"Child's Play"*** (out of ****)
"Child's Play" (1988), its a toy story!
There has always been this strange, twisted desire in people to take something innocent and turn it upside down and inject some darker sinister side to it. Think along the lines of having horror movies take place around Christmas; "Black Christmas" (1974), the origin of Krampus and movies revolved around it. Or how about puppets speaking in an adult manner, using four letter words - the stage show "Avenue Q" or the recent movie "Happytime Murders" (2018). It seems to me "Child's Play" is one more example of this. Taking the innocent - children's toys and twisting our perception of it.
When I was growing up my parents bought me ventriloquist dolls - Howdy Doody, Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd and Bozo the clown. As much as I hounded my parents to buy me them, I always had a sinking suspicion they were up to no good. It would freak me out if any of the dolls were facing me as I went to sleep. And then "Child's Play" was released. Guess what movie I didn't want to see?
I reveal that embarrassing story to serve as a reference that on some level "Child's Play" plays to our secret fears. For as ridiculous as the plot is an audience can buy into the premise and become lost in the story. In movie terms it offers a reasonable explanation for the doll's origin and we don't question it. That, and we know the doll would be alive anyway. All dolls are alive.
The doll, Chucky, has become an iconic horror figure, to my generation, alongside Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Michael Myers, replacing (sadly) figures like "Dracula", "Frankenstein's Monster" and "The Wolf Man". "Child's Play" has lived on and endures as something of a modern cult classic horror move. Screenwriter, Don Mancini, has made a nice living writing and eventually directing several sequels to the series under the titles of either "Child's Play" or "Chucky". There is even a reboot set for release and according to the website IMDb a television series is in development. No one is willing to take the batteries out of Chucky. As long as they release movies, audiences will seek them out.
It is Chicago 1988. Six year old Andy (Alex Vincent) has a birthday coming up. What he wants most of all is a Good Guy talking doll. It is the hottest toy on the market costing $100 (that's more than $213 adjusted for inflation, per the website dollartimes). That's a bit too much for Andy's mom, Karen (Catherine Hicks), who works as a jewelry clerk at the department store Carson's. Luck (?) strikes when Karen buys the doll from a peddler, hanging around the back of the store, for half the price.
What Karen, the peddler and Andy don't know is on the night before, the Lake Shore strangler, Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) transferred his soul into the doll after being chased and shot by police officer Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon, at one time married to Susan). Now the doll Chucky would like get his revenge against his partner, Eddie, who left him to die, and officer Norris.
In order to make that happen Chucky must befriend Andy, whom he tells he was sent by his father in heaven. Disturbing events begin to occur and the death count starts piling up. First Andy's babysitter and then Eddie. Both times Andy was the only other person nearby. Could Andy be the one responsible for the murders? Is Andy a bad seed? Andy tells his mother and the police Chucky is the one responsible. But who is going to believe a toy doll is alive, killing people?
To the movie's credit it delays physically revealing Chucky is alive but the audience is two steps ahead of the other characters, which takes away suspense. We don't question whether or not Chucky is alive because we saw what Charles Lee Ray did. Imagine if we hadn't and it was revealed later in the movie through a flashback? Then we'd be just as confused as Karen and Norris, adding a psychological element to the plot. Could a sweet, innocent child (again playing with the notion of a twisted perception of something innocent) be a murderer? "Child's Play" wants to have it both ways. It can't.
"Child's Play" is still capable of creating suspenseful moments and keeping the audience on edge. For one thing, we are in suspense as to when will Chucky reveal himself?
What becomes unfortunate is for as cautious as the movie is to reveal Chucky it goes into overload by the third act having Chucky walking around with knife in hand a bit too often. I, for one, prefer it when the villain doesn't have too much screen time and the anticipation of their appearance serves as a threat looming over the characters. By the end of the movie "Child's Play" becomes a typical serial killer / slasher movie. "Child's Play" has to walk a delicate balance since the villain is a doll. The sight of a diminutive toy chasing after full grown adults could result in unintended humor. That's why less of Chucky would have been better.
Credit must be given to the special effects team and the animatronics used to create Chucky. They do manage to give Chucky personality and to the best of their ability try to make Chucky a threatening figure.
The human performances are effective as well. Catherine Hicks delivers the best one. Alex Vincent is a cute kid but sometimes I felt he was told by the director, Tom Holland, to delivery his lines in an overly cutesy way. Chris Sarandon on the other hand seems a little bland. Brad Dourif however does excellent voice work.
"Child's Play" is a good horror movie playing on our fears of dolls. It is probably the best movie in the Child's Play / Chucky franchise. It plays its story straight with effective performances bringing about lots of scares.
PS - Although I am not the first one to point this out it should not go unmentioned how people noticed Andy was not only the name of the boy in this movie but also the name of the boy in Pixar's "Toy Story" (1995), also a story about toys coming to life. I find it very hard to believe the selection of the name Andy was not intentional on Pixar's part.
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