Movie Review: Child's Play

Child's Play *** / *****

Directed by: Lars Klevberg. 

Written by: Tyler Burton Smith Based on characters created by Don Mancini.

Starring: Aubrey Plaza (Karen Barclay), Mark Hamill (Chucky), Tim Matheson (Henry Kaslan), Brian Tyree Henry (Detective Mike Norris), Gabriel Bateman (Andy Barclay), David Lewis (Shane), Beatrice Kitsos (Falyn), Trent Redekop (Gabe), Ty Consiglio (Pugg), Carlease Burke (Doreen), Nicole Anthony (Detective Willis), Kristin York (Jane), Marlon Kazadi (Omar). 

 

It’s pretty remarkable when you think about it that Chucky the Killer Doll has been around for seven films over 31 years before this latest remake. Don Mancini has kept this series going, and pushed it in weird directions over the years as he keeps adding to it, keeps finding new ways to go with it. I’m not going to say I’ve kept up with the series – or that I am a wild fan of any of them, just pointing out that I think it’s impressive what Mancini has done – and it kind of sucks that they’ve rebooted the franchise while, for him anyway, it was still a going concern – after all, if this franchise ended back in the early 1990s – when it seemed to run its course – I don’t think we’re seeing this reboot at all.

 

Still, that has little to do with the quality of this reboot – which is surprisingly good. I think the filmmakers behind this film made several smart decisions right off the bat that allow the film to be at least as good as the original – and probably a little bit better. It certainly plays better now than the original did – which I reviewed last week – which suffers a little from the fact that the first half of the movie tries to keep you in suspense as to whether the Chucky Doll has really come to life and is killing people, or if little Andy has gone insane and is doing that himself. We know now, of course, that Chucky is the psycho – and so all that buildup lacks suspense (I cannot help but wonder if it ever had suspense – after all, we do see the opening scene of Brad Dourif being pursued by the police, and then reciting some voodoo curse to transfer his soul into Chucky – even if that’s not explicitly what we see, we know it).

 

This time, Chucky is not inhabited by the soul of a misogynistic serial killer – but rather is a story of A.I. run amok – when a Vietnamese factory worker is fired by his boss, on his way out the door, he removes all controls from a single Buddi doll. This allows him to do things he shouldn’t – like swear – and things that he really shouldn’t, like murder people in creative and bloody ways. It’s the misfortune of Andy (Gabriel Bateman) – a tween this time, instead of a six-year-old, that his single mother Karen (Aubrey Plaza) brings home that particular Buddi doll – because it was returned to the Wal-Mart-like store she works for because of its glowing red eyes and the fact that the Buddi II is only weeks away from release. Buddi is from an Amazon or Apple like company – it’s like Siri for kids, except instead of a speaker, it’s a doll. It can connect, and control, anything on Wifi – which is, of course, anything. All this Buddi – who is named Chucky by accident – wants to do is be Andy’s friend and protect him. And so when Andy complains about his cat, or his mom’s new boyfriend – both of whom do in fact hurt Andy, what is Chucky supposed to do? And when Chucky gets rejected, well, again – what is he supposed to do?

 

The filmmakers cast Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky – and it was the right call. Brad Dourif’s performance has become iconic of course – but his Chucky is an adult serial killer in a doll’s body. Hamill brings a kind of childlike innocence to his vocal performance – which of course can become incredibly creepy when he says the things he does (the Buddi song will haunt my dreams). Hamill has, of course, made his living post Star Wars mainly by doing voice over work – and he’s a master at it. His voice work as this version of Chucky couldn’t be better. The design of Chucky mainly looks great – especially when he’s more puppet than CGI – and again, is its own thing, not just a makeover of the original Chucky. The rest of the cast pales in comparison to Hamill of course – he has the juicy role, and everyone knows it. Still Aubrey Plaza as Andy’s mom and Brian Tyree Henry as the Detective down the hall are deadpan delights in the film – you aren’t going to be able to go further over the top than a killer doll, so why try? And Gabriel Bateman is fine as Andy – who gets increasingly frantic as he realizes what is happening, but can get no one to listen to him. It’s at least partly his fault that all this happens – and he takes it hard. None of them – and especially not the rest of the supporting cast – has much in the way of character development or depth – but they do what they can.

 

And when the violence starts coming – and it does start coming – it starts out with the type of thing that would happen in an old school Chucky movie – a death involving Christmas lights and a lawn mulcher – and then gets increasingly high tech – including a highly enjoyable siege at the Wal-Mart like store as its climax. It’s handled well by director Lars Klevberg.

 

All of this is to say that Child’s Play is a lot better than it really has any right to be, and a lot better than most remakes of 1980s horror films have been in recent years. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a great movie – it’s not – or that it will win over any coverts to team Chucky – it won’t. But given what they had to work with here – the result is gruesome fun.