This February, Midnight Social Distortion will be celebrating Black History Month by honoring Black horror characters, in particular Black horror survivors, throughout the twenty-eight day period. Each day will feature one black male and one black female survivor in horror and sci-fi to bring light to the positive, albeit still problematic, black champions of representation in horror. Some disclaimers first: obvious spoilers ahead, and not all horror survivors will be featured this go round, but will appear in later posts down the line.
Cadet Ronald Tyler – (Jeremy Sylvers)
Character Arc:
Quite possibly the most (annoyingly) gullible child to ever grace a horror movie, Cadet Tyler was generational military and just wanted a friend in the staunch, toxic masculinity tainted, atmosphere that was Kent Military Academy. Enter Chucky, everyone’s favorite friend till the end. The kid, who was old enough to know better, somehow couldn’t see past Chucky’s deadly scheme and ended up becoming Chucky’s newest victim to body swap with. That is until Tyler ended up being saved by Chucky’s nemesis: Andy Barclay. The only other thing to remember is Chucky being woefully ecstatic about becoming a “Bro.” Chile…
Fun Trivia
Tyler is the only black person to come across Chucky and survive. That could possibly be solely because he was a kid.
Final Thoughts
When watching Child’s Play 3 as a kid, it was hard to see Tyler be so gullible. Maybe if he was Andy Barclay’s age (six years) in the original Child’s Play, it would be plausible. But Tyler looked as if he was at least 10 years old, and, personally, should’ve known better. It may be that the atmosphere of the Kent Military Academy was just that toxic for him to withstand. Anywho, Chucky never became a “bro,” which in itself was a ridiculous concept to begin with. But then again, if he returned from military school possessed by Chucky, his dad may not have even blinked twice; instead he probably would’ve been proud to see that the school molded his son into being the best he could be. Le sigh…
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