The Lone Queers Of Don Mancini’s ‘Chucky’
The Chucky franchise as we know it is so very queer. It’s the queerest of all the horror franchises, and that brings a happy tear to my eye. It’s all thanks to the franchise’s wonderfully queer creator, Don Mancini. His writing of Child’s Play 1-3 (1988-1991) and Bride of Chucky (1998) laid the groundwork that led to him direct, write, produce, and queerify every entry after.
If the franchise is the queerest of the horror franchises, you may be wondering why I’m writing a Lone Queer piece on it. The franchise didn’t begin that way, after all. Queer representation has always been behind the scenes with Mancini’s involvement, yet the franchise didn’t always have queer characters. That began with Bride of Chucky.
David and Bride of Chucky
In Bride, we meet David (Gordon Michael Woolvet), a friend of the film’s lead, Jade (Katherine Heigl). He’s introduced as Jade’s prom date, but David is just a decoy so Jade can go out with her actual boyfriend who her Uncle Warren (John Ritter) doesn’t like. Kudos to David for being the queer bestie to help out his straight friend, even when keeping his gay at bay is a bit hard.
David’s plight within the film is to take care of said bestie. Aside from being Jade’s reverse beard, he’s also there to literally take care of Jesse and Jade’s relationship every step of the way. That is until Chucky (Brad Dourif) and Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) start their shenanigans. Then he begins to assume that the murderers are Jade and Jesse after finding a dead Uncle Warren in their van. With Chucky and Tiffany’s reveal, David meets a messy end at the grill of an eighteen-wheeler.
My 13-year-old eyes lit up seeing a queer within a Chucky film. David had blonde highlights. I wanted blonde highlights, and eventually got them three years later. But that’s beside the point. David stood up for Jade. Lied for her. Came to her aid. All just so she could experience heteronormative love. There’s no blame for Mancini including David in such a stereotypical way. It was the late 90s. I just was excited to see queer representation in the film before I was even sure of my own sexuality.
Meet Glen/Glenda
Technically, David isn’t the only queer within Bride. There’s one born at the very end in the form of Chucky and Tiffany’s child. But we don’t get to meet their queer offspring until 2004’s Seed of Chucky. That baby queer, Glen, goes through a journey throughout the film to discover that they are nonbinary. I use the name Glen, initially, as that is who we are introduced to them as. Or well, we’re introduced to them as “Shitface,” but I would not dare refer to them as that.
Glen’s journey includes experiencing their parents arguing over their sexuality. Chucky declares them a boy. Tiffany declares them a girl whose name is Glenda. Glen gets no say in who they are. Tiffany and Chucky become so obsessed with finding their new human bodies that the gender discovery of Glen/Glenda takes a backseat.
That’s pretty standard for parents who don’t want to listen to their kids. People who are trying to understand their gender are oftentimes left to figure it out on their own.
So imagine the confusion that could settle within a person’s mind when each parent says you’re a different gender. The magical part of Glen/Glenda is that they discover that they are neither. Within 2004’s timestamp, the concept of being nonbinary wasn’t mainstream or even understood. So for Mancini to include a nonbinary character within his mainstream franchise film was huge.
There are multiple nonbinary horror fans who consider GiGi’s (their chosen name within the Chucky TV series) storyline as a revelation for them. Mancini incorporated a very familiar journey for GiGi in the film. The arguments between the parents over whether they were male or female mirror the confusion that some parents experience over a gender journey that’s not even their own. They try to take the reins of that journey from GiGi. Chucky attempts to have a guy’s night out full of mayhem and murder. Tiffany pressures them to incorporate more feminine aspects into their life.
At the end of Seed, GiGi is placed within a male and female body as a pregnant Jennifer Tilly gives birth to boy and girl twins. With the help of Damballa, Gigi’s soul can be split into both sexes. Again, GiGi has no choice in the matter as they are split between both sexes as Glen and Glenda. But later, in season 2 of Chucky, Mancini does eventually put Glen and Glenda back into one individual within doll form, giving GiGi the choice to become Gigi.
It’s within Cult of Chucky (2013) that we get our next Lone Queer within the franchise: Carlos (Zak Santiago). Carlos exists as normally as his heterosexual costars, but it is within a minor role. GiGi isn’t featured within Cult. Tiffany hasn’t met Nica as Nica, yet, so we aren’t privy to Tiffany’s bisexuality that is showcased in the TV series. Unless you count Chucky taking over Nica’s body, and Tiffany making out with Chucky Nica. Definitely queer material, but definitely not as Nica is Chucky. Or maybe it is?
The Full Blown Queerness of Chucky The TV Series
Suffice it to say, Mancini incorporates queer aspects throughout the latter sequels of the franchise before giving us a full-blown queer experience in many forms within Chucky. The TV show is an entire queer experience.
In late September, it was announced that Chucky would not be renewed for a fourth season at USA/SyFy. Homophobic. Yet, we know that Don Mancini isn’t done with Chucky. The day after the cancellation was announced, Mancini tweeted promises that Chucky isn’t over and that he’ll see you real soon. Even more recently, Mancini let us know that “The Chucky franchise has always prioritized story continuity across different media, for decades. You WILL see your favorites again,” along with a photo of all of the surviving characters at the end of season 3.
Whatever Mancini brings us, it will continue to be incredibly queer. There’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll continue to give us incredible queer representation while continuing to make Chucky as diabolical as ever. We love you, Don Mancini! And since Chucky would probably throw a few explicit words at me if I didn’t give him love: we love you, Chucky!
Categorized:Editorials The Lone Queer
