The red-headed killer doll’s enduring legacy cannot be questioned. There was his cameo as weapon of choice in 2018’s Ready Player One (“It’s fucking Chucky!”). Now there’s a successful first season on Syfy. Voiced by Brad Dourif with manic glee, Chucky has never really left behind his place in pop culture. But there’s someone who deserves a seat at the slasher table, who constantly delivers in the films she is in. Enough suspense, it’s time for Jennifer Tilly to receive a bouquet of black roses with finger-pricking thorns.
After three movies of Chucky going solo, some fresh blood needed to be brought in and thoroughly spilled. Tilly arrived to the franchise as the exquisitely named Tiffany Valentine, with bleached hair and an overall aesthetic that could be the definition of dark glam. There is much to love about her. Like Dourif, she has a signature voice, suitable for a toy from hell. Tilly also knows how to deliver campy dialogue with sinister charm but let the work speak for itself. Three movies and a TV series later, Jennifer Tilly has more than earned her place, with each of her major appearances showing why Tiffany is as good of a villain as her foul-mouthed ex-lover. Maybe even better.
Bride of Chucky (1998)
In 1998, it was a strange time to be part of a slasher franchise. Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street fizzled out. Halloween H20 finally killed off Michael Myers, or so everyone thought. Scream 2 poked fun at horror sequels. In many ways it was crucial for this one to be successful. Self-referential humor was given in doses to the script, but creator Don Mancini wanted to do more with Chucky. Talking to Daily Dead, Mancini said, “You remember Tiffany/Jennifer Tilly had the line in Bride of Chucky where she says, 'I'll kill anyone, but I'll only sleep with someone I love.’ I think that these are monsters who have a very human side, which I think is fun and I think it's part of the reason why the characters have lasted in the culture as long as they have.”
Mancini showed these two weren’t just killer dolls, but humans stuck in the little plastic bodies. Tiffany’s introduction brought in an attached intimacy not utilized in the series until this point. She was a romantic at heart, a far cry from Chucky. She cherished what the lovers (Katherine Heigl, Nick Stabile) had between one another, whose bodies she was happily ready to possess. Hyperfeminine as Chucky was hypermasculine, Tiffany truly became his yin to her yang. And she proved to be as vicious, using a champagne bottle to smash a ceiling mirror and let its shards shred up the victims below.
Seed of Chucky (2004)
The controversial entry in the series. Jennifer Tilly as Jennifer Tilly is made to scream, constantly, and must have needed a tea after every take. Weight jokes about her are quite abundant and unfortunately something that slips in later, into the show. But there are positives to be had. In Seed of Chucky, the humor is colored very dark when Glen/Glenda (Billy Boyd) shows up as the lost child of newly resurrected Tiffany and Chucky. Letting her maternal instincts take over, Tiffany wishes to control her homicidal urges. She calls up the wife of a dead man from her past, seeking forgiveness for the act. She believes she gets it. Never mind, of course, the hysterical sobbing on the other end of the phone. Don't come at her, she’s getting her helpful tips from 12 Steps in 3 Days: A Guide for the Busy Addict, maybe from the same shop she previously purchased Voodoo for Dummies.
But if there was any doubt of Mancini’s adoration for Jennifer Tilly, let Seed put those to rest. Not only does she provide voice work for Tiffany, Tilly proved more than game in playing a satirized version of herself. She’s willing to sleep with rapper Redman to snag the part of the Virgin Mary in his directorial debut. But it’s as Tiffany that Tilly really lets go in all the best ways. By the movie’s end, possessing the human Tilly has succeeded. When a nanny quits over her fears of little Glenda, Tiffany smashes the poor woman’s head in. Mother and daughter seem to share this dark urge. Despite the dual performance by Tilly, Seed’s negative reception seemed to spell doom for the franchise. Tilly even remembered major criticism even came from the studio: “That was too gay, it was too funny, and there was too much Jennifer Tilly.” But you just can’t keep a good girl down.
Cult of Chucky (2017)
Tiffany was revealed to be shipping Chucky around at the end of Curse of Chucky. But that was only a cameo. Her next big involvement in the franchise would be in Cult of Chucky. Gone was her old dark glam style;, that would be too ‘90s. Possessing the body of a Hollywood actress, Tiffany had to look the part. So Mancini turned her into Cate Blanchett from Carol, fit with blonde hair and a crimson dress. It gave Tiffany a classical Hollywood style, masking her killer instincts better than Chucky ever could. She truly became a femme fatale.
Her trusty nail filer had the chance to return, a callback to her very first onscreen kill way back in Bride. She kills a security guard with it, splattering his blood outside the mental health facility Nica (Fiona Dourif) is stuck in. Tasting some of the red stuff, she beams, “Mmm, cherry snow cone." Some people never learn to look behind them for danger. When Nica greets her, now possessed by Chucky, the two are reunited. “A true classic never goes out of style,” she cooed, “You told me that once, after stabbing a man 39 times.” Good memories are hard to kill, even harder than the bodies Tiffany has left along the way.
Chucky (2021)
In the first season of Chucky, Tiffany gets to have it all. She could let out her maniacal laugh. Her old doll made a cameo in the closing moments of the finale. Speaking of that last episode, Tiffany is revealed to have caused the events leading up to Chucky’s death in the open to Child’s Play. Their toxic relationship made even more so. It’s clear Jennifer Tilly is having the time of her life too. “Because you know, you get to certain age, all of a sudden you don't have any more sex scenes or kissing scenes, and they don't really want to see you in the sexy dresses anymore,” she shared. “So it's just like, Tiffany is such a fun, campy delight. Like I always love playing her, and he wrote so much stuff for me to do.” And Tiffany is definitely campy. Almost like a supervillain, Tiffany rigs a bomb to explode to eliminate some of the show’s heroes. She screams in defeat when Andy foils the season-long grand plan of shipping Chucky dolls across the country.
But her last act of violence is an indicator Tiffany is truly rotten to the core. In Bride, she locked up Chucky in a playpen after getting upset over his lack of marital commitment. Two decades later, Tiffany stepped up her game. After developing a crush, Tiffany amputated all of Nica’s limbs so the two can stay together, without a worry of an escape. Seeing Nica in her immobile state was downright bone-chilling. No one can be safe around her.
It was recently confirmed Jennifer Tilly will be back for Chucky Season 2. What’s in store for her character is unknown to anyone but Don Mancini. Tilly was in many of the films that freshened up the formula, in camp, humor, and darkness. Her reign as slasher queen will only cause more destruction, it’s only time until it’s found out how far-reaching it will be. Jennifer Tilly and Tiffany Valentine go hand-in-hand, she’s as funny as she is deranged. So hand over a bouquet of pitch black, thorny roses but keep an eye out for that nail filer of hers.