After gasping at a mouse and startle-stepping in front of Chucky now sitting on a shelf, Barb regains her composure. His face has a permanent grin, which eerily taunts Barb as she can only see using the handheld light in a pitch-black attic. That’s when something catches her eye in the spotlight — loosened flaps of rubber skin on Chucky’s face. The glossy and smooth surface of Chucky’s chin, cheeks, and forehead now shows some masking adhesive. An added layer of some sort.

Curiosity gets the better of Barb as she starts tugging on the exposed flaps.

First, Barb peels down from Chucky’s lip to reveal black stitches. Her eyes widen and her mouth slacks, shocked by the ugly damage. Barb removes more excess doll flesh around Chucky’s left eye, revealing a long row of stitches holding the doll’s head together. She raises the torn-away patch in horror, noticeably freaking the hell out for obvious reasons.

When the camera cuts back to Chucky, it’s another closeup on his face but we can tell a different prop doll is being used. The prior views show a Chucky that’s immobile; no need to puppeteer his movements or speech. Now he’s more animatronic looking, with human features. This is the version Barb goes to inspect a third time.

She cautiously moves her fingers to Chucky’s mouth again, slow as molasses. We know Chucky’s ready to attack just by the switcheroo of dolls. Although, he still doesn’t at first. He smiles back at a visibly frightened Barb, who continues — or attempts to continue — exposing more wounds on Alice’s new favorite companion.

Just as Barb’s fingers make their way almost into Chucky’s mouth, he lunges forward to bite them like they’re hors d’oeuvre sausages. The score’s creeky strings and the tightly framed cinematography are proper scare setups that sustain an inescapably creepy mood. When Chucky chomps at Barb, we know it’s coming but are still taken aback because it’s just so aggressive — Chucky’s jolt breaks the silence. He’s finally the mini menace we remember, love, and fear.