Chucky holds a special place in the history of cinematic slashers. He is not a stoic monster like Michael Myers or married to a signature weapon like Leatherface, Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees. He is a psychopath who sees slaughter as an art form and a creative outlet. Charles Lee Ray may have been known as the Lakeshore Strangler when he was alive, but once he uses voodoo to live inside the body of a Good Guys doll, he uses any and all means to kill as many people as he possibly can.
Across seven movies (not including 2019’s Child’s Play) and three seasons of the Chucky TV series, the killer doll has conducted a lot of mayhem… but which kills are the best of the best? After careful consideration of the canon Chucky franchise, we’ve put together this Top 15.
15. Cadet Lt. Col. Brett C. Shelton Shot With A Live Ammunition During War Games (Child’s Play 3)
The vast majority of the kills featured on this list have Chucky personally murdering people, but this one from Child’s Play 3 is one of his special indirect homicides. Amid the annual war games at Kent Military School, Chucky replaces paint bullets with live ammunition, and it results in Cadet Lt. Col. Brett C. Shelton really dying in a fake battle.
14. Miss Kettlewell Inflated With An Air Pump And Beaten To Death With A Yardstick (Child’s Play 2)
The death of Miss Kettlewell in Child’s Play 2 is not a complicated kill, but it is a totally brutal one – hence its inclusion on this list. Stabbing the teacher in the chest with an air pump and pushing the handle is a big ouch… but more significantly, really take a minute to think about what it takes to beat a person to death with a yardstick. That’s hardcore business.
13. Tony Gardner Decapitated With A String (Seed Of Chucky)
Chucky fans owe a lot of gratitude to effects artist Tony Gardner, who has had a key hand in bringing the killer doll to life on screen, so including his death in Seed Of Chucky is honorary to a certain degree… but not entirely. Writer/director Don Mancini does right by Gardner by giving him a properly vicious shuffle off this mortal coil, with Chucky and Tiffany decapitating him with a piece of string (a contrapasso end for a puppeteer).
12. Nadine Pushed Out Of A Bell Tower By Good Chucky (Chucky S2)
Emotional weight is a key factor in this rating, and this doozy from Chucky Season 2 packs one hell of a punch. Nadine is one of the sweetest characters who has been introduced in this franchise, and for her to be killed by Good Chucky – who she naively trusted to be cured of his evil ways – was particularly disturbing to see.
11. Dr. Ardmore Fried With An Electroshock Device (Child’s Play)
This particular kill from the original Child’s Play would be on this list no matter what, as Chucky killing Dr. Ardmore by frying him to death via electroshock device is a gnarly move that showed early on in the franchise how the voodoo-loving serial killer could think on his feet. What pushes it up to #11, however, is the fact that Chucky executes this particularly horrible action directly in front of a young and horrified Andy Barclay.
10. Rachel Fairchild Strangled With A Untied States Flag (Chucky S3)
In the Chucky TV series, Charles Lee Ray makes a habit of killing the parents and guardians of Jake, Devon and Lexy, but the death of Rachel Fairchild in Season 3 particularly hurts. At the time that she is strangled to death with a United States flag in the White House, she is the only adult who the teen protagonists can trust, and it’s because of that trust that Chucky is giddily compelled to snuff her out.
9. Lucas Wheeler Electrocuted Via Fuse Box When Chucky Vomits Alcohol At His Feet (Chucky S1)
This is a landmark kill in Chucky history because it is the first major murder in the Chucky TV series – but it’s also awesome in its construction. Hoping to indoctrinate Jake, he gets rid of his father in a horrible way: spitting whiskey at his bare feet while he is making contact with his house’s fuse box.
8. Chief Warren Kincaid Killed With Nail Trap In Car (Bride Of Chucky)
The Chucky franchise has frequently paid homage to the greatness of the horror genre, and this little tribute to Hellraiser in Bride Of Chucky is a delight. With a bit of creative rigging, Chucky is able to launch a bunch of lined up nails off the dashboard of a car with enough force that they get embedded in the face of Chief Warren Kincaid.
7. Bree Wheeler Pushed Out Of A Window (Chucky S1)
Another “win” in the emotionally devastating kills category. It’s horrible enough that Chucky kills Bree Wheeler in Chucky Season 1 by pushing her out a window after she tells her psychiatrist that she is rededicated to living – but the bloody cherry on top is that her body lands on top of the car in which her son is waiting for her. Instant trauma.
6. Father Frank Martinez Poisoned And Then Decapitated In A Car Accident (Curse Of Chucky)
The death of Father Frank Martinez in Curse Of Chucky is particularly great because of how it builds. First, he is randomly fed rat poison when Chucky sprinkles some in a bowl of soup served at a family meal. He seems destined for death anyway… but rather than just keeling over and vomiting, he is killed in a horrible car crash that sees him decapitated when rescue workers try to free him from the wreckage of his vehicle.
5. Technician Stabbed Through The Eyes By A Doll-Making Machine (Child’s Play 2)
This one from Child’s Play 2 admittedly gets special consideration because it was the cause of many, many nightmares when I was a child. This poor technician is just trying to do his job at the Good Guys factory, and what does he get for it? Slashed with a knife and his skull impaled with a pair of dolls eyes.
4. Detective Sean Peyton Gets Acupuncture With Used Syringes (Chucky S1)
Chucky loves hospitals, and it’s because of the kind of thing that he does to Detective Sean Peyton in Chucky Season 1. The cop gets stabbed by dozens of used syringes, and the end result is that he starts bleeding out of every orifice in his body. It’s super disgusting and one of the all-time best kills in the franchise.
3. President James Collins Gets Enucleated (Chucky S3)
Chucky has killed dozens upon dozens of people, but his headlining murder to date is taking down President Collins in Chucky Season 3. Despite being old and near death, he shows that he still has some life in him by taking down the leader of the free world and plucking his eyes out with his bare hands. This one gets bonus points because Chucky later uses an acquired eyeball when he makes his way down to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center with plans to nuke the world.
2. Madeleine Chokes On Chucky’s Arm As Its Shoved Down Her Throat (Cult Of Chucky)
How do things escalate from Chucky plucking out the eyes of POTUS? How about shoving his arm so far down a woman’s throat that he can eventually pull her esophagus out of her mouth? That’s the shocking fate of Madeleine in Cult Of Chucky – and what makes it particularly messed up is how slow it happens. Mentally disturbed, Madeleine thinks that the Good Guy doll is her baby, and Chucky uses that fantasy to oh-so-slowly jam his hand and arm into her face.
1. Cab Driver Stabbed Through The Mouth With An Umbrella (Chucky S3)
Kenan Thompson is apparently a massive Chucky fan (which is what led to his cameo in Chucky Season 3), so I hope he is delighted to know that he is the number one victim in the franchise’s amazing history. There are a number of characters in movie and TV history who have threatened to impale others with umbrellas and open them, but all of those instances have left the full imagery of that to the viewers’ imaginations. Chucky actually does it, however, and it is a phenomenal thing to witness.
All of the films in the Chucky franchise are available from online retailers for rental and purchase, and all of them have been released on 4K UHD by Scream Factory. All episodes of the Chucky TV series to date are streamable with a Peacock subscription.