Child’s Play
(1988) 87 Min.
Rated: R
Director: Tom Holland
Starring: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★★☆
A young boy receives a doll for his birthday that is possessed by the spirit of a murderer.
Synopsis:
A serial killer known as Charles “Chucky” Lee Ray (Dourif) is on the run from a pursuing police officer. The officer, Mike Norris (Sarandon), manages to corner Charles in a toy store and fatally wounds him. As Charles is about to die he places his hand on a Good Guy doll and casts a voodoo spell. He is able to transfer his spirit into the doll as his body dies.
The next day, Karen Barclay (Hicks) and her son, Andy (Vincent), celebrate his birthday. At first Karen gives Andy a Good Guy related tool set, but Andy has his heart set on getting the large talking doll that is popular with children.
At work Karen’s friend, Maggie, tells her a guy in the alley is selling one of the Good Guy dolls. Karen and Maggie meet with the homeless man and buy the doll off of him for a very low price. They return to work and their supervisor asks Karen to take an evening shift. Maggie promises to watch Andy that evening while Karen is at work.
Karen gives Andy his new doll and he’s very pleased with it. Later that night Maggie is watching Andy. During that evening, Andy tells Maggie that “Chucky” wants her to switch the tv on the 9 o’clock news for a follow up on Charles’ accomplice Eddie Caputo. Maggie denies the request and while Andy is asleep, Chucky hits Maggie with a toy hammer and she flies out the window of the apartment, killing her.
The police soon arrive and investigate the apartment. Karen also arrives, upset at her friend’s death but also more upset that the police, including Mike Norris, believe Andy has something to do with her death. Mike sends a small toy hammer to forensics, believing it may be the murder weapon.
Karen takes Andy to school the next day, but Andy, acting under Chucky’s instructions, doesn’t go to school. He takes a train to a ghetto side of town to the abandoned building Eddie Caputo lives in. Eddy had betrayed Charles and he vowed to kill Eddie. While Andy isn’t looking, Chucky opens the oven and turns on the gas. It fills the house and when Eddie fires a gun the house explodes, killing Eddie.
Andy is placed in police custody after this. Mike and Karen discuss Andy’s behavior and he’s declared “criminally insane”. He’s then sent to a mental hospital.
Karen is very upset over this and takes Chucky home alone with her. She inspects the doll and finds that though he’s spoken his Good-Guy Doll lines, he has no batteries in him. Chucky spins his head around and speaks a few lines, which frightens her. She picks up the doll and asks it to talk to her. It does nothing, so she starts a fire in the fireplace and threatens it.
At this point Chucky springs to life and attacks her, calling her names and biting her. When she backs off he runs out of the apartment and takes the elevator down. Karen is unable to catch up with him, but runs to Mike for help.
She runs to Mike, but he doesn’t believe her. When she realizes he won’t believe her, she takes a cab down to the store she works at and tries to find the same peddler who sold her the doll among the other homeless living there. She finds him, but he almost assaults her. Luckily Mike arrives in time to rescue her. The homeless man tells Mike he found the doll in a burned out store. The same toy store where Mike chased and killed Charles Lee Ray.
As Karen realizes Chucky was really Charles Lee Ray, she asks where Charles used to live. Mike, still not believing the connection, refuses to take her to his home. He leaves her at her apartment. He then goes to the police station to pull a file of Charles’ records. Mike starts to drive home, but gets attacked by Chucky who has been hiding in his car. He first tries strangling Mike with a wire, then he tries to stab him with a knife. Eventually Mike gets his gun out and shoots at Chucky from beneath his overturned car. Chucky gets shot and runs away.
Mike and Karen go to Chucky’s house and see large murals that pretty much show that Charles was a big believer in voodoo and life after death. The two decide to pay a visit to the voodoo priest, Dr. John.
Chucky, however, visits Dr. John first. John tells Chucky that he is becoming human in the body of the doll and that he must transfer his soul to a real human before this change becomes permanent. Chucky tortures John into telling him what to do. John tells him he must transfer his soul into the first person who he divulged he was a real person to, meaning Andy. Chucky then sticks a knife into the heart of a voodoo doll of John and leaves.
John is dying but he manages to tell Karen and Mike of Chucky’s plans and that the only way to destroy Chucky is through his heart.
Chucky manages to get the keys to Andy’s cell, but Andy has hidden and runs away. Chucky kills Andy’s doctor in front of him and Andy runs out of the hospital and goes home.
Karen and Mike find the mess at the hospital and decide to go to Karen’s house as that’s where they reason Andy will run to.
Chucky arrives there first and is able to surprise Andy and render him unconscious with a bat. He starts to perform his incantation, however Karen and Mike arrive in time to stop the ritual before it’s done.
Chucky attacks both Mike and Karen. Karen throws Chucky into the lit fireplace. Chucky walks out of the fireplace ablaze and lands on the floor, presumably dead. Soon, however, a burnt Chucky is back attacking the family.
Karen manages to shoot him a few times, splitting his body into pieces. Again Chucky is presumed dead and Mike’s partner Jack arrives on the scene. He chides Mike for taking the story of a talking doll seriously, but suddenly Chucky’s headless body chokes Jack and he throws the body to the ground. Mike finally fires a bullet through Chucky’s heart which stops him finally.
The film ends as Mike, Karen and Jack leave the room and Andy takes one final look at the burnt and disfigured body of Chucky.
Review:
This film has a perfect blend of mystery, thriller, a bit of gore and, of course, the supernatural. I hadn’t really seen this film in it’s entirety before today and I feel like I’ve been missing a classic. The writing is pretty solid, the pace is fairly quick and keeps the audience interested.
Over all I think Brad Dourif does an outstanding job as the voice of Chucky. Honestly the entire cast, including Alex Vincent as Andy, is very good. Alex does a wonderful job at playing a convincing child whose world crumbles around him and who is betrayed by his beloved Good-Guy Doll. He looks convincingly terrified of the doll and reacts in ways that are believable.
I think the film does owe a bit to Halloween towards the end when Chucky comes back after “dying” a few times. But it’s believable when considering his “heart” wasn’t destroyed so it’s excusable in this supernatural setting.
I would highly recommend this film to anyone who wants to see a well rounded horror film. The animatronic work is very good and it’s really quite fun to see the unassuming doll turn into a snarling foul-mouthed killer.