I dare say this set is bookended by the two best Chucky movies of all, Bride and Cult. In between are the most outrageous, Seed, and the back to basics horror, Curse, all worthy additions to the franchise. They also represent the point at which the franchise spanned two different generations of cinema so it’s fun to evaluate that on 4K UHD.

Bride and Seed were still shot on film and you can see it even in computer animated bits like the Seed titles and decapitation gag. You even see a faint scratch in the single take Seed intro. It was a film magazine! They couldn’t scrap the whole take over it!

I’ve seen Bride the most, in every format since theaters, and it’s never quite felt this present in its world. It’s also the Peter Pau one so his lighting designs convey more subtleties in 4K. Ronny Yu’s camera also plays with depth. Closeups look like they’re in the room with you, especially the dolls.

Both Bride and Seed use red light effectively and are full of gushing crimson blood. Bride has more shadow from the evidence locker and Tiffany’s trailer to the honeymoon suite sex scene and the cemetery finale, all pure shadow in 4K. Seed still gets some nice shadows when the dolls take over Jennifer Tilly’s house.

Curse and Cult are both digital and made for video, but they hold up like theatrical digital films. You see the difference in the pixels vs. the film grain but the settings are full of detail.

The Curse house is old with cracked paint, scratched doors and spotty tile. Closeups of Chucky show the texture of the plastic. Don Mancini still gets some great shots like Nica reflected in a pool of blood, still that gushing crimson. There’s good shadow in the dark house highlighted by lightning flashes. There are beautiful silhouettes of Nica and Chucky when the power goes out, and of the surprise lovers in the love scene. The black and white flashback also holds up, with bright yellow flowers contrasting it.

Cult has an even more ambitious look with the institution. Gleaming white walls are flawless, and they dress Nica in black for a stark contrast. Then Tiffany shows up in red and Chucky’s red hair and blue overalls against that backdrop shows him in an all new light. The orderlies wear white scrubs to blend in. Snowfall looks great against a pitch black night sky.

All four movies have fun surround sound effects too. Chucky’s sperm swims right behind you. Bride has a lot of explosions in full surround. Rain and thunder fill the room.

It is a shame Mancini didn’t record new interviews for these four since he did the first three. They must not have been able to coordinate before the WGA strike. But, Tony Gardner to talk about all three films, and he details animatronics from cable to rod puppets, including the difficulty of making Chucky jerk off.

They did get actors before the SAG-AFTRA strike. John Waters speaks about Seed for six minutes and manages to squeeze in political jabs. Alex Vincent is open about his childhood feelings about being left out of Child’s Play 3 and handling his legacy as a teenager. He also plays a bit in his recording studio to showcase his other career.

Danielle Bisutti approached her Curse character with real depth and it’s nice to see how seriously she took it.