Child's Play: Ranking The Films From Worst To Best

For nearly three decades, Chucky has held onto his spot in horror history in spite of a journey that's led his series through wildly different tonal shifts and from theatrical releases into the direct-to-video market. And while the character has only been in six films, he's no less a recognizable horror icon than some of his other genre companions, like Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.

Small in size but large in life thanks to Brad Dourif's ongoing work in the role, Chucky and his series have managed to survive what nearly all of his contemporaries have not: The reboot. After nearly a decade of rumors and talks, the Child's Play franchise sidestepped a relaunch with the release of Curse of Chucky in 2013, a sequel which took the series back to its horror roots and proved popular enough to show that there's still life left for the ongoing journey of the killer doll.

With series creator and shepherd Don Mancini having continued to confirm that a seventh film is on the way ever since Curse's release, it seems that Chucky's future may be brighter than it has been in a long time, even if he may not be receiving the theatrical treatment he once did. Now that our favorite horror-filled time of the year is upon us, let's take a mildly spoiler-filled look back at the franchise to see which of Chucky's past outings the next film should strive to live up to...

By the time Seed of Chucky arrived, the doll had long since lost his ability to strike fear in modern audiences. Six years earlier, Bride of Chucky had revitalized the franchise by poking fun at itself and the series' concept, its tongue firmly in cheek about parodying its own existence without going too far over the edge as to completely alienate fans.

While Bride took the series to the necessary edge of horror comedy in order to make the character relevant again, Seed careened over it, going too wild in its attempts to be funny and failing to back it up with effective scares as it tried to mine the interesting notion of a whole family of killer dolls. While Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly remained as on point as ever as Chucky and Tiffany, the film around them was a mess, with the character of Glen/Glenda doing no favors to the proceeding in the eyes of many.

Tonally, Seed failed to strike the same balance as its predecessor, often at odds with itself in what type of movie it wanted to be. And while it does have some supporters out there and the practical effects work is solid, it's too needlessly wacky and removed from its predecessors to work, easily leaving it as the series' nadir.