Easily the most divisive film in the Child’s Play franchise is 2004’s Seed of Chucky . Directed by Don Mancini — who has written or co-written all the movies in the possessed-doll series — the film finds Chucky’s offspring Glen deciding whether to identify as male or female (to be fair, there is also a lot of murderous mayhem). Now, on the most recent episode of horror film podcast Shock Waves , Mancini has defended the film, which stars Jennifer Tilly, Redman, and, as always, the Chucky-voicing Brad Dourif.

“That’s the one that honestly, its reputation has grown the most, arguably because it had the furthest to go,” says Mancini, who also directed the upcoming Cult of Chucky (out Oct. 3). “I think that movie is so fundamentally comedic and farcical. It’s a farce. It’s literally a farce. I mean, slamming doors and all of that. And I think that turned a lot of people off, I guess. I’m sorry! But, as a gay guy, I love the fact that over the years, [to] the people who saw that movie as children, the character of Glen really meant something to them, and that’s very cool. And also, when the subject of Seed of Chucky comes up, I always very defensively have to say, ‘Well, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Wesley Morris loved the movie, so who the f— are you?’ Because I still get tweets from people going, ‘Dude, really looking forward to Cult of Chucky but you must know you really f—ed up Seed of Chucky.'”