History Of Horror Character

The horror character I have chosen for this task is Charles Lee Ray (Chucky) from the films Chucky- Childs play. There have been 5 Chuckie- Childs play films made, with another, The Curse Of Chucky to be released in 2013.

The Chucky films are based on a child's doll which becomes possessed by Charles Lee (Chucky) Ray who is a voodoo practitioner. In the first Chucky film in 1988, he is shot and wounded, and hides out in a toy store. He finds a "Good Guy doll" and possesses it with his own soul.


The character of Chucky itself is very disturbing and in 1988 was one of the first at the time to take an inanimate object such as a child's doll and humanise it, making into one of the most well known horror characters of all time. To look at, Chucky is very scary and its easy to understand why the Chucky chain has been so successful. I think the reason why the films have done so well is because its the thought that something as simple as a "Good Guy" children's toy could become possessed and do such horrible things such as murder and mutilation, is a very poignant one and one that horror audiences have loved to watch every time a new Chucky film has been released.

The pictures above indicate the development of the character, Chucky, and the way his appearance has changed since 'Childs Play' in 1988 and 'The Curse Of Chucky' in 2013. As you can see from the two images, there has been a massive emphasis in recent times, that the main way to make Chucky scary is his appearance  for example the scars and cuts on his head and his repulsive bleeding eye. However in comparison to the image from 1988, there are less immediately scary things about the original character in the sense that he only has one slight scar on his face but other than that, he looks quite normal. The things that make him scary in the films are what he actually does to people rather than what he looks like. I think this is a good example of horror films in general and the way they have developed because there has been a huge serge in he gore side of horror movies recently and there have only been a handful of horror films that haven't been slasher and torture porn movies (such as the SAW films) over the last decade. Ones that could be said to be more psychological horror movies would be the Paranormal Activity films and The Blare Witch Project.

Here the trailer  of the 1988 Chucky film Childs Play, although the film and animation is much more basic and original than the newer Chucky films, there are still classic horror techniques used such as tense and suspenseful music and long takes.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imYvOgyU9oo

Here is the trailer from the 2004 film, The Seed Of Chucky.http://www.youtube.com/watch? as you can see, the animation of the horror character Chucky is much improved and although the character appears much more sadistic and immediately scary, the same values and character portrayal are apparent in comparison to the original 1988 Chucky film.

Overall, the character of Chucky is an iconic horror character due to the way he is completely different from any other, there is no other horror character based on something as simple as a child's doll, yet never fails to frighten any of its audience. The development of the character has been important in the was he has been modernised and adapted to peoples current tastes and this is why I think Chucky is one of the most successful and scary horror characters of his time.

Kieran Browne