Child's Play review

CHILD’S PLAY:

SLASHER MOVIE ICON GETS A MODERN UPDATE THAT WORKS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

ORION PICTURES AND UNITED ARTISTS RELEASING (MGM)

Chucky just wants to be your best friend in Child’s Play

            Going from one toy to another only this time it’s the one you’re NOT supposed to take your kids to. Anyway, the iconic slasher movie doll, Chucky gets a modern update in Child’s Play, the latest installment of the Child’s Play/Chucky franchise and remake of the 1988 horror classic that made us all afraid to play with our toys.

            While the original film wasn’t a huge hit with critics, Child’s Play blended slasher movie terror with dark humor and introduced the world to the bloodthirsty “Good Guy” doll and made him a pop-culture icon in the same vein as Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Leatherface, and Michael Myers as well as spawning a franchise still going strong today with a TV series currently in development. Now we have this remake produced by David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, It) who have previously worked on the 2017 film adaptation of It and its upcoming sequel, and directed by Lars Klevberg in his directorial debut marking the first Chucky film not to involve the original creator Don Mancini or feature Brad Dourif as the voice of Chucky. 

            I’ll admit I’m not a Chucky purist, in fact the first movie I’ve ever seen based on the character was actually the fifth movie, Seed of Chucky in 2004. Eventually I would see the original Child’s Play along with the film that came before Seed, Bride of Chucky but I’ve never seen Child’s Play 2 or 3, Curse of Chucky, or Cult of Chucky so I went into the remake relatively blind aside from revisiting the original in preparation for this review.

            So, with all that out of the way how does the remake of Child’s Play hold up? Surprisingly, for a remake that probably doesn’t need to exist given that the original series is still developing movies, Child’s Play (2019) is a solid update that balances references and callbacks to the original while still being very different from it as well. 

            Kaslan Industries dominates in the world of household electronics and toy lines and has recently unveiled their newest innovation known as the “Buddi” doll which is this movie’s version of the Good Guy, an interactive talking doll that connects itself to all your appliances through the Cloud and can control them such as your TV, thermostat, and lights. After moving into a new apartment, retail clerk Karen Barclay (Aubrey Plaza-Parks and Recreation, Scott Pilgrim VS the World, Ingrid Goes West) brings a Buddi doll home after her shift for her son Andy (Gabriel Bateman-Stalker, Annabelle, Lights Out) whose birthday happens to be coming up.

            At first everything seems fine aside from some circuiting issues with the doll, the two of them hang out together, play games, get into all kinds of shenanigans, and the doll is given the name Chucky (voiced by Mark Hamill-Star Wars franchise, Batman: The Animated Series, Robot Chicken). However, things aren’t as they seem as Chucky starts committing murders behind Andy’s back, and nobody believes Andy when he says that something is wrong with the doll…and he is totally right. 

            When Chucky gets out of control and goes on a rampant killing spree that gets the attention of Detective Mike Norris (Bryan Tyree Henry-Widows, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, If Beale Street Could Talk), Andy and his friends Omar (Marlon Kazadi), Falyn (Beatrice Kitsos), Pugg (Ty Consiglio), and Chris (Anantjot S. Aneja) must prove to everyone that Chucky is the one killing people and figure out a way to destroy him before he turns playtime into a slaughterhouse. 

            The film also stars Tim Matheson (National Lampoon’s Animal House, The West Wing, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) as Henry Kaslan and David Lewis (Hope Island, Lake Placid, The Butterfly Effect 2) as Shane.

            Overall, Child’s Play (2019) is a horror movie update done right, it isn’t exactly like the original but it’s not too different either. In my opinion, most of the changes are for the better and help differentiate it from its predecessor. 

            Unlike the original movie where Chucky was just a regular talking doll, this Chucky is an interactive doll that’s capable of using items around the house through a mobile phone app. This is both a positive and a negative for the movie because while it’s a decent way to modernize the character, it takes away Chucky’s personality which was a large chunk of the fun in the earlier films. 

             In the original, the Chucky doll housed the spirit of a serial killer who was on the brink of death until he used voodoo magic to put his soul inside the doll. Throughout most of it he was still saying basic toy phrases like “Are we having fun now?” or “You’re my best friend” but he was also able to speak fluent English, yell, and curse when necessary, plus we understand his motives because he has a killer’s soul inside his body and there is more of a reason to why he’s trying to kill Andy and those who stand in his way.

            However, in this version it’s all because of a system malfunction and I’m not giving it away because they showed it in the trailers. The Chucky doll is faulty and was programmed differently from the other dolls which caused it to go on a killing spree, which led to some creatively gruesome death scenes but there isn’t much of a character with him here which I found disappointing

            One thing that this version improves on is its human characters and I’m not saying the human characters in the original were bad just uninteresting. Andy in the original was a six-year-old boy who while good-natured was a bit of a doofus and a klutz whereas the Andy in this movie is older by seven years and is given an interesting and relatable past. 

            He lost his father and he’s trying to adapt to moving to a new neighborhood and is having a hard time making friends which is where Chucky comes in. Gabriel Bateman gives it his all as Andy and has a very believable mother-son relationship with Aubrey Plaza. 

            In fact, most of the acting is really solid even the other kid actors who will hopefully move on to more great work in the future. But who steals the show is Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky, He’s no replacement for Brad Dourif’s legendary performance from the original and the design of the Chucky doll admittedly is not very good in this film, Hamill works with what’s given to him and finds a middle-ground between scary and funny which is what Chucky should be, it makes sense after all Hamill already voiced another famous funny/scary villain before with the Joker (On a side note, he also previously voiced Chucky in a sketch on Robot Chicken). 

            Child’s Play (2019) gives Chucky a modern update that works while still sticking to the roots of the original. If you need a different kind of “Toy Story” then this might be for you.