Looking back on it now, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why Tom Holland’s 1988 movie Child’s Play should have worked. While it’s not the first “killer doll” story ever produced—audiences had already seen the “Talky Tina” Twilight Zone episode, Anthony Hopkins in Magic, and even Stuart Gordon’s Dolls—it is dependent on a premise so potentially silly that its success was unlikely, particularly for a mainstream studio horror film. That it is very good in addition to being financially successful—subsequently inspiring another five sequels—is some kind of magic trick.
Like a lot of high-concept horror of the ’80s, Child’s Play navigates a difficult path by having a knowing sense of humor about itself while still playing the material straight. Yes, some of this stuff may seem silly, so Holland has several of the characters acknowledge that fact and sometimes embraces the visual absurdity that is a walking, cursing children’s toy. But the movie is also never “above” its own premise, either; the story is always grounded in a reality in which a little boy afraid of his doll cries authentic tears and conveys real fear. Yes, it may be silly, Child’s Play says, but not when it’s happening to you.
Catherine Hicks plays Karen Barclay, single mother of one young boy, Andy (Alex Vincent), working in a department store during the cold Chicago winter to try to make ends meet for her and her boy. When his birthday comes around, Andy only wants one thing: a Good Guy doll, the hottest new toy that speaks a handful of canned phrases and promises to be “your friend to the end.” Karen finds Andy a doll that fell off the back of a truck, but there’s just one problem: the doll, whose name is Chucky, is actually possessed by the spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif), who was gunned down by a cop (Chris Sarandon, reuniting with his Fright Night director Holland) but not before using a voodoo ritual to transfer his soul into the doll. While Chucky uses Andy to help him kill off his enemies and anyone he feels betrayed him, the bodies begin to pile up and point to little Andy as the prime suspect. After all, who’s going to believe a kid who says his doll is a murderer?
What Child’s Play gets right is what so many of the best ‘80s horror movies get right: the characters. Before the film ever takes a turn into horror, the movie gets us to deeply care about the characters in just a short amount of time. It sets up a single mother doing her best to raise her son. It sets up a good kid who seems lonely and in need of a friend. It sets up a cop who is practical more than cynical, determined to do his job to the best of his ability. The triangle of those three characters is what makes Child’s Play work no matter how many times I revisit it. Watching little Andy Barclay make his mom breakfast on his birthday—and the expression on his face as he opens what he thinks is a new Good Guy doll (but which turns out to be clothes he needs, another lovely detail that informs the Barclays’ situation)—sucks me in so intensely every time that I’m willing to go wherever the film wants to take me. Knowing that the premise may be hard to accept, Holland ensures our investment by imbuing the proceedings with what he refers to as “humanity.” Yes, the killer doll idea might be a little far-fetched, but if we’re able to follow people we care about who behave in ways we can believe, the film will work. Child’s Play works.
The horror set pieces are somewhat less successful than the character work. Holland is smart in the way he shoots around Chucky for about the first two-thirds of the movie, and once the reveal is made the effects work by Kevin Yagher and his team (a canny combination of practical puppetry, mechanical pieces and stunt doubling) still hold up today. The sequences are all cleverly executed — “clever” being an accurate descriptor of the whole of the film—but robbed of their power somewhat by both the underwhelming nature of the kills (save for the first, a spectacular dive out of an apartment window) and a lack of interest in Chucky exacting revenge on characters about whom we neither know anything or care. The kill scenes feel perfunctory, even when they’re put together well. By the time the climax arrives, though, the skillful technical execution and the grounded character work finally come together in a completely satisfying way. We fear for our protagonists and feel catharsis when evil is vanquished. Isn’t that what horror movies are supposed to do?
Scream Factory’s Blu-ray release of Child’s Play comes at the same time that the company is releasing a rash of titles already available on Blu-ray: besides this one, The Thing, Carrie and Exorcist III have all had previous Blu-ray releases. What Scream Factory has done, then, is to ensure that theirs is the definitive release both by offering new transfers of the movies and by including so much bonus content that fans can’t not own these versions. Originally available as a standalone Blu-ray release from MGM put out in 2009 and then packaged again as part of Universal’s 2013 Chucky Collection franchise boxed set, Child’s Play is now getting its third—and undeniably best—HD release. While I did not do a side-by-side comparison of previous releases against Scream Factory’s new transfer taken from a 2K scan, I can say that the movie looks really, really good: warm and film-like while never sacrificing detail during some of the moodier, darker sequences. While it may not represent a monumental improvement over the last Blu-ray, I see no reason why we should ever need a new transfer or future release after this one.
No fewer than four commentary tracks are included on this release. The first three have been ported over from previous releases: a commentary featuring stars Alex Vincent and Catherine Hicks with Chucky designer Kevin Yagher, a commentary with producer David Kirschner and writer Don Mancini and a scene-specific commentary by Brad Dourif in character as Chucky, which is amusing for a couple of minutes until the gimmick wears out its welcome. New to this release is a commentary from co-writer/director Tom Holland, whose voice has been missing from previous Blu-ray releases and who gives a thorough and thoughtful talk about what his intentions were in making the movie and how he went about achieving many of the elements. Holland is a storyteller, so it’s a really good talk.
The rest of the special features are housed on a second disc, including more than two hours of interviews, featurettes and archival footage new to this release and devoted to bringing the Chucky doll to life. Both Ed Gale, the stunt person who played Chucky in several shots, and Howard Berger, the effects wizard who helped create and execute Chucky, are interviewed for about 40 minutes apiece, while another hour is given over to behind the scenes footage and interviews taken during the making of the movie. The rest of the bonus material on Disc Two consists mostly of featurettes that have been carried over from previous releases: “Evil Comes in Small Packages,” “Chucky: Building a Nightmare,” “Introducing Chucky,” and “A Monster Convention,” as well as trailers, TV spots, publicity still galleries and a gallery of production stills. The disc also comes with a slipcover and reversible cover art.
The Child’s Play franchise would continue over another five movies. Tom Holland returned for none of them, but writer Don Mancini penned the scripts for all the future installments and would eventually even direct the fifth and sixth movies—a rarity for any horror series that goes on this long. While there are things to like about some of the sequels (particularly Bride of Chucky, which just went all-out comedy), none of them can come close to touching the original movie. It’s one of those ’80s sleepers so many of us horror fans take for granted—we’ve seen it, we reference it, but we don’t always acknowledge just what an effective little movie it really is. Like Freddy Krueger, Chucky would eventually be robbed of his power and turned into a quipping punchline. Here, he’s still a legitimate menace, made all the scarier by the fact that he’s terrorizing believable human beings worth caring about. A little humanity goes a long way in horror.
Movie Score: 4/5, Disc Score: 4/5
Patrick lives in Chicago, where he has been writing about film since 2004. A member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Online Film Critics Society, Patrick's writing also appears on About.com, DVDVerdict.com and fthismovie.net, the site he runs and hosts a weekly podcast.
He has been an obsessive fan of horror and genre films his entire life, watching, re-watching and studying everything from the Universal Monsters of the '30s and '40s to the modern explosion of indie horror. Some of his favorites include Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (1931), Dawn of the Dead (1978), John Carpenter's The Thing and The Funhouse. He is a lover of Tobe Hooper and his favorite Halloween film is part 4. He knows how you feel about that. He has a great wife and two cool kids, who he hopes to raise as horror nerds.
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