"Hi, I'm Chucky! Wanna Play?"
In Child's Play, notorious killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) is gunned down in a toy store by detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon). In an act of desperation, he manages to transfer his soul into the closest item he can find: A Good Guy Doll. It isn't long before Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks), a struggling single mom, purchases him as a birthday gift for her son, Andy (Alex Vincent). Seeking revenge against those who attempted to stop him, "Chucky" sets out on a new murder spree.
Child's Play is the film that introduced audiences to the psychotic Good Guy Doll known as Chucky. The character has become a horror icon, and is beloved by horror fans the world over. The movie itself is not as fondly remembered as Chucky himself though. Chris Sarandon (who voiced Jack Skellington in The Nightmare Before Christmas and portrayed Jerry Dandridge in Fright Night) plays the "good guy" of the film and does a fairly great performance. I'd still say his above-mentioned roles are easily more memorable and iconic than his role here though.
Alex Vincent's performance as Andy continues to get better as the film progresses onwards, and Catherine Hicks does a good job as his mom. Easily the standout performance here belongs to Dourif as Chucky. While we only see him in human form for around 5-10 minutes of the film, his voice work is phenomenal (plus, I love his yells/screams). It's super easy to buy him as "Chucky". The animatronics/stop-motion for Chucky are fairly fluid and believable, and clever camerawork is used at points when live actors are utilized for the doll.
Child's Play's is not ever all that scary, and tends to border on cheese a good deal of the time. The film itself is nowhere near as memorable as the horror icon it birthed (though it does have some good lines and a great death at the end). I'd still say it is easily worth a watch for Chucky alone, and it does have a pretty decent sized fun factor to it. Yes Chucky, I would love to play!
3.5 STARS
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