Living with Chucky – TADFF 2022

The history of the Child's Play franchise is revisited by someone who grew up around the killer doll in Living with Chucky. As the daughter of Tony Gardner, the head puppeteer since Seed of Chucky, Kyra Elise Gardner has grown up around the killer doll known as Chucky. Kyra sets out to talk to her extended Child's Play family, including screenwriter Don Mancini, producer David Kirschner, and actors Brad Dourif, Jennifer Tilly, Billy Boyd, and more.

Living with Chucky is the feature documentary debut from Kyra Elise Gardner, expanded from her 2017 documentary short The Dollhouse. The film tells the 30+ year history of the Child's Play franchise, with chapters for each of the six main features, ignoring the 2019 Child's Play reboot, made without the involvement of either creator Don Mancini or producer David Kirschner. The documentary then evolves into a more personal story as Kyra Elise Gardner inserts herself into the narrative as someone who grew up around Chucky and wanted to get to know the extended Child's Play family.

Living with Chucky stands apart from other franchise retrospective documentaries by including the personal element of growing up around this world. One sequence of the documentary compares Kyra Elise Gardner's experiences growing up around Chucky with that of Fiona Dourif, the daughter of Chucky voice actor Brad Dourif, who went on to star in the latter two entries, Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky. As the Chucky legacy series continues with the current SyFy TV series, Living with Chucky is a documentary that should be enjoyed by both longtime fans and newcomers.