Jake, Lexy and Devon are invited to a Halloween party at the White House with Chucky on the loose. What could possibly go wrong?

In this gloriously gruesome mid-season finale – with production paused due to the SAG and WGA strikes in the U.S. – Chucky is back to its glittering, elegant best.

Elegant? Chucky?

Some people raise their eyebrows at my love for this show, but it’s the elegance I most admire. The Chucky TV franchise has always been a witty horror romp, so I’m not pretending that Chucky is ‘High Art’, but as a writer, director and producer with four decades’ experience in the industry I’m in awe of the skill and balance and craftsmanship of recent episodes. It’s a show that sets out its stall, knows what its audience wants and delivers on every front, with intelligence and economy. Being ridiculously, grotesquely funny is not as easy as many people think. It requires an acute understanding of character and tone, and most importantly of all, structure. Very few gross-out comedy horrors achieve this with as much skill as Mancini and his team, they tend to think that just being gross is enough.

You could argue that the premise of ‘Dressed to Kill’ is far too obvious. We know exactly what is going to happen, except we don’t know how, and that’s the joy of it. If I say (for British readers) that the ill-fated White House Halloween party takes a bizarrely bloody Only Fools and Horses turn in its final act, I hope that isn’t too much of a spoiler.

Meanwhile, even the Jennifer Tilly strand manages to be perfectly pitched in this outing. Sentenced to lethal injection, she is incarcerated in the ‘special’ wing of a Texas prison with seemingly no chance of escape, however she is allowed her ‘religious’ possessions which includes a set of voodoo dolls. Cue a wince inducing scene of prison kitchen violence that had even me looking away from the screen, but still laughing heartily.

Perhaps I need help.

Verdict: Fingers crossed that the Screen Actors Guild are able to reach a resolution soon, because it’s going to feel like a long wait. The set-ups for the second half of the season are flawless, and poor old Zachary Arthur is going to have keep up his gym regime. Although he doesn’t get his top off in this episode, he does wear a shirtless pair of dungarees. Yes, Zach, you are very buff! 10/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com