Child's Play is a movie that
will make anyone smile. It's absolutely no wonder this franchise
eventually turned to self-parody. Even with the original movie,
there isn't a single thing in the entire film that makes a bit of
sense. A voodoo priest (Raymond Oliver) teaches a serial killer
(Brad Dourif) how to steal people's bodies to keep from dying, and
later complains that he's “used it for evil” when he sees that
he's transferred his consciousness into a doll. I can't help but
wonder what his definition of “using it for good” would be, since
he evidently believes there is such a thing.
That makes the movie neither bad nor
unscary. Chucky is creepy as hell, no matter how little sense
anything that happens in this film makes. The movie is largely style
over substance, with creative choices being made to create an
atmosphere that is scary, rather than to tell a story.
For example, we see quite clearly at
the beginning that the doll was possessed by the killer, and I
seriously doubt anyone finds this point ambiguous. Yet, the movie
still waits to show us Chucky moving or talking. Even knowing that
it’s coming, the effect is chilling when Chucky first speaks.
The story is fairly paint-by-numbers.
Chucky has two people he blames for his death; a partner who
abandoned him (Neil Guiantoli), and a cop who shot him (Chris
Sarandon). He takes his revenge on the former. The latter is
conveniently sent to investigate the murder of a woman who was
baby-sitting Chucky's owner, 6-year-old Andy (Alex Vincent).
Naturally, romance with Andy's mother (Catherine Hicks) happens, and
they eventually realize they're fighting a living doll.
The horror really dies in the last act.
The characters just get too dumb, and you want to scream at the
scream “What part of ‘destroy the heart’ are you having trouble
understanding?” Even with this stupidity, though, the final
confrontation is filled with enough action to remain entertaining.
Scarier movies than this are a dime a
dozen and better movies are a penny. But movies that are more
entertaining are few and far between.
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