Each week Joe Lipsett will highlight a key scene or interaction in S02 of Don Mancini’s Chucky series to consider how the show is engaging with and contributing to queer horror.
Happy holigays, Chucky viewers! Leave it to show runner Don Mancini to wrap the second season with a full-blown Christmas horror episode, complete with a slow-mo chainsaw death and a Home Alone-style sneak attack by teens Jake (Zackary Arthur), Devon (Björgvin Arnarson) and Lexy (Alyvia Alyn Lind) against intruder Jennifer Tilly.
As always, it’s good, gory stuff. But since this is the holiday episode, it only makes sense that we should focus on the real (queer) horror in “Chucky Actually”: the awkward family dinner sequence.
Throughout these season two editorials, we’ve unpacked lesbian intimate partner violence statistics, LGBTQIA foster care stats, and even how many gay priests are living celibate lives in the Catholic Church. For the final editorial of the year, it makes sense to tackle queer-related issues that arise during the holiday season.
December isn’t an easy month for most anybody. And while there is a common misconception that suicide rates spike during the holidays (the opposite is actually true), for queer people, who are already at higher risk for anxiety, stress and depression, the season has no shortage of triggers. As Dr. Logan Jones, head of NYC Therapy and Wellness, explains: “Common struggles [include] feelings of rejection for freely expressing their authentic selves. For [LGBTQ] clients, going home for the holidays is not always a time of bliss, but a painful reminder of moments of their ‘otherness’ within their families.”
Devon and Jake aren’t facing quite this level of stress, but they are clearly ‘Othered’ in the Cross household by their queerness and their status as orphans. They have no “traditional” family to return to after losing their respective parents in S01. And it’s clear that Mayor Cross (Barbara Alyn Woods) isn’t actually a welcoming presence; the only reason she allows Jake and Devon to stay at her palatial home is because Lexy is savvy enough to ask permission during her mother’s Insta livestreams when she can’t possibly refuse.
Lexy’s protectiveness of Jake and Devon’s relationship throughout season two, as well as her recognition that the pair need space to work out their issues and rekindle their intimacy, is the definition of an ally. Add in her acknowledgement of the boys as a found family and Lexy is basically playing Santa for the pair’s S02 relationship woes. (Ironically she’ll soon join the ranks of found family members when her mother is brutally murdered by Chucky and her misinformed younger sister abandons her for Tiffany).
That’s why the Christmas dinner sequence hits so hard. Not only is the writing on the wall for Mayor Cross the moment she and Lexy make amends, but the breaking of bread (or eating of Turkey, as it may be) forces Jake and Devon to sit and address the rift that’s been growing since Jake abandoned Devon on Halloween back in the season opener. Despite Mayor Cross’ protests that the dinner table is no place for such conversations, the opposite is actually true: that’s why so many iconic Christmas films feature a variation of the uncomfortable family dinner. It’s the one place that family – be it blood or found – can avoid each other, which makes it ripe for conflict and tension.
While holidays traditions, particularly meals, can be stifling and oppressive for queer audiences who aren’t comfortable with their family, who aren’t out, or who are negotiating bringing home a partner for the first time, they also provide an outlet to make amends, make peace and move on after the year’s trauma. And maybe you’ll even wind up in matching pyjamas on the floor under the mistletoe later, who knows?
It’s simultaneously the most wonderful and horrible time of the year, a fact that Chucky seamlessly highlights in this tense, uncomfortable, but ultimately cathartic dinner sequence.
So once again, happy holigays to audiences queer and otherwise. Here’s hoping we’ll reunite for S03 this time next year…
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