Child’s Play (2019) Review
Chucky – the classic killer doll and horror icon – gets a 21st century upgrade in this critically acclaimed, razor sharp horror-comedy. Gruesome, creepy, and with a great cast – including Mark Hamill as the voice of the Buddi doll Chucky – CHILD’S PLAY is bloody good fun and charged with electric, retro cool.
After moving to a new neighbourhood, single mom Karen (Aubrey Plaza) tries to encourage her son Andy (Gabriel Bateman) to make friends by buying him a Buddi doll – the very latest in toy technology. But Andy’s doll and new best pal – which Andy names Chucky (voiced by Mark Hamill) – has a glitch that allows it to think, act, and feel. But as Andy meets new kids in the neighbourhood, how long before Chucky’s possessive friendship turns into a gruesome killer doll rampage?!
In 2016 a South Korean film anthology entitled HORROR STORIES 3 was released. The film’s final segment, entitled MACHINE GHOST, directed by Kim Gok, set in the future, is also the anthology’s strongest. MACHINE GHOST concerns a young mother who buys her son a new android companion when the old one malfunctions.
Given that this is a horror film it will come as no surprise to know that the first android’s ‘ghost’ has inhabited Dunko, the new model, and that again the family duo are faced with a psychotic robot that will do anything to protect the son, its new friend, even when there is no apparent threat. I chanced upon HORROR STORIES 3 shortly after viewing 2019’s CHILD’S PLAY and I couldn’t shake off how similar director Lars (POLAROID) Klevberg’s film is to the MACHINE GHOST segment, perhaps it’s just me, but it did taint my opinion of an otherwise fun horror flick that betters its 1988 original.
I was never a fan of the original CHILD’S PLAY movie (1988), in fact I hated it! I wanted to like it, nay I wanted to LOVE it, after all it came from director Tom Holland who gave us the effortlessly cool FRIGHT NIGHT (1985) and had written one of the best sequels ever in PSYCHO II (1983) but I just couldn’t connect with killer doll Chucky, however I did warm to him down the line in a couple of the later sequels.
With that in mind I didn’t exactly approach this franchise revamp with much in the way of enthusiasm but I ended up pleasantly surprised by an instantly engaging horror flick that offers up deliciously gory killings and, in my opinion, improves on the overrated original. It’s funny, it’s bloody and actually manages to elicit some empathy for the murderous Chucky, who really is looking to do the right thing, even if it is in his own muddled way.