THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Terror never goes away for good, it takes a hiatus before being refueled. If you never noticed Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees be that kind of embodiment, you know damn well Chucky was just so in the Child’s Play franchise.
PLOT
1991's Child's Play 3 takes place 8 years after Andy Barclay defended himself from the doll possessed by the soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray. Chucky is surprisingly able to make a comeback when the remains of his blood is mixed the plastic used to make a new Good Guy doll. The lineup is resumed production by Play Pals CEO Mr. Sullivan (Peter Haskell). In a new body, Chucky kills him and tracks the now 16 year old Andy in Kent Military School. Barclay is now there after failing to cope in several foster homes. He is advised by Colonel Cochrane (Damon Matthew’s) to forget of his fantasies. He tries to do so by befriending fellow cadets his age, Harold Audrey Whiteburst & Kristin de Silva, as well as an 8 year old cadet named Ronald Tyler. However, he is quickly bullied by lieutenant colonel Brett C Shelton. Within the first day Andy is transferred, he is delivered a package to him. When Ronald delivers it to his room, he recognizes from the ripped package he was sent a Good Guy doll. Little does he realize Chucky packaged himself to the school until he reveals himself. With a new body, he chooses to focus on transferring his soul to Ronald’s body, since the voodoo rules involves only transferring your soul to the first person you reveal your true identity to. Since Ronald has no idea of his past with Andy, Chucky believes the process will be easier. Chucky does try to enact the ritual, but is interrupted by Cochrane, who confiscates him and takes him to a garbage truck. The live doll is able to save himself by luring the driver into the compactor, giving him the opportunity to kill him. By night, Chucky would reunite with Andy only to tell him his plan to swap with Tyler. When the teen tries to fight him, the doll would instead be taken from him by Shelton. Andy would try to take him back, but he gets caught and leads to him and other cadets go through an exercise as punishment. He does try to explain his situation to Whitehurst, but he doesn’t believe him. During the exercise, Chucky would scare Cochrane so much he would die of a heart attack. By morning, Barclay would try to warn Tyler that the doll is evil, but the child chooses to ignore him. In the middle of the day, Whitehurst catches Chucky kill the barber Sergeant Botnick (Andrew Robinson). After this, it is announced that the cadets will compete in an annual Wargames to honor Cochrane. Andy, Kristin & Whitehurst will be part of Sheldon’s blue team and compete against a red team. Little do they know Chucky replace the red team’s paint bullets with live ammunition. When the doll encounters Tyler again, he gives away his bad intentions, causing the kid to run away. Determined to swap bodies, he holds Kristin captive and demands Andy to bring Tyler back in exchange for her. The Blue team would arrive with Barclay in shock to see the doll alive, but chaos ensues when Shelton gets shot by the red team. This gives Chucky to escape with Tyler and on the way out, he throws a grenade at the cadets. With everyone else distracted of the commotion, Whitehurst sacrifices himself leaping on top of it before detonation. Once this happens, Andy & Kristin follow Chucky to a nearby fair. They track him into a haunted ride called ‘Devil’s Lair’ and their rescue mission gets out of hand quick when the latter is shot in the leg by the doll. This leads to Barclay going on his own. Within the ride, Chucky loses half of his face when getting too close to a scythe. He still tries to perform the voodoo ritual, but Andy is still able to stop him by shooting off his left arm and throwing him into an industrial sized metal fan that kills him. The film would end with the protagonist being taken in for questioning and Tyler returning to campus while Kristin is taken to the hospital.THOUGHTS
It is never easy to make a sequel 10 months apart from the previous entry, but business can act fast like that which ain’t a surprise. While I don’t think this is scarier than the past, it doesn’t take away the entertainment factor. I feel such because writer Don Mancini and Director Jack Bender still try to make the insanity grounded at one point or another. Brad Dourif may still be wisecracking it in between kills in cheesy fashion, but it’s enough to remind us that Chucky is a threat no matter what. It’s hard to not be creeped out of him strangling one with a yo yo before crushing someone in a trash compactor. The animatronic enhancements done to his face really paid off in being a little creepier thanks to Kevin Yagher. His eyes being more human like really got to me in my childhood. It is easy to find a military school an odd setting since we don’t expect something like it. It still works for not only bringing a different level of intensity since you can’t guarantee how bad shit will hit the fan, but also reflects the determination one must enact to survive. This is exactly the scenario going for our returning protagonist. Nothing will ever top what Alex Vincent has done as Andy, but the time jump in the story allows the replacement Justin Whalin to give more appropriate depth at the time. He’s still traumatized of the past, but still wants to fit in somewhere, which makes it easy for him to talk to whoever. He quickly befriends Whitehurst for relating on being an outcast. He becomes protective towards Tyler due to relating to his innocence when first getting a toy. He becomes attracted to Kristin so fast due to how brave she is to be herself. Seeing the bravery she displayed as well as Whitehurst’s courageousness he displayed at his very end inspired him to push through and end the terror for the third time in a row. While it isn’t over for good, it set things in stone he wasn’t gonna hold back anymore as he displayed in later entries. While Andy is the lead protagonist, it doesn’t mean he was the only interesting character. I totally dug Whitehurst because you relate to his shyness making him an outcast on campus. It is a shame that it took death for him to show selfless he was all along. Perrey Reeves was another good addition as De Silva due to being a character that gave much warmth to Andy he needed so much. She takes interest in him as well because she saw right through him and knew how pure of a heart he had compared to others on campus. It is a shame they still weren’t together after this because she is the only lady other than Kyle that understands the fear that’s consumed his life for so long. I’m sure we were all feeling for Tyler since it was visible Jeremy Sylvers was being put in Andy’s shoes here. He’s just a curious kid who wanted to have fun in his environment and he mistook Chucky for giving him that. Luckily, he had a guardian angel out of Andy the way Barclay gained Kyle. While he hasn’t been seen since this film, I would not doubt him being a helping hand in the series if ever possible. Another character that caught my eyes had to be Shelton. Throughout his screen time, Travis Fine portrays him as a brat who gets too power hungry in his position. It’s not a surprise to see this since there is always a bully in any setting. The big surprise is that he gets killed for it. His death put me in shock the most because I while didn’t like his attitude towards Andy, I wasn’t expecting for him to bite the dust. Bullies should be punished, but not through death. And for that, I wish he had his own moment of redemption before it was too late for him. I still think this movie is fun to get through, but fun never excuses issues I had storywise. For instance, where the hell is Kyle? If 8 years have gone by, she should have been a legal adult at that point to adopt Andy rather than keep him in foster care. Maybe Chucky would find him anyway, but they would likely be prepared this time. Also, how come Chucky’s blood doesn’t mix with other dolls? In a technical sense, I know the studio couldn’t afford a Chucky army, but it would’ve not hurt to give a nod to it before the show delivered at that end. And how come Sullivan’s office doesn’t have cameras? If they were turned off by Chucky, that should’ve been implied as well. It was already a bad idea to target Tyler since he couldn’t guarantee his obedience but if he really wanted to win him over, he should’ve been more descriptive on defending the benefit of his voodoo game ‘Hide the Soul’. And there was no point alerting Andy because he could’ve just done the ritual while Tyler was sleeping. I don’t want to root for the villains ever, but they gotta be smarter than this. Moving on, was there really any good reason for Botnick to give Chucky a trim? That’s just as childish as damaging the hair of a Barbie doll. And I know Andy has been through some heavy trauma at this point but after 8 years, why would he think Chucky was in the closet? It doesn’t add up since he barely found out Good Guy dolls resumed production and has no idea Chucky’s coming back until the middle of a drill. I also can’t be the only one who thought it was not smart at all for the garbage truck driver to leave the keys in the ignition. That was asking to get killed by his doing. And lastly, it was dumb for Andy to try snatching Chucky while Shelton was sleeping. He could’ve waited for Shelton to not be in the room. The doll likely would’ve not stayed, but at least he would’ve not woken anyone up. Ignore this, then you’ll still enjoy the movie for what it is. To wrap up, Childs Play 3 is another entertaining slasher flick for testing its brutality and being clever with its campiness for the most part. If you enjoyed the first two, I hope you’ll like this as well.
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