Don Mancini is an American screenwriter and film director, most notable for creating all 7 films in the Chucky series.
Career[]
Having been a horror fan since his childhood, Mancini's inspiration for Child's Play were films like Trilogy of Terror and the "Talky Tina" episode of The Twilight Zone, claiming he knew the killer doll trope, but realized that it had never been done as a feature-length film in the age of animatronics.
As a film student at UCLA in the mid-1980s, Mancini was amused by the hysteria surrounding the Cabbage Patch Kids, and that the ubiquitous, slightly homely dolls were disappearing from toy shelves and prompting physical fights between parents. Mancini’s father had worked in the advertising industry all his life, and he knew how effective marketing could pull strings, resulting in consumer bedlam. Based on this Mancini wanted to write a dark satire about how marketing affected children, claiming Cabbage Patch was really popular, and he wanted to put the two impulses together, with his first effort being the writer of Child's Play.
Mancini was the executive producer of Bride of Chucky, and directed Seed of Chucky, as well as Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky, all in the Chucky series. Along with Michael McDowell and Clive Barker, Mancini is one of the few openly gay writers in the slasher film genre. In 2007, he won the EyeGore award for career contributions to the horror genre. He sometimes goes by the pseudonym Kit Dubois. Mancini attended St. Christopher's School in Richmond, Virginia, Columbia University in New York City, and the University of California in Los Angeles.
Mancini has written all seven films in the Chucky series, and directed the last three. He is not involved in the 2019 reboot and has expressed his negative feelings for it.