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Jennifer Tilly and the Evolution of Tiffany Valentine

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There’s just something about Jennifer Tilly.  The gifted actress with the whiskey voice is intelligent, funny, and stunningly beautiful.  She’s made her mark on stage and film with a captivating presence that draws viewers in and has made her a star that won’t soon fade.

She’ll tell you,herself, though, that she never imagined the fame or fans that would she would find when she took on the role of Tiffany Valentine in Bride of Chucky.  Four movies and 20 years later, Tilly is still knocking them dead in Don Mancini’s latest release, Cult of Chucky.

I had the enormous privilege of chatting with the talented actress this week, and we spent some time chatting about Tiffany Valentine and the crazy rollercoaster they’ve ridden together.

“When you first met Tiffany back in Bride of Chucky,” the actress explained.  “she was this kind of trashy, goth girl and sort of sloppy and flirty and giddy.  But she was really a broken flower.”

It didn’t take long for that broken flower to flourish, however.  By the time Seed of Chucky rolled around, Tiffany was getting smarter and she was learning just how powerful she really was.  In one of the most meta scenes ever created for a horror film, Tiffany (voiced by Jennifer Tilly) took over the body of Jennifer Tilly who was playing Tiffany in a movie.

Go ahead and read that again, I’ll wait.

The move was brilliant and it brought the actress we love into the franchise in the flesh, so to speak.  But, as we all know, Tiffany wasn’t done, even though the actress admits she wasn’t sure where she really fit in the Chucky universe during the franchise’s Curse of Chucky entry.

If Seed of Chucky was the flourishing of Tiffany Valentine, however, it’s in Cult of Chucky that this beautiful, but deadly flower truly bloomed.

“Don very gently explained to me when we were prepping for this film that Tiffany was classy, now!” Tilly laughed.  “And I thought, classy?  What?  But we started talking and he explained that Tiffany was always more vicious than Jennifer Tilly, and she always wanted to be an actress.  But once she’s in my body she discovers that Jennifer Tilly is a B-list actress, but she wants to be an A-list actress like Cate Blanchett!  She’s very consciously dressing like Cate Blanchett in Carol, now and trying to be really classy.”

In fact, when Tilly shows up in Cult of Chucky, she’s the very essence of Hollywood glamour.  Her vivid, red wardrobe and blonde up-do is the essence of a Hitchcock blonde, especially in contrast to the stark white walls of the mental asylum where Chucky is currently slicing and dicing his way through the patients.

“I think Don wanted me to be his Tippi Hedren in this film,” she says, “and it really works.  Tiffany is Machiavellian.  She comes in and sets things in motion, then steps back to let events unfold before coming back in the end to reap the benefits.  She’s definitely not under Chucky’s thumb anymore.  She’s more evil, now, and she’s more of his partner in this film.”

Jennifer and Tiffany have definitely come a long way in Mancini’s franchise, and yet, with all its success, Tilly was still surprised by the response she’s seen from fans, especially since she entered the world of social media.

“Chucky fans are the greatest, most obsessed, most loyal fans I’ve ever seen,” she exclaimed.  “I never knew that there were Chucky and Tiffany cosplays, Chucky and Tiffany tattoos, Chucky and Tiffany fan art!  It’s all so amazing.  I fly to countries I didn’t even know existed and get off the plane and people see me and run up yelling ‘Chucky!’ and want to hug me.  It’s global and it’s incredible.”

It’s nearly unprecedented what Mancini has done with the Chucky franchise being personally involved in each new sequel.  Writing, directing, and cultivating not only the films but a loyal cast, some of whom have been with him from the very beginning.

“I mean the thing that blows my mind is that he brings back these older characters, but he also brings back the actors that played them originally to do them again,” Tilly explained.  “He brought back Andy Barclay and he got Alex Vincent, who played Andy in the very first film to play Andy again.  He was a boy in that movie and now it’s 30 years later and he’s a bearded vigilante in Cult of Chucky.  Other studios and filmmakers would have started calling casting agents, but Don said, ‘It has to be Alex.'”

It’s a formula that has worked for the filmmaker and Tilly says she hopes to stay a part of the franchise.

“I love Don, and we’ve been friends for 20 years, now.  I still suck up whenever I can to make sure he puts me in the next movie,” she laughed.  “I really feel like I want to be in them until the end of time.”

Miss Tilly, on behalf of the rest of the Chucky fandom, we want that, too.

Cult of Chucky is available to view on Netflix and can also be purchased on DVD and Blu-Ray!

 

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The Pope’s Exorcist Officially Announces New Sequel

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The Pope’s Exorcist is one of those films that’s just fun to watch. It isn’t the most terrifying film around, but there’s something about Russel Crow (Gladiator) playing a wise cracking Catholic priest that just feels right.

Screen Gems seems to agree with this assessment, as they have just officially announced that The Pope’s Exorcist sequel is in the works. It makes sense that Screen Gems would want to keep this franchise going, considering the first film scared up almost $80 million with a budget of only $18 million.

The Pope's Exorcist
The Pope’s Exorcist

According to Crow, there may even be a The Pope’s Exorcist trilogy in the works. However, recent changes with the studio may have put the third film on hold. In a sit-down with The Six O’Clock Show, Crow gave the following statement about the project.

“Well that’s in discussion at the moment. The producers originally got the kick off from the studio not just for one sequel but for two. But there’s been a change of studio heads at the moment, so that’s going around in a few circles. But very definitely, man. We set that character up that you could take him out and put him into a lot of different circumstances.”

Crow has also stated that film’s source material involves twelve separate books. This would allow the studio to take the story in all kinds of directions. With that much source material, The Pope’s Exorcist could even rival The Conjuring Universe.

Only the future will tell what becomes of The Pope’s Exorcist. But as always, more horror is always a good thing.

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New ‘Faces of Death’ Remake Will Be Rated R For “Strong Bloody Violence and Gore”

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In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, the Faces of Death reboot has been given an R rating from the MPA. Why has the film been given this rating? For strong bloody violence, gore, sexual content, nudity, language, and drug use, of course.

What else would you expect from a Faces of Death reboot? It would honestly be alarming if the film received anything less than an R rating.

Faces of death
Faces of Death

For those unaware, the original Faces of Death film released in 1978 and promised viewers video evidence of real deaths. Of course, this was just a marketing gimmick. Promoting a real snuff film would be a terrible idea.

But the gimmick worked, and franchise lived on in infamy. The Faces of Death reboot is hoping to gain the same amount of viral sensation as its predecessor. Isa Mazzei (Cam) and Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) will spearhead this new addition.

The hope is that this reboot will do well enough to recreate the infamous franchise for a new audience. While we don’t know much about the film at this point, but a joint statement from Mazzei and Goldhaber gives us the following info on the plot.

“Faces of Death was one of the first viral video tapes, and we are so lucky to be able to use it as a jumping off point for this exploration of cycles of violence and the way they perpetuate themselves online.”

“The new plot revolves around a female moderator of a YouTube-like website, whose job is to weed out offensive and violent content and who herself is recovering from a serious trauma, that stumbles across a group that is recreating the murders from the original film. But in the story primed for the digital age and age of online misinformation, the question faced is are the murders real or fake?”

The reboot will have some bloody shoes to fill. But from the looks of it, this iconic franchise is in good hands. Unfortunately, the film does not have a release date at this time.

That’s all the information we have at this time. Make sure to check back here for more news and updates.

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Panic Fest 2024 Review: ‘The Ceremony Is About To Begin’

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People will look for answers and belonging in the darkest places and the darkest people. The Osiris Collective is a commune predicated upon ancient Egyptian theology and was run by the mysterious Father Osiris. The group boasted dozens of members, each forgoing their old lives for one held in the Egyptian themed land owned by Osiris in Northern California. But the good times take a turn for the worst when in 2018, an upstart member of the collective named Anubis (Chad Westbrook Hinds) reports Osiris disappearing while mountain climbing and declaring himself the new leader. A schism ensued with many members leaving the cult under Anubis’ unhinged leadership. A documentary is being made by a young man named Keith (John Laird) whose fixation with The Osiris Collective stems from his girlfriend Maddy leaving him for the group several years ago. When Keith gets invited to document the commune by Anubis himself, he decides to investigate, only to get wrapped up in horrors he couldn’t even imagine…

The Ceremony Is About To Begin is the latest genre twisting horror film from Red Snow‘s Sean Nichols Lynch. This time tackling cultist horror along with a mockumentary style and the Egyptian mythology theme for the cherry on top. I was a big fan of Red Snow‘s subversiveness of the vampire romance sub-genre and was excited to see what this take would bring. While the movie has some interesting ideas and a decent tension between the meek Keith and the erratic Anubis, it just doesn’t exactly thread everything together in a succinct fashion.

The story begins with a true crime documentary style interviewing former members of The Osiris Collective and sets-up what led the cult to where it is now. This aspect of the storyline, especially Keith’s own personal interest in the cult, made it an interesting plotline. But aside from some clips later on, it doesn’t play as much a factor. The focus is largely on the dynamic between Anubis and Keith, which is toxic to put it lightly. Interestingly, Chad Westbrook Hinds and John Lairds are both credited as writers on The Ceremony Is About To Begin and definitely feel like they’re putting their all into these characters. Anubis is the very definition of a cult leader. Charismatic, philosophical, whimsical, and threateningly dangerous at the drop of a hat.

Yet strangely, the commune is deserted of all cult members. Creating a ghost town that only amps up the danger as Keith documents Anubis’ alleged utopia. A lot of the back and forth between them drags at times as they struggle for control and Anubis keeps continuing to convince Keith to stick around despite the threatening situation. This does lead to a pretty fun and bloody finale that fully leans into mummy horror.

Overall, despite meandering and having a bit of a slow pace, The ceremony Is About To Begin is a fairly entertaining cult, found footage, and mummy horror hybrid. If you want mummies, it delivers on mummies!

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