The "Child's Play" franchise, which began with 1988's genuinely terrifying "Child's Play" and continued through the spoofier, more self-referential scares of 2004's "Seed of Chucky," is about to get a new entry this fall when "Curse of Chucky" premieres... directly on home video.

And what's more, "Curse of Chucky" has a brand new trailer which promises three things: murder, a creepy possessed doll scampering around like the world's most malevolent raccoon, and wise-cracks from series mainstay Brad Dourif, who will once again be voicing said doll.

The plot concerns a young girl (Fiona Dourif, Brad's daughter) and the Chucky doll she mysteriously receives right before a string of bloody, unprompted murders. Could there be a connection?!??! No, probably not. The trailer is pretty fleeting but at least promises a return to the franchise's more straight-faced approach to terror, after the last couple of movies have slipped knowingly into the meta-textual realm of something more like the "Scream" franchise. Expect to be unable to look at a toddler in the eyes for a few days after watching "Curse of Chucky." It happens after every one of these movies.

Honestly, for a fairly low budget ($8 million) direct-to-video horror movie, it looks like it was able to crank out a fair amount of atmosphere and general scariness and it could easily be a sleeper horror hit this Halloween. Hearing Dourif voice Chucky again, this time returning him to his sneering villainy, is always a hoot. Count us in.

Don Mancini, the man who wrote the entire franchise (and also directed "Seed of Chucky"), is back to write and direct "Curse of Chucky," which makes its debut on home video (the sort of modern day equivalent of the drive-in) on October 8th.