Child's Play
Wanna play?
Believe it or not, but I didn't always
like horror movies. When I was young, I was actually terrified of
scary movies. I specifically remember being scared even when
commercials came on for scary movies. Freddy Krueger was very scary
with his burnt face and blade-covered hand. There was one other
horror icon that scared just as much as Krueger if not more: Chucky.
As silly as it sounds now, the thought of a doll coming to life and
trying to kill struck a chord with me. I mean, it's an R-rated horror
movie sort of geared towards kids. While movies like Toy Story show
the fun and lovable side of toys coming to life, Child's Play showed
the much darker and scarier side.
Child's Play is a 1988 horror movie
starring Brad Dourif (Deadwood, Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers) as
serial killer Charles Lee Ray. Charles Lee Ray, also known as
“Chucky” and “The Lakeshore Strangler” is being pursued by
Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon, The Princess Bride, The
Sentinel). Shot by Norris and abandoned by his cohort, Eddie Caputo
(Neil Giuntoli, The Shawshank Redemption, Next Of Kin), Chucky breaks
into a toy store for cover. Knowing he is about to die, Chucky uses a
voodoo ritual to transfer his soul into the plastic body of a “Good
Guy” doll. The next day, Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks, Ryan's
Hope, 7th Heaven) buys a Good Guy doll from a street
peddler for her son Andy's birthday. Having to work the night shift,
Karen asks her friend Maggie to watch Andy. Andy tells Maggie that
his doll told him his name was Chucky and that he wanted to watch the
9 o'clock news. Maggie laughs it off and puts him to bed. Later, she
is shocked to find Chucky in front of the television, watching the
news. A small figure is seeing toying with Maggie throughout the
apartment, eventually hitting her with a hammer and knocking her out
a window. Detective Norris speaks with Andy, who is the prime suspect
for Maggie's death. Andy insists that Chucky killed Maggie, but no
one believes him. The next day, Andy skips school with Chucky and
goes to the house of Chucky's former partner, Eddie Caputo. Chucky
sneaks into Eddie's house and turns up the gas on his stove, causing
it to explode and kill Eddie. The authorities find Andy at the scene
and place him in a psychiatric ward for children. Karen is the only
one who believes Andy and tries to get Chucky to talk to her. She
discovers the doll's batteries had never been used and when she
threatens to throw him in the fireplace, Chucky comes to life and
attacks her and escapes. Detective Norris is soon attacked by Chucky
with a large butcher knife and crashes his car. Norris is able to
shoot and injure Chucky, much to the doll's surprise. Chucky visits
the man who taught him voodoo and discovers that his transformation
is becoming permanent and must find another body. He decides to
transfer his soul into Andy's body. Will Karen and Det. Norris be
able to stop the killer doll before it's too late?
Becoming a doll was actually an improvement, looks-wise
The killer doll genre is nothing new,
but with the Gabage Patch kids craze going on during the 80's,
Child's Play struck a current note in the public's eye. Chucky is
probably the most famous killer doll in horror thanks to multiple
sequels and toy sales. The movie has a good mixture of subtle,
“lurking in the shadows” horror and in-your-face slasher horror.
Child's Play works so well because, despite being a silly premise,
it's treated like a serious horror movie. Sure, it has its
over-the-top moments and a fair amount of sick humor, but there is
plenty lot of suspense and action to keep things entertaining. The
movie reminds me of the “Talking Tina” episode from The Twilight
Zone where only the father hears the doll talk about murder. Child's
Play uses the same principle of no one believing the doll is alive.
We, the audience, know Chucky is alive and are frustrated when the
characters don't know. This knowledge allows the movie to play up the
fear factor and lead to some good scares. Oringinally, though, the
script was more mysterious, stretching out the possibility that Andy
is actually the killer. I think that would have been much more
interesting to watch with the potential for more scares, but I don't
think the movie would have been as fun.
Another factor that helped the movie be
entertaining was the acting. Chucky is scary thanks to Brad Dourif,
who is no stranger to the horror genre. His style is a mixture of
glee and psychotic rage. The movie's usage of a little person to show
Chucky in full motion certainly helps him appear more life-like. Both
Catherine Hicks and Chris Sarandon play their roles well. My biggest
issue with the movie is Andy. Why do all kids in horror movies have
to be extremely annoying? On a scale of 1 to 10 on the annoying
scale, Andy is an 11. I blame it on a mixture of lazy writing and
poor acting. I don't understand why they couldn't just treat him like
a normal, if troubled, child. I almost felt like cheering for Chucky
to get him just so I wouldn't have to listen to him anymore. The
movie has a good amount of blood and violence with a lot of variety.
Paul Ryan's eyes look exactly the same
Child's Play is a fun horror movie
based on a silly premise. It's mixture of horror, action, and
off-beat humor created an entertaining experience that spawned a long
line of sequels, toys, comic books, and even an appearance in WCW.
While the sequels have become a parody of themselves, the original
movie was serious enough to be considered a solid movie. The scares
are good and there is plenty of violence to go around. Brad Dourif is
great, using just his voice to create an iconic horror character. The
character of Andy is incredibly annoying, to the point where I didn't
really care what happened to him. While not a “thinking man's”
horror movie, Child's Play is good fun and highly enjoyable.
8/10
That first paragraph is about me, right? It's pretty spot-on. But I first saw Child's Play when I was four and I've never gotten over the terror. To this day, it's one of the few movies I flat-out refuse to watch. I'll just have to settle for reading about it.
ReplyDeleteChuckie just wants to play.
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