Movies Chucky creator Don Mancini reveals the first film that scared the s--- out of him The man who dreamed up the Child's Play slasher icon was seriously influenced by 1976's The Omen. By Clark Collis Clark Collis Senior Writer EW's editorial guidelines Published on October 25, 2021 12:00PM EDT It's been 33 years since Child's Play introduced the killer doll Chucky and the pint-sized psycho is still going strong. Syfy and USA are currently screening season 1 of the franchise's first TV show Chucky on which the Brad Dourif-voiced maniac continues his reign of tiny terror. The series is overseen by Don Mancini, who created the character and directed three of the films in the Child's Play franchise including, most recently, 2017's Cult of Chucky. Don Mancini and Chucky. Rich Polk/Getty; Steve Wilkie/SYFY "One of the things I've always tried to do with the franchise over the years is find ways of reinventing it," says Mancini. "I realized that taking it into the medium of television would change the lens through which we view the characters in the franchise in a potentially really fruitful way. Just having eight hours of story to deal with necessarily puts you in a position where you're dealing much more with characters and relationships than you can in any single 90-minute movie. All of that just seemed really mouthwatering to me and I'm delighted and slightly shocked that it all worked out." So what was the first film to scare the s--- out of Mancini when he was a kid? "The one that made a huge impact on me was the first R-rated movie I ever saw, in 1976, at the age of 13," he shares. "The Omen, directed by Richard Donner, who just passed away. I loved that movie and it scared the bejesus out of me. Gregory Peck — Atticus Finch — is the father of the Antichrist? Oh my God! Patrick Troughton plays the priest who gets impaled. I was a little kid and I had been raised Catholic, so I was still churchgoing at the time. Between that and my youth, I took it all rather seriously. It really scared me. I had never seen that degree of graphic violence onscreen. I think I've been paying homage to specific set pieces in that movie ever since. I love decapitating people and I think that probably stems from David Warner's decapitation in that movie." Watch the trailer for The Omen above. Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more. Related content: Three rounds with Chucky Chucky casting news confirms that killer doll show will be family affair Chucky TV show teaser features the return of an old friend