Child’s Play and the Messed Up Fate of Alice Pierce

If you’re a character in the Child’s Play franchise, chances are you probably won’t emerge from the series of horror films starring everyone’s favorite killer doll, Chucky (Brad Dourif), unscathed. Several well-meaning and innocent characters have met their Maker thanks to the (not so) Good Guy doll, from Andy Barclay’s good-natured babysitter Maggie in Chucky’s debut film to poor Whitehurst from Child’s Play 3. But the mantle of the most messed up fate goes to Alice Pierce (Summer Howell), who appears in 2013’s Curse of Chucky as a supporting character before meeting her (offscreen) demise in the 2017 follow-up, Cult of Chucky. While offscreen deaths don’t typically invoke much feeling from the audience (I mean, come on…this is the horror genre, let’s see those kills!) Alice’s death has several layers of tragedy to it, and the implications of her fate are quite disturbing. 

So grab your butcher knives and lock your doors and windows. Let’s dive into Alice’s death and find out what makes it so unsettling.

When we meet Alice Pierce in Curse of Chucky, directed by Don Mancini and the sixth installment of the Child’s Play franchise, she’s a little girl who accompanies her parents, Ian and Barb, as they visit her aunt Nica (Fiona Dourif) following the supposed suicide of Sarah, Alice’s grandmother, and the mother of Nica and Barb. Unbeknownst to the Pierce family, Chucky was responsible for Sarah’s death, and he sets his killer sights on the rest of the family as Alice takes a liking to him. 

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Unfortunately for the poor girl, Chucky murders her parents and her nanny Jill, making her an orphan and no doubt giving her a lifetime of trauma to work through. He frames the bloody rampage on Nica, who’s arrested and sent to a psychiatric hospital, while Alice is sent to live with her grandmother. Of course, Chucky is nowhere near done with Alice, and he later turns up at her house, murdering her grandmother before transferring his soul into the young girl’s body.

Not only has Chucky destroyed her family, but he’s violated Alice’s very being and stripped her of her individuality. Following her grandmother’s death, Alice is taken into foster care and placed with Chucky’s murderously fabulous girlfriend and partner in crime, Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly). Cult of Chucky expands on Alice’s ultimate fate towards the end of the film, and it’s not pretty.

Once Chucky captures Nica, he explains he found a spell online (at VoodooForDummies.com), allowing him to possess Alice and transfer his soul into her body. People trusted Alice since she was seemingly an innocent little child, and Chucky used this to his advantage, murdering several people while controlling Alice’s body. Things got messy, however, when one potential victim fought back, killing Alice in the process.

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The audience never sees this happen onscreen, but the implications are extremely disturbing. Poor, lonely, orphaned Alice, unwillingly killing people and trapped in her own mind until her ultimate death. 

Many of the victims in the Child’s Play series didn’t deserve their gruesome fates, but their deaths were still fun to watch because the audience is mostly invested in Chucky’s murderous antics. There’s nothing funny or entertaining about Alice’s death, however. She was an innocent child who lost everyone she loved before falling under the total control of a homicidal maniac.

What did you think of Alice’s death? Are you excited to see the continuation of Chucky’s bloody adventures in the upcoming television show? Let me know in the comments and check out my website for all things horror and pop culture.

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