My Review of Child's Play (1988)

 

Written by Don Mancini And John Lafia And Tom Holland

Directed by Tom Holland

Chucky: "Hi, I'm Chucky and I'm your friend til the end. Hidey-ho!"

For a franchise that's edging towards forty years, you can forget there was a time when it wasn't as highly camp as it's current form. Back in 1988, the introduction of this horror franchise had its humour but it was a little bit restrained compared to nowadays.

Opening the movie, you've got serial killer Charles Lee Ray aka The Lakeshore Strangler (Brad Dourif) on the run from Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) and their chase ended up in a toystore. As Charles was about to die, he used a bit of voodoo to enter the body of a Good Guy Doll named Chucky. The rest would be history.

Cutting to our protagonist, it's a six year old boy named Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent). It's his birthday and the one thing he wanted was a Good Guy Doll. That was something his mother, Karen (Catherine Hicks) couldn't afford until her friend Maggie (Dina Manoff) got her in touch with a peddler who had one. 

Needless to say, Andy soon made a friend in Chucky and when Andy wasn't the only one whom Chucky would really speak to, the latter was going around bumping off as many characters as humanly possible. Starting off of course with Maggie who got one of the most brutal deaths in the movie. However Andy's attempts to warn people about his new friend being alive were largely ignored until they weren't.

I did like that Karen went from having a believable skepticism about Chucky being alive to using her own methods of getting the murderous doll to reveal his true nature. There was something highly camp in Chucky's first attempts to kill both Karen and Detective Norris as Chucky realised that he could be killed even in doll form.

Then there was the Chucky and Andy connection. The latter even to this day and despite the many enemies the former has made does remain the most iconic thorn in Chucky's side. Chucky had to resort to trying to possess Andy in order to prolong his life, only for things to come to a rather fiery conclusion. Simply put, Chucky chose the wrong child to terrorise.

As a villain, this was a great starting point for the character. I've never found Chucky that scary but I do enjoy his menacing side as well as how manipulative he can be when trying to achieve his goals. He's also pretty funny to boot. Andy and Karen are sympathetic protagonists and while Mike is a hot Detective, he did get bested a few times here.

- Chris Sarandon who played Detective Mike Norris also worked with director Tom Holland on Fright Night as Jerry Dandrige.

- Chucky's real name does come from infamous killers such as Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray.

- The My Buddy and Corky dolls were inspiration for this movie, which was originally intended as a satire on the toy industry before becoming a horror film.

- Chronology: November 1988 Chicago for the majority of the movie.

Child's Play was a modest start to what would evolve into one of the best and most campy of horror franchises going. Chucky quickly established himself as a potent threat and both Andy and Karen made for great protagonists. Not to mention some genuinely grisly moments certainly made this movie pop.

Rating: 8 out of 10