What elevated both The Bride of Chucky and its follow-up The Seed of Chucky above the usual Friday night shock schlock was the presence of a superbly blonde and divinely trashy Jennifer Tilly (Bound, Dancing at the Blue Iguana). Tilly played the romantically-inclined, homicidally devoted lover of the monster doll Chucky. After a nearly 20+ year absence, the actress briefly reprised her role in Don Mancini’s less madcap sequel The Curse of Chucky. She was back in cahoots with Chucky, and couriered him over to a few of his dearest childhood friends. And she didn’t even bother to insure the package.
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Mancini’s entertainingly odd and gruesome TV expansion of the Chucky movie franchise could have a season three, which means more Tiffany Valentine. When she isn’t murdering people or disposing of bodies, Valentine is being inappropriately doe-eyed with a 3-foot, potty-mouthed doll, or a captive woman she’s dismembered. Tilly is excellent as the overbearingly twisted wife of the horror genre’s most famous killer doll. The actress alternates between manic hysteria, flattery, and blood-curdling calm, and with the show’s melodramatic, soap opera-like writing (well, if a soap opera was scripted by Virginia Andrews and Tobe Hooper), it is the kind of role that could easily descend (and often does) into camp histrionics.
This goes without saying: Jennifer Tilly is the best thing to happen to genre television since Buffy Summers first rolled into Sunnydale way back in the 1990s. In the last two seasons of Chucky, Tiffany has emerged as a more formidable, capable, and iconic movie monster than her plastic paramour. Allow us to explain why…
Sometimes, a Girl Has to Advocate for Herself
NBCUniversal
In the finale of Chucky, Don Mancini uses the pulp fiction format as a jumping-off point for a thought-provoking investigation into feminine monstrosity and psychopathy without reducing the vampish Tiffany to a trope. It is rare on TV to utilize a female (and villain) character without her becoming a high-kicking glamazon, the victim of violent men, or as an exploration of gender imbalance.
Is Ms. Valentine the female horror villain fans have been waiting years for? She is an outspoken sadist and serial killer who enjoys manipulation, murder, and mutilating one victim with a delightfully baroque flair. Tiffany is a breath of fresh air in a pop-cultural landscape dominated by feminist caricatures, archetypal misogynists, and gender warfare. Sometimes, a girl has to advocate for herself.
Tiffany Valentine Endured Where Other Female Monsters Failed
There are some utterly terrifying, evil, and awful characters in horror and action cinema, who just happen to be female — La Femme (Beatrice Dalle) in Inside, Anne Wilkes (Katie Bates) in Misery, Asami (Eihi Shiina) in Audition, Lola (Robin McLeavy) in The Loved Ones, Mitsuko (Ko Shibasaka) in Battle Royale, and MaMa (Lena Headey) in Dredd. Unlike Chucky’s antagonist, we understand the trajectory that brought all of these women to their current predicament. Their violent impulses and need to control, torture, and kill are attributed to traumatic incidents from their past. Mental illness, sexual abuse, gang indoctrination, or even revenge.
Valentine may have spent a long time under the thumb of Chucky, but she has forged her own path, and the character has endured and evolved beyond a one-note monster. She carries out these awful crimes not for any reason listed above; what makes her scary is how apathetic her kill sprees are to her. She has a psychopathic mindset unencumbered by the emotional capacity for empathy, at least most of the time. This makes her more dangerous.
She Doesn’t Look or Act Like a Monster
Yes, Tiffany is a surprisingly menacing figure with a terrible penchant for exacting terrible vengeance on those who get in her way. She even started out in season two as a somewhat sympathetic character in her relationship with Glen/Glenda (Lachlan Watson), and it was hard not to root for her when she was under siege from her maniac husband.
Yes, she’s in the body of Jennifer Tilly, so it was wise to curb some of her more outlandish, murderous tendencies. However, she still conspired with Chucky to murder people. Tiffany Valentine’s demeanor and appearance are antithetical to what we’ve come to expect from cinematic monsters (a close second is Debbie Jelinsky in The Addams Family Values) – regardless of gender. Her elegantly coiffed hair, expensive couture, sex-symbol status, and husky voice are hardly characteristics of monstrosity.
A True Classic Never Goes Out of Style
Tiffany is a creature of habit in some respects and when it comes to homicide, she believes a true classic never goes out of style. She’s the kind of girl who goes straight for the jugular — which does explain how fond she is of a nail file. Unlike Chucky, she remains old-school and consistent.
Tiffany Is the Best Legacy Character in Chucky
Yes, she certainly is (sorry, Chucky). The majority of those who survived Chucky’s murderous rampages in the franchise’s 30+ year history returned during the inaugural year of the Chucky TV series. Kyle (Christine Elise) and Andy (Alex Vincent) are in pursuit of the multiple Chucky dolls with fragments of Charles Lee Ray’s soul, while Tiffany, along with her lover/captive Nica head to Hackensack to fulfill Chucky’s obligations. Tiffany stole every scene, and she was integral to Chucky’s scheme. Her reappearance was much more than simple fan service, and we all want more.
The Bride Conveys the True Meaning of Terror in Chucky’s Season Finale
Most of the time, Tiffany is amusingly deranged, but an unredeemable act of cruelty during the Chucky season one finale was shockingly unexpected and jaw-dropping for viewers. Tiffany conveyed the true meaning of terror by amputating Nica Pierce’s (Fiona Dourif) arms and legs in a genuinely horrifying moment.
Tiffany Is Genuinely Funny (or Hilariously Unhinged)
Universal Pictures
Her whole Valley Girl-like shtick is not unlike Elvira’s comedy; it deflects attention away from how smart Tiffany really is. The hilariously unhinged character (whether human or in doll form) is equally funny and witty as her male counterpart. Her purposely dizzy act, childlike aphorisms, and constant references to her mother are very, very funny.
Tiffany Will Be Back in Season Three, Because They ALWAYS Come Back!
The last we saw of Tiffany was her recoiling in horror as a dragged-up Chucky attacked her with a knife. But is she dead? And was it Nica on the phone, or Chucky possessing her? I guess we’ll all have to wait and see if Ms. Valentine survived Chucky. But something tells us Tiffany will be back in a possible season three of Chucky, because they always come back…
