Popcorn Disability: Chucky, Nica, a Cult and a Curse
Don Mancini rules for giving us a disabled final girl
Welcome to this installment of Popcorn Disability, where I look at disability through the lens of popular culture.
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Mark, the affable, good-looking guy who became victim to Jason Voorhees's machete in Friday the 13th: Part 2 didn't spark a legion of imitators, though this and Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors did come out relatively close together. Or, at least the inspiration took awhile to get going.
The horror genre has made its reputation on the final girl, the last woman left standing whose goodness (and virginity) allows her to overcome the killer. For a long time those characters were strictly white women. And, for even longer, they were also abled. But, thanks to Mark, we finally got a disabled final girl in 2013 with The Curse of Chucky. You could say Mark (proverbially) walked so Chucky's heroine, Nica Pierce, could run.