Living with Chucky Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Living with Chucky Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 5, 2023

As someone who admittedly has had more of an abiding interest in cult Broadway rather than cult horror, for many years the only thing that Child's Play meant to me was a little remembered 1970 play that nonetheless came close to sweeping the Tony Awards the year it opened and which later was adapted into a film directed by none other than the redoubtable Sidney Lumet. For those who in fact can only think of a somewhat (?) malevolent doll when they hear the aforementioned title, Living With Chucky may be just their cup of mayhem, so to speak. This appealing documentary was produced, directed and edited by Kyra Gardner, who also provides an ebullient commentary on this disc. Gardner is the daughter of noted makeup and special effects wizard Tony Gardner, who has worked on the Child's Play franchise for decades now, and that gives Gardner fille a kind of "inside perspective" that is both knowledgeable but also kind of weirdly touching.

Gardner assembled this documentary over the course of several years, as she gets into in her appealing commentary track, and while she admittedly includes some interview subjects here who have at best a tangential connection to the franchise, she also has good segments with any number of people who do have a strong connection to the series, including Don Mancini, Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly. There's some decent if understandably basic background about "killer doll" enterprises, including well remembered efforts like the Living Doll episode from The Twilight Zone: Season 5 or the Anthony Hopkins thriller Magic. Some horror film context is also provided courtesy of comments that Chucky came along just as more "traditional" slasher efforts may have been fading in popularity.

There's some passing information imparted about the technical aspects of Chucky, but this is in reality more of a "personal" story that offers many involved in this long running (scurrying?) franchise to talk about their creative efforts and how the series has actually fundamentally changed their lives and/or careers. The result is a rather sweet documentary that despite its subject matter comes off as surprisingly heartwarming at times.

Living with Chucky Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Living With Chucky is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is another documentary where some of the film clips can show varying levels of quality, but where all of the contemporary interview sequences look nicely sharp and well detailed. The palette is generally nicely suffused for all of the talking head vignettes, but as with the general quality of the film clips, suffusion can vary somewhat in those as well, as can other aspects like grain resolution. With an understanding that there's therefore a somewhat heterogeneous appearance as the documentary ping pongs between interviews and snippets from the various films, this is an appealingly well detailed release.

Living with Chucky Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Living With Chucky is comprised mostly of interview segments, and as such the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track suffices perfectly well. Brief snippets from various films provide a bit of interstitial mayhem, but by far the bulk of this piece is simple talking directly to the camera, and all of the interview spoken material is delivered without any issues whatsoever. Optional English subtitles are available.

Living with Chucky Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Candid Conversations (HD; 7:52) offers some outtakes of interviews.


• Favorite Death Scenes (HD; 3:34) offers some of the interview subjects discussing their favorite death scenes in the franchise.


• Strange Families (HD; 6:15) offers more comments from the talking heads discussing their family backgrounds.


• Director's Commentary

Additionally, packaging features a slipcover.

Living with Chucky Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As Gardner gets into in her commentary, there are some notable omissions from the interview subjects here, due to the vagaries of "show business" and how this franchise kind of jettisoned various creative folks along the way. Those missing in action are perhaps not exactly counterweighted by some kind of curious choices on the part of Gardner for other interview subjects like Abigail Breslin and Marlon Wayans, but those who have a connection to the franchise and who are included here provide some rather interesting commentary on the franchise in general as well as what working on a series like this can mean to both a career and personal life. Technical merits are generally solid, and for Chucky fans at least, this documentary comes Recommended.