Like their lead characters, horror franchises never die, a fact borne out by the existence of 2004’s Seed of Chucky. The fifth in a series that started with 1988’s Child’s Play, Seed starts with a violent attack, one that turns out to be nothing more than a dream.

It turns out living doll “Shitface” (voiced by Billy Boyd) is held captive by grungy Psychs (Keith-Lee Castle) and forced to put on a phony ventriloquist act. He doesn’t know anything about his past, how he ended up where he is, or why he has such violent dreams.

From there we see another attack - also a phony one. While it appears Chucky (Brad Dourif) and Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) kill a guy dressed as Santa Claus (Jason Flemyng), it all turns out to be part of the making of Chucky Goes Psycho, a flick based on the “urban legend”.

When Shitface sees an “interview” with the Chucky and Tiffany dolls on a TV show, he notices a “Made in Japan” brand similar to his own and comes to believe they’re his parents. He soon escapes his captor and manages to get flights from England to Hollywood.

Shitface ends up in an effects room with his puppet parents and utters the magic words to bring them to life. Once this occurs, they resume their violent ways - much to Shitface’s disturbance. At least they give him a new name, though due to his lack of anatomical correctness, they can’t decide on Glen or Glenda.

In search of a stray candy bar, Tilly stumbles on the corpse of the puppet master and she notifies the authorities. When she leaves in a limo, Chucky, Tiffany and Glen escape along with her.

Tiffany wants to transfer her soul into Tilly’s body, while Chucky will do the same into Redman, the director of a Biblical effort for which Tilly hopes to land a role. They’ll find a “surrogate mother” for Glen. They choose Tilly for this.

When Glen questions them about their killing, Chucky and Tiffany argue. She wants to turn over a new leaf to make things better for her kid. After Tiffany badgers him, Chucky agrees - though he crosses his fingers.

After they artificially impregnate Tilly, Chucky takes Glen on a “boys’ night out” to teach him the family business while Tiffany tries to make amends for her past. Tilly also deals with her mysterious pregnancy.

Is it too much to ask of a horror movie to offer a story? Admittedly, most flicks in the genre don’t exactly come thick with plot.

Most hinge on concepts like killing sprees at summer camps or a maniac who slays you in your dreams. Whatever stories we get almost always revolve around attempts to stop the baddies.

Even within the loose framework of the horror genre, Seed comes free from any form of logic in terms of story. Granted, one shouldn’t expect too much clarity from a movie about killer dolls, but still, it’d be nice if more of Seed made sense.

As I watched it, question after question arose. Who makes a cake that looks like meat? Why did they impregnate Tilly before Tiffany took over her body? And so on – the film abounds with strange choices.

And it comes with plenty of superfluous subplots as well. The whole Tilly/Redman side of things seems strange, as that part of the tale never follows a logical line and it feels like a weird conglomeration of elements.

The bits with the love Tilly’s chauffeur Stan (Steve Lawton) feels for her as well as those with her fired assistant Joan (Hannah Spearrit) don’t really go anywhere either. I think Joan exists just as fodder for another murder. Frankly, much of the film feels like lots of bits and pieces cobbled together in an attempt to form a full movie.

Which almost, sort of kind of works. I didn’t care for Bride of Chucky - the prior sequel in the series - but I took some amusement from Seed.

It displays all of the trends that irked me in Bride, but the movie entertained me more. Maybe I mellowed a bit over the period between the two, but Seed throws enough at the wall that some of it sticks.

It does work best in its first half, though, as it can’t sustain its odd energy for its entire 87 minutes. Still, it’s a decent ride while it lasts.

I like Tilly’s willingness to mock herself, and Boyd provides a pretty nice vocal performance. The puppets have improved in quality as the series has progressed as well, so they seem more fluid and expressive here.

All of this adds up to a sporadically entertaining though occasionally tedious horror comedy – with an emphasis on the “comedy”. Seed of Chucky provides few to zero actual scares, as it’s essentially just a really gory and bloody black comedy. If that’s your thing, you’ll probably enjoy it.

Seed of Chucky appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The flick offered a decent transfer that lacked many special qualities.

Although sharpness usually looked fine, more than a few exceptions occurred. At times the flick took on a moderately lifeless and soft appearance. Still, the majority of the movie came across as acceptably concise and distinctive.

I saw no jagged edges, but a little shimmering popped up, and mild to moderate edge enhancement was visible on a number of occasions. As for print flaws, the movie sometimes seemed grainy, and I noticed a few specks.

While many modern horror flicks take on heavily stylized colors, Seed stayed with a consistently natural palette. For the most part, the tones appeared accurate and full, though they occasionally were a bit lackluster.

Despite an absence of vivacity, blacks seemed acceptably firm. Low-light shots followed suit, so shadows appeared clear but didn’t demonstrate great definition. The image remained watchable, but it just didn’t do much more than that.

On the other hand, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio of Seed of Chucky proved more effective. The soundfield stayed subdued much of the time but came to life pretty nicely when necessary.

As one might expect, the various killing scenes contributed the most active elements. Along with a thunderstorm, those kicked the action up a notch and created a broad, lively setting.

The movie always offered a good general sense of environment that meshed elements well and transitioned smoothly. The surrounds broadened matters to form a clean environment,

Audio quality was positive. Speech came across as distinctive and concise, with no concerns related to intelligibility or edginess. Music was full and rich, as the score showed nice definition and range.

Effects were similarly dynamic. They came across as lively and accurate, and bass response was tight. Overall, this mix complemented the movie nicely.

Seed comes with a strong roster of extras, and we get two separate audio commentaries. The first presents director Don Mancini and actor Jennifer Tilly, as both sit together for this energetic running, screen-specific discussion.

At the very start, we get some insights into the design of the opening credits along with a funny story about Tilly’s insistence on top billing. From there we learn about sets and locations, the pros and cons of shooting in Romania, inside jokes, casting and why so many Brits appear in the film, budgetary issues, visual effects and the puppets, cut sequences, the score, character and story subjects, and many, many tales from the set.

Only a couple of minor gaps occur during this generally chatty and lively track. Both Mancini and Tilly clearly feel comfortable together, and their chummy interaction allows the conversation to thrive.

They dig into the topics with frankness and vivacity as they provide a fun look at the production. There’s a surprising amount of meat to this piece, and it works as a terrific little track.

For the second commentary, we hear from Mancini and puppet master Tony Gardner. They also sit together and provide a running, screen-specific discussion. As one might expect, technical issues dominate. We learn a lot about the movie’s animatronic figures and all the complications they presented.

The commentary also gets into other production issues, though effects remain the focus. The pair interact well and make this another lively and informative discussion.

A Slashed Scene runs three minutes, 18 seconds. It focuses on actor Debbie Carrington, the “little person” who stood in for Tiffany in long walking shots of the character.

It’s another segment in which Tiffany resists her urges to kill. We can watch with or without optional audio commentary from Mancini and Carrington. They set up the sequence and tell why it got the boot.

A quick two-minute, 18-second piece called Heeeere’s Chucky! appears next. This presents a piece in which some TV suit interviews Chucky and we also see his “screen tests” for roles he didn’t get. It becomes moderately amusing.

Entitled Family Hell-iday Slideshow, this component shows Chucky, Tiffany and Glen as they watch their photos from their “vacation”.

This runs three minutes, 31 seconds, and mostly acts as an excuse to show Chucky’s slayings in various famous spots. As with “Heeeere’s Chucky”, it offers minor entertainment,

For a more substantial piece, we head to Conceiving the Seed of Chucky. This featurette runs 18 minutes, 45 seconds and mixes movie snippets, archival bits, and comments from Mancini, Tilly, Gardner, producers David Kirschner and Corey Sienega, puppeteer Peter Chevako, and actors Redman, John Waters, and Billy Boyd. A few “in character” comments from Chucky, Tiffany and Glen also appear.

This piece covers the origins of the Child’s Play series, the development of the franchise, the Chucky character, casting, the story of Seed and its tone, the puppets and making them seem alive, designing Glen, and general production issues.

You’ll find a lot of information here that already appears in the commentaries, and “Conceiving” seems a little puffy at times. That said, it manages to sum up a lot of basic issues fairly well, and the nice shots from behind the scenes add quality. I also like the snippets from the first four movies, as it’s fun to examine the development of the Chucky puppet.

A more substantial piece follows with the Storyboard to Final Feature Comparison. It runs 13 minutes, 55 seconds and depicts the opening “Nightmare Sequence”, “Death of Santa”, “Paparazzi”, “Death of Redman” and “Death of Joan”.

This presents the movie on top and the boards on the bottom. It works fine for what it is.

A short clip presents Jennifer Tilly on The Tonight Show. This 90-second piece offers her “Missive from Romania”, a comedic view of the country’s lack of sophistication. It touches on predictable gags but shows Tilly in a very sexy bra, so I won’t complain.

In addition to two trailers, we end with a four-minute, 26-second featurette entitled FuZion Up Close with the Seed of Chucky Stars. This presents remarks from Tilly, “Tiffany” and “Chucky”. If you expect anything other than promotional fluff, you’ll experience disappointment.

With 2005’s Seed of Chucky, the filmmakers embrace broad, gory comedy more than ever. This comes with erratic results, but the flick occasionally scores entertainment. The Blu-ray offers mediocre picture along with very good audio and extras. Fans should enjoy this effort.