Chidl’s Play Review: It’s been over thirty years since we were introduced to everyone’s favourite killer doll, Chucky. Since we were first introduced to him, he’s gone onto star in a total of seven movies, the most recent being 2017’s Cult of Chucky. Now Chucky follows in the steps of Freddy, Jason and Michael Myers as his story gets the reboot treatment.
Vertigo Releasing
As with the other horror icon reboots, Child’s Play goes right back to the start as it retells the ordeal of young boy Andy as he finds his latest toy has murderous intentions. This time around ‘Chucky’ has been upgraded. He’s no longer just a talking doll, but rather an Alexa-type system placed into the body of a doll known as Buddi. Once synced with the cloud, Buddi can play with you, sing songs, book you a cab, control the TV, and remind you of important things. One such Buddi doll, named Chucky, suffers a rather unfortunate malfunction and people close to his best friend Andy start turning up dead. Andy must then go head-to-head with his friend till the end.
Director Lars Klevberg and writer Tyler Burton Smith start well enough, with Buddi’s personality being more a product of his environment and software than the maniacal killer of old. The first thirty minutes or so makes an effective social commentary about how innocent minds can be shaped by the actions of those around them. Once the murders start happening this message gets lost, as does the tone. Up until the murders, there is a fairly serious air to proceedings, but as the blood starts to fly, the film morphs into something much closer to a comedy. The original franchise started seriously and then also tapped into the comedy vein, the difference being that it took a few films before they made the switch. Here we get both crammed into the one film and it leaves the viewer confused as to whether they are meant to be scared or amused.
Related: Child’s Play gets a new trailer and quad poster
Sadly, other than making the change from ‘doll possessed by a dead serial killer’ to evil artificial intelligence, Child’s Play has nothing new to offer. Somehow, despite the more modern setting, Child’s Play feels almost as dated as the 1988 version. There are references to Mickey Rooney, Robocop, and Tupac, which will be lost on the young and modern target audience. The characters include all the cliches – creepy janitor, jerk boyfriend etc., and the story is as uninspired as the straight-to-video films being churned out at the time of the original’s release. Even the deaths don’t offer anything original, with most of them feeling like cheap rip off’s of films such as Gremlins and Maximum Overdrive.
In terms of casting, the production lucked-out with the vocal talents of Mark Hamill. He’s obviously not Brad Dourif, and doesn’t pretend to be, instead adding his own stamp to Chucky. Whereas the film struggles to get the balance of tone overall, Hamill nails it. Young Gabriel Bateman, who plays a much older Andy, is an engaging and a suitable foe for Chucky.
It all ends up feeling very much like the Halloween episode of The Simpsons during which the Krusty doll has been accidentally set to evil. That in itself is a parody of the original Chucky films, but one that manages to capture the essence much more so than this. Child’s Play is an entertaining enough watch – it’s never dull enough to be boring – but it squanders the source material and interesting spin in favour of the tired and generic cliches.
Child’s Play review by Kat Hughes, June 2019.
Child’s Play is released in cinemas across the UK on Friday 21st June 2019.
