.
  • Homophobic Hate Crime: Luke physically assaults Jake and threatens to kill him if he ever says he's gay again.
  • Human Disguise: Chucky, a supernaturally possessed doll, merely needs to slap on a Hello Kitty mask to hide his creepy face, and has no problem convincing people that he is just a small child trick or treating.
  • Hyde Plays Jekyll: Inverted in Episode 6, where Nica pretends to still be possessed by Chucky after regaining control of her body. Unfortunately, Tiffany sees through the act.
  • I'll Kill You!: In one episode, Tiffany says "I'll kill you".
  • I Take Offense to That Last One: After Tiffany betrays one of the Chucky's and cuts off his head, she angrily insults him for his massive ego, petty behaviour, and tiny dick. Chucky gasps, offended at the last one.
  • In the Style of: The show is basically an answer to "what would happen if Ryan Murphy did a Killer Doll tv show based on Child's Play?"
  • Kick the Dog:
  • Laughably Evil: Chucky as usual, invoked by him during the talent show where he manages to make the audience laugh.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Chucky's laments about getting older and his desperate attempts to stop aging also works as meta-commentary on the almost 40-year old Child's Play franchise trying to stay relevant, especially when other evil dolls such as Annabelle and M3GAN are more popular in the horror/pop-culture world of the modern day.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: Season 2 reveals that, despite the ending of Seed of Chucky suggesting that Glen and Glenda retained memories of their time as a doll, they now definitely don't remember their origins, the truth about their mother, or their father's existence. At least until Glenda encounters Nica-Chucky, who explains things to them.
  • Losing Your Head: In the season 1 finale, one Chucky gets decapitated by Tiffany, but it doesn't kill him.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident: The titular Chucky kills Annie, the housekeeper at Jake's uncle and aunt's house, by pushing her into a bunch of knives. The cops claim such accidents are actually more common than one would expect. He also tries convincing Jake it was indeed an accident, claiming he only kills people who deserve it.
  • Matricide: It's shown in a flashback that Charles Lee Ray killed his mother when he was a child.
  • Mistaken for Cheating: Exploited in episode 7. Tiffany kisses Logan, in front of Junior, at Bree’s funeral, and then shows up later at their house so she can deliver Swedish Meatballs to Logan. This is so both she and Chucky can manipulate Junior into believing Logan was cheating on Bree before her death.
  • Mistaken for Suicidal: A dark example. Aunt Bree's death was believed to have been suicidal as she was dying due to stage 4 cancer and chose to cut off treatment. Actually, she wasn't suicidal and Chucky killed her.
  • Multiple Gunshot Death: Episode 6 has Andy and Kyle kill a Chucky doll via shooting him multiple times.
  • Mutual Kill: In the Season 1 finale, Junior kills a Chucky doll to save Lexy, but is fatally stabbed himself.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Jake has this reaction at the beginning of episode 4 after seeing numerous kids (including Devon, Junior, and Caroline) at the hospital because of the fire in the previous episode, and then learning that Oliver is dead.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Downplayed, but Devon Sawa's casting in the show indirectly references the music of the franchise, as two of the franchise's composers, Graeme Revell (who scored Child's Play 2 and Bride of Chucky and his themes for the former acts as the Bootstrapped Theme for the show and the franchise as a whole) and Shirley Walker (who conducted Revell's score for 2) had also scored one each of Sawa's prior horror outings (Revell scored Idle Hands, while Walker had scored Final Destination).
    • Despite not having remembered their time as a doll in Seed, Glen and Glenda are mentioned to have an affinity for English accents. Glen even mentions that they "wouldn't hurt a fly", which they said in the movie as well.
  • Never Suicide: Of sorts. Chucky apparently exploits the fact Bree was dying of stage 4 cancer (and that she cut off treatment for herself) so her death would be viewed as a suicide when he killed her.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In the back half of Season 2, Tiffany burns down her home to hide the evidence of the murders committed there, only for this to catch the attention of authorities, who find the bodies and start a manhunt for Tiffany.
  • Not That There's Anything Wrong with That: Chucky says this verbatim when alluding to Jake's gayness during their mock ventriloquist act.
  • N-Word Privileges: The openly gay Jake (and to a meta-extent the writer, Don Mancini) angrily refers to himself as a "fag" when confronting his father about his homophobia.
  • Off with Her Head!: It's heavily implied Chucky killed Principal McVey via decapitation as her corpse otherwise doesn't appear injured, besides her head being missing. Seeing as her head blinks when it stops rolling, this is very likely.
  • Oh, Crap!: Jake, when he realizes Chucky has been talking (and moving) without batteries.
  • Once an Episode: Chucky kills at least one person every episode.
  • Once a Season: Every season there is a Halloween episode featuring a costume party, during which Lexy will go off to a bedroom to make out with a boy in a bed. Said make-out session will always be interrupted by one of the parties involved before it can progress into sexual intercourse.
  • One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Chucky assumes Jake is talking about his cat when in reality he is talking about his father, whom Chucky has just murdered. However, it may have been just a cruel quip on Chucky's part.
  • Patricide: In the penultimate season 1 episode, Junior kills his own father. Chucky later even lampshades it by calling him "Mr. Patricide".
  • Pay Evil unto Evil:
    • The titular Chucky claims he only kills people who have it coming, and although many of his previous victims were assholes, he's killed his fair share of innocent people who were in his way or just because he felt like it. Never mind his other crimes, like terrorizing a young boy for most of his life.
    • Andy and Kyle give a Chucky doll a rather brutal Multiple Gunshot Death. However, considering Chucky is a vicious serial killer, he certainly deserved it.
  • Polar Opposite Twins: Jake's father and uncle, both played by Devon Sawa. Luke is an abusive alcoholic, while Logan is at first a much more understanding person.
  • "Pop!" Goes the Human: Father Bryce meets this demise at the end of the exorcism on Chucky.
  • Psychotic Smirk: At least a few times, Chucky has let some evil grins rip.
  • Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": The titular Chucky laughs after killing a detective in episode 4.
  • Razor Apples: The second episode references the infamous urban legend twice, first during a flashback when a young Charles Lee Ray finds an apple with a very obvious razor in it among his Halloween treats. He takes a bite out of it anyway. As Chucky, he gives a clueless lady another such apple as "thanks" for giving him the information he needed, causing her to seriously injure herself.
  • "Reason You Suck" Speech: Downplayed. However, after Lexy decides to be rude to Caroline, their mother tells the former her sister is a gifted artist and she's better at it than Lexy has been at anything in her whole life.
  • Resentful Guardian: Episode 2 show Aunt Bree displaying signs of becoming this towards her nephew Jake. Episode 5 reveals this to not be the case; since she's Secretly Dying, she does care about Jake and is actually worried she won't be able to take care of him once she eventually succumbs to stage 4 cancer.
  • The Reveal:
  • Sarcastic Confession: Lexi tells Junior about Chucky in a deliberately unconvincing way in order to convince Devon and Jake that nobody is going to believe them about Chucky.
  • See You in Hell: In episode 8, Tiffany tells Chucky this via saying she'll see him in hell.
  • Self-Harm: In the second episode, Charles Lee Ray deliberately bites into a Razor Apple.
  • Self-Made Orphan: As revealed in episode 7, Chucky attempted to get Caroline to do this by killing her own parents.
  • Series Continuity Error:
    • Lucas' tombstone clearly shows the year of his death as 2021, though the series is set in 2017.
    • Season 2 also has a line of Chucky starting all this "34 years ago" instead of 30 (if it's set a year later after Season 1 in 2018) again forgetting the 20 Minutes into the Past aspect.
  • Shout-Out: This teaser spot is a Chucky-centric remake of the infamous TV spot for 1978’s Magic.
  • Sibling Murder: It's revealed in episode 7 that Chucky tried to persuade Caroline into doing this via killing Lexy.
  • Slashed Throat: Several examples. For instance, Chucky slits a man's throat in episode 5.
  • Spot the Imposter: In Episode 6, Nica pretends to still be possessed by Chucky, only for Tiffany to pick up on the character tics she has that Chucky doesn't. It then turns out that Tiffany already knew since she had earlier stabbed Nica in the leg with a knife, which Nica did not notice due to being paraplegic.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
    • In "I Like to Be Hugged", we see that Lexy's prank in the previous episode wasn't without repercussions; it was recorded by people who attended Oliver's Halloween party and it quickly went viral, which got the attention of Miss Fairchild and Principal McVey, who proceed to not only show it to Lexy's parents, but Jake's aunt and uncle.
    • In "The Sinners Are Much More Fun", it turns out Tiffany going into mostly seclusion and frivolously spending Jennifer Tilly's money have GREATLY affected her reputation and income, with Nica, the woman she is holding captive, even pointing out she needs a job after Tiffany reveals she spent the last of her The Simpsons residuals.
  • Take That!: In the third season trailer, when Chucky is asked if Devon Sawa is returning, he bluntly answers "Who?" before going onto the next question.
  • Tears of Fear:
    • After being cornered by Chucky, Lexy cries in fear.
    • In the season 1 finale, Nica cries in terror when Chucky tells Tiffany to kill her.
  • Ten Minutes in the Closet: In the second episode, Oliver and other kids shove Jake and his crush Devon in the closet.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: "The Sinners Are Much More Fun" reveals Nica is doing this with the piece of Chucky's soul possessing her in order to find a way to escape and get revenge on Tiffany. Subverted, in regards to Chucky, who instead supports the teamwork and tries to convince her to work like this forever.
  • The Ending Changes Everything: While Chucky was telling Jake who his first kill was, there is a flashback sequence describing a psychotic serial killer rampaging throughout the town. After his father was grisly stabbed to death by the killer, one could be forgiven if they thought Chucky killed him as vengeance. However, when the killer rips the closet door open, it turns out that Chucky's first kill was his own mother.
  • Time Skip: There is an In-Universe jump of one year between the events of each season of the show.note 
  • Title Drop: Several instances.
    • Episode 3, "I Like to Be Hugged", has Chucky state this line as part of his doll cover.
    • In "Just Let Go" (episode 4), Chucky tells Jake that.
  • Town with a Dark Secret: Not only is the town another Wretched Hive in a World of Jerkass, with homophobic and hypocritical residents, it's also Charles Lee Ray's hometown.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: More prevalent in the first season of the show, where many of the children and young teenagers engage in deeply unsettling behavior, made all the creepier because the show doesn't engage in Dawson Casting. Examples include:
    • Charles Lee Ray himself shows this in the flashback at the start of episode 2; which reveals that as a kid he once bit into an apple he knew had a razor blade in it, and smiles as he bleeds profusely from his mouth. The next episode even reveals he killed his own mother around that age. In episode 4, it's revealed that as a teenager was once playing Peter Pan with three young boys at the orphanage,... and then he shows them the mutilated corpse of the orphanage's janitor, saying he "got Captain Hook". While two of the boys understandably run off in terror, one stays behind, showing a bizarre interest in it. That boy is later revealed to be Eddie Caputo.
    • Being fourteen-years-old doesn't stop Lexy from smoking a lot of weed, looking at Pokémon porn, and wanting to have sex with Junior.
    • The fourteen-year-old middle schoolers are shown already drinking a lot of beer in their parties.
    • Downplayed with Caroline. Her parents allow her to play extremely violent Video Games unsupervised at a young age, but she understands (or at least has been taught) that it's wrong to hurt people in real life, and doesn't like cursing.
      Caroline: Mommy says real killing is bad.
      Chucky: Yeah, well, Mommy's fulla shit.
      Caroline: ...Mommy says it isn't nice to swear.
      Chucky: [Irritated.] "Mommy's" workin' her way up my list pret-ty fuckin' quick.
  • Twisted Christmas: The season 2 finale "Chucky Actually": Chucky brutally murders Michelle and Tiffany gets away with Caroline on Christmas Eve.
  • Two-Faced: Episode 4 shows that the fire of Lexy's house has disfigured Chucky up a bit, with his left arm and the left side of his face horribly burnt and molten.
  • Undignified Death: Luke is electrocuted when Chucky vomits TONS of alcohol on the floor. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • Unexpected Kindness: Lexy showing concern for her sister in Episode 4 when Caroline is in the hospital after the house fire seems to genuinely surprise her parents.
  • Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000: Episode 2 has Chucky playing a generically violent videogame with Caroline.
  • Un-Reboot: This series skips over the 2019 remake and returns to the original continuity of the films, following after Cult of Chucky.
  • Villainous Breakdown:
    • At least a couple times Chucky experiences this, like when he loses it when he learns Tiffany caused his first death via calling the cops on him.
    • Tiffany gets one in "Death on Denial" when Nica escapes due to help from Glen and Glenda.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot:
    • Chucky projectile vomits the whiskey he drank to electrocute Luke.
    • In Season 2 Chucky vomits while being brainwashed into "Good Chucky" and during the exorcism.
  • We Do Not Know Each Other: While speaking to his mother, a cop who was also present the night Lucas died, about the death of Annie at the Wheeler residence, Devon flat-out says he isn't friends with Jake or that they aren't even in the same social circles. Immediately after she leaves the room, Devon pauses, and texts Jake about the Halloween party they're attending that night.
  • Wham Line: In the season 1 finale, Tiffany beheads one of the Chucky dolls in a rage, after it tries to force her to kill Nica. She then asks Chucky a question that puts the entire franchise in a whole different light.
    Tiffany: Tell me something, Sweetface… did you ever wonder how those cops found you that night in Chicago?
  • What the Hell, Hero?: The penultimate season 1 episode has Lexy tell Jake that him "leaving [his] family behind" was self-centered.
  • Wild Teen Party: Fourteen-year-old Lexy hosts a party at her parent's house when they're away in episode 3, with other teenagers being invited.
  • Witch with a Capital "B": The season 1 finale has Lexy uses the word "witch" to describe Kyle and it's clear she meant it derogatorily.
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • Chucky physically beats Jake at one point, spends multiple episodes trying to kill young teenagers like Lexy and Junior, and horrifically stabs Oliver to death on a whim. The apex of this comes at the end of "Just Let Go", where he unplugs Caroline's life support while she's lying helpless in a coma, endangering her out of sheer cruelty and spite.
    • "Charlie", one of the multiple Good Guy dolls Chucky has possessed, tries to stab the little girl he's been hiding with as a way to guilt Andy once he's been found out. Andy shoots him in the head before he has a chance, though.
    • In the second season premier "Halloween II", Chucky builds a bomb just strong enough to kill anyone in a six-foot radius and threatens Caroline and Jake's new little foster brother Gary with it. He succeeds in killing Gary and pinning it on Jake, Lexy, and Devon.
  • You Are Grounded!: In episode 5, Michelle grounds her daughter Lexy, a fourteen-year-old. It totally has nothing to do with the latter hosting a Wild Teen Party and sorta being responsible for burning part of the house down.
  • You Should Have Died Instead: After Luke punches Jake and threatens to kill him for saying that he's gay, Jake angrily says, "It should’ve been you inside that car instead of Mom."

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top