Did Halloween Horror Nights Use a Glorified Chucky Ad To Reveal the Show's Fate?

Streaming Wars is a weekly opinion column by IGN’s Streaming Editor, Amelia Emberwing. Check out the last entry: HBO’s Industry Is Proof Of What Happens When You Let Shows Find Their Audience.

Do you feel that? The winds are shifting, the leaves are changing, pumpkin spice lattes are on every corner… Ok, really only that last bit is true. Nevertheless, it’s spooky time. Halloween Horror Nights has officially taken over Universal Studios in both Hollywood and Orlando, and there are haunts abound. My friends and I hopped in our cars in the balmy 100-degree Los Angeles weather and gleefully (sweatily) made our way to one of our favorite evenings of the year. The mazes were mazing, the drinks were drinking, but I’m here to talk about the little doll that could, the apparent limbo the Chucky series seems to currently be in, and how Halloween Horror Nights’ Late Night with Chucky live show may know something that we don’t.

USA’s Chucky series has been in purgatory for some time now. The Season 3 finale dropped back on May 1, but there’s been no word as to whether or not our favorite serial killer doll — you can’t sit with us, M3gan — will continue to murder Devon Sawa in new and exciting ways. (For those who don’t watch the series, Sawa plays a new character in each season of the show after being unceremoniously slaughtered in the last. Thus far he’s been Jake’s father, his uncle, a Catholic priest, the President of the United States, and the President’s body double.)

That purgatory, unfortunately, isn’t without cause. Series ratings plummeted after USA made the decision to split the eight-episode Season 3 in two halves. Of course, data is just numbers if you don’t understand the context behind it and, in this case, that context is that fans simply had no idea when the show was coming back or why such a short series would be split up to begin with. The network did air in-channel ads reminding people of the show’s return, but Chucky fans aren’t exactly USA’s key demographic, leaving those ads to fall largely on eyes and ears that couldn’t care less.

This is without considering fans who may have known about the series’ return but had too many other shows taking up their time at that point. The mid-season finale is a meaningful tool, but an eight-episode arc is never going to have the weight to justify one. And yes, I will keep beating that dead horse until the ridiculous practice ends.

Now, on to the live show! Late Night with Chucky is, essentially, an advertisement for the Chucky series. (Cynically speaking, that’s all any Halloween Horror Nights attraction is. But they’re fun, so I’ll allow it.) It starts with a stand-up comedian roasting the crowd as they wait to go sit — we won’t talk about how annoying this is when it’s 100+ degrees and you’ve already walked 10,000 steps — followed by fans crowding into the auditorium to hear Chucky answer their questions. The show is relatively toothless, but it’s a nice reprieve from walking and funny enough. And, in our case, featured several mentions of Chucky Season 4.

What’s particularly noteworthy here is that the mentions weren’t things like “stream now to ensure Chucky Season 4 is a possibility” or “tell USA you want more Chucky.” They were simply casual drops for an upcoming season as if it was a fact that the show was returning.

Of course, it’s worth mentioning that it was 1AM at this point. The comedian was likely as tired and scorched as we were, and the Chucky puppeteer and live-show producer who was reading the questions had been doing this all day.

Still, NBCUniversal owns the USA Network and, obviously, Universal Studios. They put the dollars behind a live show for a TV show that they’ve yet to cancel. We also know that creator Don Mancini has already pitched Season 4 to the network. Could all of this be a coincidence or chalked up to some tired actors and Chucky simply being a horror mainstay that belongs at Halloween Horror Nights? Sure.

But hey, Chucky’s come back from worse. Time to grab an amulet and pray to Damballa. (But don’t go putting your soul into dolls!)