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Interview With Chucky Creator Don Mancini - Talks Latest Film & Future Of The Franchise!

Back in 1988 CHILD'S PLAY hit the horror scene with quite the impact. Director Tom Holland and writer Don Mancini brought us the film with a tagline of "You'll wish it was only make-believe" introducing the world to the the one and only wicked doll himself, Chucky. The flick developed a cult following among fans of the horror genre and to date has spawned five sequels.

This past October gave us the sixth installment of the franchise with the much anticipated CURSE OF CHUCKY. The film transported the audience back to the roots and feel of the original story while at the same time giving the true fans of Chucky what they all wanted. Like it or hate it, the movie made a lot of noise and rocked the boat for sure.

Chucky's creator, Don Mancini, recently spoke with iHorror in a very telling interview. It covered a great deal on the latest film, his thoughts on the CONJURING's Annabelle doll, and what the future of the CHUCKY films have in store for us all.

iHorror: "What were some of the influences in the style of this one? I noticed some Hitchcockesque shots.

Mancini: Definetly I think particularly the scene with the poison dinner. I tried to shoot it in a very Hitchcockian and De Palma way with the crane shot rising up from the table.

iHorror: That was a great shot by the way; it reminded me of Russian Roulette with each guest being a chamber at the table.

Mancini: That is exactly what it is meant to be, we know that one in six bowls is poisoned. And one of these six people is gonna drop dead and we don’t know who. It was dilbertatly a circular table with these six circular bowls knowing that would resemble a roulette wheel spinning.

iHorror: The house was great, was that a set or on location?

Mancini: The exterior of the house is an actual house it was actually a bed and breakfast that we found in Winnipeg, but the interior is all a set built on sound stage.

The actual house in Winnipeg is perfectly preserved and spiffy, so we had to bring in leaves and brush and it’s amazing what you can do and to make things look dilapidated and isolated. We have an early shot in the movie where the house is surrounded by forest, and it was important to the story that you realize they are in the middle of nowhere and help is not readily available.

iHorror: The story like that house is filled with total isolation, what was the reason for going with that?

Mancini: Well in the story you have to create a reason why people just can’t run next door for help or run anywhere really. Its just creates more tension when they are isolated. You need to create a reason the characters are cut off from any potential help.

iHorror: Brad Dourif’s daughter (voice of Chucky) the beautiful Fiona Dourif is the star in this one, did they ever actually get to work together onset being that he is the voice of Chucky.

Mancini: They didn’t share any scenes together per say, other than her scene with the doll where she is acting with her fathers voice but brad came up to Winnipeg to shoot his scenes in the flashback and that was at the top of the shooting schedule. But he ended up sticking around for another week or two. Brad was just really proud, he was the proud papa.

iHorror: Who’s casting decision was that?

Mancini: I had known Brad for many years and I had met Fiona a couple of times mostly as she was a kid, but I knew she was working as an actress and Brad mentioned to me when we were in pre-production that she had just done “The Master.” So, I said lets have her come in and read for something. Originally she read for the part of the bitchy sister. And she was good but I was watching her and thinking she would make a great Neeka (the lead character) and she absolutely blew us away she was fantastic. Really Fiona got the role herself she got it the old fashioned way by auditioning and being the best. She reminded of Amy Irving qualities from “Carrie” and the fury, those De Palma movies from the 70s.

iHorror: If Annabelle (the doll from “The Conjuring”) and Chucky were to throw down and battle each other who would come out victorious?

Mancini: Chucky would have Annabelle eating out of the palm of his hand within 30 seconds. I think Annabelle would be helpless in the face of Chucky’s charms.

iHorror: Fans are going to be excited to see the great post credit sequence, was that linear to the rest of the film and if not how does it fit in?

Mancini: I don’t want to say too much. It’s meant to bring up questions, which I intend to answer in the next movie. It was definitely designed to be a cliffhanger; I want those questions to stay with people until we get to “Chucky 7.” There is definitely a cool way that it gets explained."



Source- HorrorDomain

Source- iHorror

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