THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Child’s Play shook things up for the slasher genre before the end of the 1980s. And due to its box office success, that only made a franchise bound to happen.
PLOT
Its first sequel, 1990's Childs Play 2 takes place 2 years after Play Pals Corporation received negative publicity for their Good Guy dolls. The negative clout came from the young Andy Barclay that his doll was possessed by serial killer Charles Lee Ray aka Chucky. When his mother Karen defended her son's story, she got institutionalized and it resulted in Andy being placed in foster care due to the murders that took place when he had the doll. Although he and his mom destroyed Chucky, Play Pals executive Haskell Sullivan (Peter Haskell) orders for the same doll to be rebuilt to ensure stockholders that there is nothing wrong. When this happens, a power surge electrocutes an assembly line worker and brings back Chucky. Sullivan further continues to keep it under wraps by having his assistant Mattson (Greg Germann) disposes of the rebuilt doll. In the meantime, Andy is adopted by Phil Simpson and his wife Joanne. At their home, he befriends teen foster sister Kyle, but is quickly frightened of a whole other Good Guy doll named Tommy. When Chucky discovers Andy's whereabouts, he kills Mattson and heads to the Simpsons' home. He swaps places with the Tommy doll, but it quickly puts Andy in trouble when he is accused of destroying a family heirloom. By the next night, Chucky ties the boy down in an attempt to do his voodoo chant that'll allow them to swap bodies. But instead, he keeps his cover when Kyle notices Andy tied up. When she sees what happened, the Simpsons blame her for it. By morning, the killer doll secretly follows him to school when the foster parents believed to have left him in the basement for Andy's sake. At school, he defaces the kid's homework that puts him in detention. When Andy realizes the doll followed him, he leaves the school and returns to his foster home. Chucky would only continue his carnage by killing one of the school teachers named Miss Kettlewell before keeping his cover furthermore by returning to the basement. With no one believing him, Andy takes matters into his own hands by arming himself with an electric knife to the basement. Despite his attempt to stop his tormentor, it only gets worse when Chucky kills Phil as well during the commotion. When Joanne finds her husband dead, she blames Andy for it and sends him back to the foster center. That same night, Kyle discovers to have been right by finding the Tommy doll buried outside. When she goes to warn Joanne, she finds her dead before Chucky enforces her to take her to Midtown Children's Crisis Center where Andy is. By arrival, he quickly kills a social worker and separates himself from Kyle before having the boy to himself again, forcing him to take him to the Play Pals factory to complete his voodoo ritual for the body swap. When they get there, the spell backfires as he spent too long in the doll's body. With nothing left to lose, he intends to kill him but is briefly stopped by a returning Kyle. As they try to escape the factory, they end up slowing Chucky down by slamming a gate on his hand, which would only make him replace it with a makeshift blade. He would put it to use when killing a factory worker that stayed overnight. Just when he tries to kill the two kids, they trap him in the assembly line which mutilates his body. However, he cuts off his legs to escape the machine. Andy tries to finish him off by showering him with hot molten plastic. This severely wounds him but in the doll's last attempt of revenge, Kyle shoves a high pressure air hose into his mouth which causes him to explode. The film ends with the foster siblings finally able to leave the factory, despite unsure where to go next.
THOUGHTS
The first film scared the crap out of me when I was a kid and I knew this would do the same damage at that age. Suffice to say, it wasn't so surprising that thiw would be an entertaining hell fest to get through as well. Writer Don Mancini and Director Jake Lafia got creative as possible to leave audiences thrilled in the wildest environment you would witness. For a story so dark, it feels comfortably different when noticing it to be more colorful. Since this is a slasher film we're talking about, you know this can't work without a serial killing villain. Brad Dourif gets way more screen time as the psychotic supernatural doll, yet never overstays the welcome as the main attraction. What makes the most terrifying in comparison to the other films, aside from his common dry humor, is that designer David Kirschner is able to make him more life like, which is logical for the story's sake. The second he appears off the bat, you just got to prepare for violence to appear in unexpected ways. Seeing him go from suffocating Mattson, to beating a teacher with a yardstick, to giving the factory worker a new set of doll eyes. Imagination is at its finest with these shocking kills. With movies like these, you have to remember that protagonists with big hearts go hand in hand with diabolical villains. So we were glad to see Alex Vincent return as Andy. And as a child, he excellently evolves from innocent to morose. At his age, it ain't gonna be easy being separated from your mother due to no one believing who tormented him. Even when he feels alone and scared, he's not gonna deny the truth that something has to be done before he and others get hurt. Lucky for him, he gained a sister that stood with him to the end like his mother did. Christine Elise perfectly portrays her as a tough kid with a heart of gold. Due to her being abandoned at a young age, it never felt easy for her to bond with others, worrying that it'd never last. She took Andy under her wing because she related to feeling alone in the world and knew he didn't deserve that feeling either. Once she found out Andy was telling nothing but the truth about Chucky, all that mattered was him being safe. Seeing the bond these two had taught me that family does come from or expand in unfamiliar places and cherishing them is nothing but a necessity. Although it took a while for these two to reunite in later entries, it was sweet to see that they had each other's back until the terror briefly ended. Going a little further with the cast, Gerrit Graham Jenny Agutter were a very interesting pair as Phil and Joanne Simpson. Gerrit made it easy to dislike Phil for his simple mindedness made him very rude. He didn't seem to have any concern for Andy. Even if he didn't believe him about Chucky, he should've been less strict to make him feel comfortable. Jenny made Joanne likable because she didn't spend the whole time expecting the worse and actually tried to be a loving mother, although the worst is exactly what came for them. Seeing this mismatch of a couple taught me to prepare for the worst when taking care of a child, but don't let it ruin the mood. They bring various challenges and you can't automatically assume it will be bad. While in this movie's case, it was bound to be bad, but then again, Phil should've been open minded from the get go on how to handle Andy. This movie was enjoyably wild to get through, so wild that I wasn’t so surprised to catch some issues when re watching. For example, how is there security cameras in the factory? That would’ve defended Andy’s case that Chucky is alive. And for a mainstream company Play Pals appears to be, it’s insane to not to have one. I already said how neutral I am of the Simpsons, but how did Phil forget about the Good Guy doll when the social worker exposited Andy’s trauma? If he knew it was in Andy’s room, he should’ve moved it out of there before he entered. That only brings another question on why doesn’t Chucky hide Tommy in a neighbor’s yard or trash can? If he’s so sure he’s gonna succeed swapping bodies with Andy, he should’ve been more cautious to cover his tracks. Also, I know we need an excuse for him to find the kid, but I don’t think it’d be that easy to get information from foster care by saying you’re a relative. I don’t even want to hate on Miss Kettlewell because she’s just doing her job as a teacher, but how the hell did she not know about Andy’s past either? If he’s been going to that school for a while before the Simpsons adopted him, she should’ve been more polite or lenient towards his attitude before Chucky tampered with his homework. This movie indeed had a pretty crazy climax that boosts its entertainment factor, but even that was all over the place. Like what made Chucky think a moving truck was isolated enough for him to do the ritual? I know he’s in a rush, but everyone should know that’s stupid. Also, where did the tape come from when attaching the blade to his arm? Would it really hurt to be consistent with this stuff? Like I’m still thrown off that he was strong enough to carry the body of a factory worker he killed. And lastly, how come the truck driver never followed Kyle? This may be a stretch, but was willing to get out of the vehicle to confront her and somehow stopped being curious of her actions when she ran to the factory. I for one would pursue even if that were to risk the chances of me getting killed. Other than that, you’ll still be quite entertaining sequel of this slasher fest. In short, Child’s Play 2 is the best sequel of the franchise for knowing how to embrace its surroundings to make it more intense of an adventure. If you were impressed of the first film, I’m sure you’ll feel the same with this one as well.
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