By Jason Hallock
You know it must be serious if you encourage the person you love to bring a possessed doll into the house overnight.
I first met my future spouse because she parked next to me in our apartment building just down the street from the DGA building. She had two-tone hair and drove a Trans Am. I had a strategically covered bald spot and an aging Volvo that I planned to keep for at least 200,000 miles. We never had a meet-cute moment, and we had even less in common than Harry and Sally. We certainly didn’t have Paris, either. What we did have was a passion for movies, especially old movies, and a spectacular case of good timing.
The good timing came in the form of a party her roommate threw on a night when we both had to work late; I was a freelance story analyst for a half-dozen different companies, and Lisa was a banquet bartender at a posh Pasadena hotel — one of the three jobs she was juggling since moving to LA a couple of months earlier to pursue costume design. (I used to think I worked hard; then I met Lisa.) By the time we showed up to the shindig, it was very late, and we were basically the only people capable of carrying on an actual conversation. No, lightning didn’t strike, but we did have a great time together, which laid the groundwork for the next time and the time after that. About a year after that, we were sharing the same address.
Roughly nine months later, as fate would have it, we brought home our first child: Chucky, the possessed doll from the famous slasher films.
“Seed of Chucky” is the fifth installment in the “Child’s Play” franchise, which launched in 1988 and remains for many the defining series in the “possessed doll” subgenre. The movies stand out for the creepily perfect work of stars Brad Dourif and Jennifer Tilly and the tongue-in-cheek tone of the thrills and chills. “Seed of Chucky” is the first film directed by Don Mancini, who also wrote the script and wrote or cowrote the first seven “Chucky” movies as well as later creating the television series that ran for three seasons on Syfy and USA Network. This is a franchise that knows its audience, and “Seed of Chucky” in particular devotes itself to satisfying their every gory expectation.
Twenty years later, it also remains the only movie that both my wife and I have ever worked on together, albeit at opposite ends of production. For me, that meant some minor toiling for the producers during the development stage. For my wife, it meant designing and constructing some costumes for the dolls to wear in “interviews” for the DVD bonus materials, which required the whole damned family to come live with us for a while. It’s as creepy as it sounds. But it also gave me a new appreciation for the craftsmanship and artistry of practical movie effects, before everything got a CGI makeover.
Even without the team of operators that brought them to life on film, Tiffany, Chucky, and Glen/Glenda had an uncanny quality to them that gave them a distinct presence. I consider myself a reasonably rational person, but I’m man enough to admit that I insisted the dolls be covered up at night. And that must have been Lisa who moved them… right? Let’s just say I was happy to help pack them in the Trans Am after the job was done. Even better was the sight of heads turning as passing motorists realized exactly which celebrity was sitting in the passenger seat as the dolls headed home.
Only in Hollywood.
When the gig was over and I finished burning sage in our apartment (no, not really — but I was tempted), I can’t say I missed our famous guests. But I was exceedingly grateful to them for helping with the rent and for giving us both the kind of experience that you can’t have anywhere else in the world. For a couple just starting out in an industry known for tough times, it helped us feel like we were on the right track — hopefully with less bloodshed.
Jason Hallock is a story analyst and has been a member of Local 700 since 2005.
