Curse of Chucky is a horror film that was released in 2013. The movie is a sequel to the famous Child's Play series, which centers around a possessed doll named Chucky. The film was directed by Don Mancini, who also created the series. The main idea of Curse of Chucky is to bring back the iconic character of Chucky and continue the story after the events of the previous films. The movie introduces a new family that becomes the target of Chucky's murderous rampage. The main character, Nica, receives a mysterious package containing the infamous Good Guy doll, which is revealed to be possessed by the spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray.
Hollywood portrays us to be these dark magick, wart covered, slug eating, youth chasing beings. It couldn’t be more wrong. The majority of witches I know embrace being who they are. We embrace growing old, celebrating our natural beauty in confidence. We preach kindness, gratitude and acceptance. However, there are some that will practice ‘black magick’, though I’m yet to meet one.
These profiles also provide examples and tips on how the runes and plants may be combined within spells and ritual for manifesting, protecting, healing, banishing, and more. It feels a bit mysterious, maybe even ridiculous, to those who don t practice it, but for those who do, it s a tool to change the way they interact with the world.
The main character, Nica, receives a mysterious package containing the infamous Good Guy doll, which is revealed to be possessed by the spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray. Curse of Chucky features some notable aspects that separate it from the previous films in the series. Firstly, the film takes a more serious and atmospheric approach compared to the comedic elements seen in some of the earlier movies.
What Does It Mean to Be a Witch Today?
Frances F. Denny (b. 1984). Shine, (New York, New York), 2017, from Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America series. Archival pigment print. Courtesy of Frances F. Denny and ClampArt, New York, NY
In 1692, a panic swept through Salem, Massachusetts. More than 200 people—mostly women—were accused of witchcraft; 20 were executed, and five more died in prison. What led a quiet New England town to turn against itself, and why, three centuries later, do these trials continue to captivate Americans?
A new exhibition at the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS), “The Salem Witch Trials: Reckoning and Reclaiming,” transports viewers to that bleak New England winter—and invites us to consider how we might have reacted to such events.
“It’s a call to re-examine our own behavior in moments of crisis,” says Anna Danziger Halperin, associate director of the N-YHS Center for Women’s History and the exhibition’s coordinating curator. “Everyone wants to think they would respond on the side of justice, but it’s really easy to get carried along and turn on one another.”
The exhibition evokes this history largely through rare documents, including the confession—no doubt given under duress—of Tituba, an enslaved Indigenous woman. But it also includes modern reclamations, including photographs by Frances F. Denny, a descendant of one of the Salem judges, that focus on present-day people who identify as witches.
Frances F. Denny (b. 1984). Keavy, (Brooklyn, New York), 2016, from Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America series. Archival pigment print. Courtesy of Frances F. Denny and ClampArt, New York, NY
Denny, it turns out, has not one but two ancestors directly involved in the witch hunts of 17th-century America—Samuel Sewall, the judge, and Mary Bliss Parsons, a woman who was accused and acquitted of witchcraft some years earlier. Denny, who has long focused her lens on the ways that female identity is constructed in America, began thinking about the term “witch” as a “primordial female archetype.”
In her portrait series and book, titled Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America, she captures how the word “witch” has evolved from a potentially deadly label her ancestor rejected to something embraced by many people today.
“Witch” has always been a capacious term. “Never one thing, she was several different beings at once,” historian Lyndal Roper writes in The Witch in the Western Imagination. All at once a seductress and a hag; a cunning shapeshifter and a gullible fool tricked into the service of the devil. The late journalist and Wiccan priestess Margot Adler wrote in Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers and Other Pagans in America that it’s exactly this “imprecision,” this ambiguity, that gives the word “witch” its power.
Frances F. Denny (b. 1984). Karen, (Brooklyn, New York), 2016, from Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America series. Archival pigment print. Courtesy of Frances F. Denny and ClampArt, New York, NY
Major Arcana doesn’t attempt to narrow down what it means to be a witch; the series’ power is in broadening our view of who witches are and what they believe. “As I started photographing, it became evident to me that a witch is not one thing,” Denny says. “You can hardly call it a community of witchcraft, because it’s so diverse.” Denny’s subjects vary not just by race but also by age, geography, gender identity, belief system and more.
Some of her subjects, who chose the outfits they would be pictured in, wore black capes—and yet most of them do not like the stereotypical witches that will flood the streets this Halloween. One, the high priestess of a Wiccan church and a surgical coordinator at an organ procurement agency, is pictured in her scrubs.
The group includes Wiccans and Vodou priestesses, green witches and kitchen witches, sex witches, cat witches, anarchist witches and a great many activist witches. Alongside many of the portraits in Denny’s series, both in the book and in the exhibition, the subjects provide text defining “witch” or “witchcraft” for themselves. (Many of these texts are read by the subjects themselves in an audio track that accompanies the portraits in the NYH-S exhibition.)
“Frankly, I think that if your witchcraft is not political, you are still asleep,” Leonore Tjia, a witch from Montpelier, Vermont, told Denny. “In a culture as racist and patriarchal and transphobic and homophobic and materialistic as ours is, if you don’t see the way witchcraft is radical and revolutionary, you have some waking up to do.”
Frances F. Denny (b. 1984). Leonore, (Montpelier, Vermont), 2016, from Major Arcana: Portraits of Witches in America series. Archival pigment print. Courtesy of Frances F. Denny and ClampArt, New York, NY
“Generations of women’s rights activists have looked at the history of witch hunts as a way of controlling and oppressing women’s behavior,” says Halperin.
In 19th-century America, Transcendentalism and first-wave feminism swept across the nation, and suffragists saw accused witches as fellow victims of a violent and ignorant patriarchy. In the second wave of feminism in the 1960s and ’70s, witchcraft was seen as a code for the skills, knowledge or independence obtained by women who men viewed as a threat, such as healing, midwifery or financial independence. In recent years, as the #MeToo movement took hold, a new generation of witches are sharing spells to “hex the patriarchy” on “WitchTok” (the occult corner of the social media platform TikTok) and in mainstream publications like TeenVogue.
Indeed, as Bianca Bosker writes in the Atlantic, the popularity of witchcraft has always spiked during periods of turmoil in the United States, from the Civil War to the Trump era, as people disillusioned with the status quo seek something new. The tides of feminism and witchcraft have always been tightly linked.
“Show me your witches, and I’ll show you your feelings about women,” writes Pam Grossman, author and host of the podcast “The Witch Wave,” and one of Denny’s subjects, in her own book Waking the Witch: Reflections on Women, Magic and Power.
Of course, one need not identify as a woman to be a witch. Major Arcana includes witches who are transgender, nonbinary and genderqueer. Even men can be witches, though none are featured in the portrait series.
As in any diverse community, disagreements bubble up. For some of the “old guard” witches who came up in the countercultural ’60s and ’70s, the mainstreaming of the occult is an assault on an identity that hinges on its fringe nature. Meanwhile, some modern witches who have had this identity used against them by abusers and family court systems see it as a pathway to safety and acceptance.
What unifies the group, in Denny’s view, is that so many of the witches in Major Arcana are using witchcraft as a healing modality. They turned to the occult to process trauma, to endure chronic illness or to find empowerment. Brooklyn-based witch Alex Patrick Dyck writes in Major Arcana, “we can heal ourselves to better heal others and our communities.”
This is a far cry from the historical definition of a witch—the one Denny’s ancestor rejected—as a malicious person who harms others through magical means.
Indeed, one of the widely accepted definitions of magic within the community, which comes from British occultist Dion Fortune, who lived in the first half of the 20th century, is “the art of changing consciousness at will.” Magic, in that sense, is a lot like meditation, or therapy, or psychedelics. It feels a bit mysterious, maybe even ridiculous, to those who don’t practice it, but for those who do, it’s a tool to change the way they interact with the world.
“At the end of the day, what is witchcraft?” Denny says. “It’s about finding alternative systems for processing the world around you, for connecting to the Earth, and for healing something in yourself or something in somebody else.”
What’s more human than that?
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This article is a selection from the November/December 2022 issue of Smithsonian magazine
It also delves deeper into the backstory of Chucky, exploring his origins and the concept of his soul being trapped in a doll. The movie received mixed reviews from both critics and fans. Some praised its return to the franchise's horror roots and appreciated the suspenseful scenes, while others felt that it lacked the humor and charm of the earlier films. However, despite the mixed reception, Curse of Chucky was successful enough to spawn a direct-to-video sequel and keep the franchise alive. In conclusion, Curse of Chucky is a horror film that brings back the iconic killer doll character and continues the story of the Child's Play franchise. While it takes a more serious tone, it still delivers the scares and suspense that fans of the series expect. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the franchise, Curse of Chucky offers a fresh take on the iconic character..
Reviews for "Revisiting the Classic: Curse of Chucky Remastered in HD"
1. John Smith - 2 stars
I was really disappointed with Curse of Chucky. I have been a fan of the Chucky series for years, but this installment just fell flat for me. The storyline felt disjointed and lacked cohesiveness. The characters were underdeveloped and I struggled to connect with any of them. The film also relied too heavily on jump scares, which became predictable and lost their impact after a while. Overall, Curse of Chucky was a letdown and failed to live up to the standards set by its predecessors.
2. Emily Johnson - 2.5 stars
As a fan of the original Child's Play movies, I had high hopes for Curse of Chucky. Unfortunately, it failed to capture the same level of excitement and suspense. The pacing was slow, and I found myself growing bored throughout the film. The scares felt forced, and I wasn't invested in the outcome of the characters. Additionally, the CGI used for Chucky's movements looked very unnatural and took away from the overall creepiness. While it had some redeeming moments, Curse of Chucky just didn't live up to my expectations.
3. Samantha Miller - 2 stars
Curse of Chucky was a disappointment for me. The storyline felt contrived and lacked originality. It seemed like the filmmakers were trying to resurrect the franchise without bringing anything new to the table. The scares were predictable and lacked the suspense that made the earlier Chucky films enjoyable. The acting was also subpar, with many of the characters feeling one-dimensional. Overall, Curse of Chucky felt like a cash grab rather than a genuine effort to revive the series.
4. Michael Thompson - 1 star
I absolutely hated Curse of Chucky. I found it to be poorly written and filled with clichés. The acting was atrocious and the dialogue was cringe-worthy. It felt like a B-movie that was trying too hard to be scary and failed miserably. The kills were uninspired and lacked any creativity. It's a shame because I used to enjoy the Chucky films, but this one was a complete waste of time. I would not recommend it to anyone.