You can be as sure as the sun setting in the West and Rob Lowe somehow getting another bad television series that when horror franchises go stale they go self-referential. Witness "Seed of Chucky," which offers up yet another Hollywood insider gag a la "Scream" by having Jennifer Tilly starring in a new Chucky movie while also voicing Tiffany and making jokes about her own weight. When movies start doing stuff like it reminds one of jocks who talk about themselves in the third person or film critics who like to cast themselves as the stars of their own reviews. Mr. Cranky ain't having none of that.

I think horror franchises do this because, like the actual writers of the film, the audience is struggling to remember what actually happened in the previous film. Might as well make it self-referential, such as a film within a film or something, so everybody in the audience will know exactly what's going on. After all, the technique has only been done a few hundred times in the last five years, all you need to hook this kind of audience is show some bright colors on the screen.

I guess some credit is due to the people who made the film's trailer because it's the first time, probably in fifteen years, that the trailer actually muddles the plot rather than simply giving it away entirely. Giving away the plot is my job: Chucky (Brad Dourif) and Tiffany's British son, Glen (Billy Boyd) hatch a plan to impregnate Jennifer Tilly so that the whole family can somehow take over their bodies. Tiffany will go into Jennifer. Chucky will take over Redman. And Glen will assume the baby.

Sadly, Jennifer Tilly must be impregnated somehow. This event is logically precipitated by Chucky masturbating into a cup. Fortunately, we aren't actually treated to any doll penis, but Tiffany does flash him some doll rack. And while we don't get to see any real racks anywhere, we are treated to several nice shots of Chucky's semen. Meanwhile, in a metaphoric sense, the audience is covered in it.