THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When a child has a toy, the last thing is for it to cause harm. Sadly, that nightmare came true in Child’s Play.
PLOT
The film takes place in the South Side of Chicago. Serial killer Charles Lee Ray/Chucky aka ‘The Lakeshore Strangler’ is chased down by homicide detective Mike Norris. When his getaway driver Eddie Caputo (Neil Giuntoli) ditches him, he hides at a toy store. As he is bleed from a gunshot wound, he decides to transfer his soul to a popular ‘Good Guy’ doll, with the act of voodoo. After a strike of lightning, Mike finds Ray’s dead body, unaware of what he had done. By morning, the doll is stolen by a homeless man and sold to Karen Barclay, a widow who wants it for her six year old son Andy’s birthday. When she has a night shift, her friend Maggie Peterson (Dinah Manoff) babysits the boy. Sadly, she is murdered by the doll, having hit with a hammer so hard that she falls through a window and lands into a vehicle. Mike Norris investigates the crime and suspects Andy to have done it based on the bottoms of his shoes marked on flour. When Karen finds out of what happened, she does defend her son and claims it to be insane for him to be capable of murder. Andy however says that Chucky did it when noticing the flour on his shoes. Karen turns down the possibility because it doesn’t make sense for a toy to be capable of murder either. The next day, Chucky convinces him to ditch school and take him to Eddie’s house. He is able to kill his traitorous partner by tricking him to shoot at the stove, causing the house to explode. The police pick up Andy and Mike calls Karen of his whereabouts. Because they still don’t believe his claim, he is taken psychiatric hospital. At night, Karen discovers that her son was right all along when finding the batteries that were never in the toy. When she threatens to throw him in the fireplace, Chucky decides to reveal himself and attack her, which gives him the chance to escape her apartment. Karen finds Mike and tells her what happened, but he still chooses to not budge. She finds the Peddler (Juan Ramirez) she bought the toy from, but he attempts to sexually assault her. Thankfully, Mike intervenes and the man admits to have gotten it from the store where Ray died. The detective remains confused over this information because he remembers shooting Ray at that store. After taking her home, he goes to the police station and picks up Ray’s file. As he drives, he gets attacked by the doll, resulting in a car accident. He is able to defend himself by hitting him with a cigarette lighter and shoots at his right shoulder. The next morning, he meets with Karen again at Ray’s house and shares information that he learned voodoo from John Bishop (Ray Oliver). Chucky gets to him first and shares how he is feeling pain when originally believing he isn’t supposed to. John explains that the longer he stays in the doll, he’ll become completely human. Not wanting to stay in the doll, he demands to know how he can get out of it. The instructor refuses to share that with him because he is aware of how evil he is. When attempting to call the police, Chucky injures him with his own mojo doll. He gives in and admits that the only person he can transfer his soul to is through the first one he revealed himself to. This surprises Chucky because he first told Andy, meaning he will be a child again. He finishes him off by stabbing his doll’s heart before he leaves. Karen & Mike make it to John’s house when it was too late. But before he draws his last breath, he shares that his heart must be destroyed before he can do the body swap. Chucky finds the hospital Andy is at and attempts to have him to himself to get the spell started. Andy does escape, due to the expense of a doctor being murdered by the live doll. Karen & Mike then reach the hospital when the two have already left, but Karen deduces that her son is likely returning home. He does do so by night and enters with a hidden spare key, whereas Chucky sneaks in through the fireplace. He does concuss the boy and begin the spell, but the adults luckily arrive in time to stop it from completion. Chucky chooses to attack them all, but Karen & Andy are able trap him in the fireplace and burn him alive. He does survive the severe burning and when he tries to continue pursuit, Karen shoots him down, limb from limb. Mike’s partner Jack Santos (Tommy Swerdlow) finds them at the apartment and still chooses to not believe that the doll was alive. He finds out the hard way when Chucky tries to attack one last time before he is shot in the heart by Mike. As the remaining characters leave the apartment, the film ends with Jack pointing out that it will be difficult for others to believe them.
THOUGHTS
As a kid, this was my introduction to horror and it got the job done scaring me for so long. Director Tom Holland and co writers Don Mancini & John Lafia were able to craft such a frightening film that provides nothing but a high amount of atmospheric creepiness. Because of that, it can remain genuinely unsettling throughout. And that makes it stand out from other horror movies at the time. Aside from Joe Renzetti's eery score, the only reason that this movie works is through our slasher star himself that is Chucky. Played spectacularly by Brad Dourif, he is stuff that nightmares are made of as he accurately portrays this character as vulgar and psychotic you'd expect from someone who takes pleasure in killing. Whenever Bill Butler's cinematography gave his POV on him lurking in the apartment, that gave me the biggest chills aside from when he actually goes for the kill. Besides the voice performances by Dourif as the vicious killer and Edan Gross as lovable Good Guy, Chucky would not have come to life without such incredible puppeteer work throughout. And every model we get of this doll is insanely terrifying. From his live self to his severely burnt body, that was what scarred me for years. Since this was done with zero visual effects, it was without argument ahead of its time. I even got to give shoutout to Ed Gale for doing the doll's stunt sequences. Saying all of this, there really wasn't a wonder on why it created an ongoing franchise for generations. While Chucky will always define this movie, there were other characters that stood out as well. I thought that Chris Sarandon in the role of Mike Norris for making him a rational person in comparison to the Barclays. Despite wanting things to remain as sane as him, he had to tie up loose ends when the past comes back to bite him. Because of being such a respectable protagonist, I am disappointed that he never came back in the sequels after this. Catherine Hicks gives he best performance as the loving mother Karen. Since she is a widow (notice the ring on her left hand), the last thing she wants to lose is her son too. So when finding out the hard way that Chucky was alive, her determination was only stronger. Like Mike, it is a shame she never stuck around as the franchise progressed. Last but not least, Andy Barclay can also be looked at as the heart of this movie because Alex Vincent depicted nothing but innocence the kid had throughout, which defends why he is the only protagonist to appear throughout the series. He had every right to be scared of Chucky, but when push come to shove, he became brave enough to stand up to him when he burned him. I also think it was pretty badass when he gave a one liner "This is the end friend" when he did the deed. This movie will always be entertaining to see but after years of re watching, I admit that this one has a few issues. For starters, why exactly did Chucky allow himself to be sold by a homeless guy in the first place? If he wanted to know the news update, he could’ve hid in a store that sold television sets, rather than hiding at the Barclays house. And if he was gonna keep his cover, why didn’t he kill Andy immediately? That may have ruined his original chance of getting a new body, but it’s not like this guy has morals. Also, why didn’t he just go straight to Eddie at night if that was his concern? Had he done that, it likely would’ve been easier for him to transfer his soul to Andy because no one would have known. And why did he again choose to stay after killing Eddie? He could have been scot free after that and he didn’t seem to plan transferring his soul to the kid, so what was the point? If he really was gonna plan to kill him too, than that should’ve been clear. It was even an intense moment when he attacked Mike in the car, but why didn’t he just go for the knife first instead of the tubes/wires? If he wanted to get it over with, he could’ve stabbed him before he started the car. I’m not trying to root for this villain, but he left out a lot of options that would’ve suited him better. I can’t be the only one wondering how the kid got on the subway on his own, not only with enough tokens, but no adult pays attention to it, as in take him his mother. That was just such a trippy sequence for me. Also, why didn’t Mike tell Karen about Chucky attacking him in his car? He goes straight to the point about the file, but doesn’t confirm his belief with his first encounter of the doll. If she figured that out, than that should’ve been clear too. He even chooses to show her the file of John, rather than going straight to his home. Had he done that, he could’ve stopped Chucky than. I also tripped out on how fast Chucky went to the other room in the institution before Andy, because it’s as confusing as every other time slashers before him are insanely fast when confronting their target. Lastly, I was relieved when Mike and Karen rescued Andy, but why didn’t they shoot at the doll just as they separate them? Had they done that and aimed for the heart, the night would’ve been a little smoother. However, I can still enjoy this whenever. To wrap up, Child’s Play is another horror film that shows to be very creative with its premise. You want to spice up your holiday viewing for Halloween? Makes sure this is part of it.
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