All The Connections Between Rob Zombie And The Child’s Play Franchise
American filmmaker Rob Zombie, a legend among horror movie aficionados, has numerous connections to the Child’s Play movie franchise.
Zombie, who has also garnered fame for his work as a musician, singer, songwriter, and voice actor, has directed scary movies including House Of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects, as well as the controversial 2007 remake of Halloween and its 2009 sequel, both of which the Hollywood Reporter called “dirt-under-your-fingernails movies”. As a musician, Zombie does solo projects and is also part of the heavy metal band White Zombie. A lot of his music features notable horror and sci-fi themes, which he’s attributed to his lifelong love of horror movies.
In that vein, Zombie has written and performed music for horror movies throughout his career—and that’s how he starts to connect to the Child’s Play franchise, which started off with the 1988 movie Child’s Play, directed and co-written by Tom Holland. The movie centers on a boy who is given a doll for his birthday; the doll is possessed by the soul of a serial killer. Of course, this movie spawned six sequels—as well as comic books and a reboot last year—and has gained a cult following over the years.
Zombie, along with co-writer Scott Humphrey, wrote the song Living Dead Girl and performed it for the opening credits of one of the Child’s Play sequels, Bride of Chucky, which was released in 1998. He also co-wrote the song "Thunderkiss 65" for the same movie, and performed it along with his White Zombie band members. Zombie went on to write and perform music for other horror movies, too; among them are Urban Legend and End of Days.
The director and musician is actually even further connected to Bride of Chucky through his music. Bride of Chucky, which was released in 1998, also features a song by Powerman 5000, a band led by Zombie’s younger brother, Spider One. In fact, it’s notably the only instance in which Zombie and Spider One appear on the same motion picture soundtrack.
Rob Zombie is also connected to the Child’s Play franchise in smaller ways. Actor Brad Dourif, who voiced the demonic doll Chucky in several of the Child’s Play movies—including Cult of Chucky, Curse of Chucky, Chucky’s Family Vacation, and Seed of Chucky—also took on the role of Sheriff Leigh Brackett in Zombie’s Halloween remake and its sequel. It's possible that future connections between Zombie and the Child's Play franchise could surface when the upcoming Chucky TV show is released on SyFy.