Review #120: Child's Play (1988)

Cast & Notable Credits:
Tom Holland (Director): Fright Night (1985), The Langoliers (1995), Thinner (1996), MOH: We All Scream for Ice Cream (2006)

Brad Dourif (Charles Lee/Chucky)

Catherine Hicks (Karen Barclay): Star Trek 4 (1986), Turbulence (1997), 7th Heaven T.V. series

Chris Sarandon (Mike Norris): Fright Night, The Princess Bride (1987), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Bordello of Blood (1996)

Dinah Manoff (Maggie): Grease (1978), Soap T.V. series

Tommy Swerdlow (Jack Santos): Spaceballs (1987), Howard the Duck (1986), Real Genius (1985)

Alex Vincent (Andy Barclay): Child's Play 2

Trailer:



Plot:

The Chicago Police Department has finally caught up and corned notorious serial killer, Charles Lee Ray. Detective Mike Norris has fatally wounded the Lakeside Strangler and has him on the run and trapped inside a local toy store. Desperate for survival, Charles Lee Ray uses “Black Magic” to transfer his soul into the body of a toy doll. Not just any toy doll, but a Good Guys doll.

Detective Norris arrives to find a dead Charles Lee Ray laying next to a doll on the floor of the toy store. Case closed. Right? Wrong. The doll makes its way into the hands of a young boy named Andy Barclay on his 6th birthday. Soon afterwards, mysterious deaths happen around Andy and his Good Guy doll named, Chucky. The police believe that Andy is the culprit behind these mysterious deaths. Andy insists to his mom and police that Chucky did them, and then Andy is institutionalized.

Chucky then learns from the man, who had taught him the Black Magic, that the only way to transfer back to a human is to reverse the process on the first human he told his real name to. Translation: in order to become human, Chucky must swap his soul with Andy.

Villain:

An oversized Cabbage Patch kid named Chucky. Okay, I’ll give Chucky a little bit more love than that. He’s a killer doll. There…better? Ah! Come on’ we all know what he looks like.

Chucky Trivia:
- Real name is Charles Lee Ray; nickname: Chucky

- The notorious Lakeshore Strangler

- Charles Lee Ray name is a combination of 3 Killers:
1. Charles Manson (F*ckin' weirdo)
2. Lee Harvey Oswalt (Assassination of J.F.K.)
3. James Earl Ray (Assassination of M.L.King Jr.)

- Lived att 730 Stoney Island, Chicago, IL

- Shot at the store on the corner of Wabash Av. & Van Buren, Chicago, IL

- Died on November 8, 1988 (Movie release date)

- Through use of Black Magic C.L.Ray transfer soul into doll

- Doll model: Good Guy Doll by the Play Pals Co.

- Good Guy Doll says three lines:
1. "Hi, I'm ______."
2. "I'm your friend to the end."
3. "Hidey-Ho!"

- Was purchased by Karen Barclay in the alley from her work for $30 from a peddler

- To regain human form, Chucky must transfer soul into the 1st human he revealed himself to

- Can only be killed through the "heart"

Cast:

The chick from the Star Trek that featured whales stars as Andy’s mom (Catherine Hicks pictured left). She does a pretty decent job in the film. For me, it’s really hard to look at her and take her seriously. It probably has something to with her role in Turbulence.

To make a long story short, one of my friends absolutely loved the movie Twister. I mean LOVED. As in “Best Movie Ever”! Why? I don’t know. Anyways,
afterwards every movie he liked we made some type of comment about the movie
plot and Twister. He wanted to go see Turbulence, and he loved it. So Turbulence
got dubbed…Twister…With an airplane. It’s kind of stuck since.

As you can see, I have some problems looking at Catherine Hicks and her work with a straight face. For me, it’s always going to be the chick from Twister with an airplane or the chick from the whale Star Trek movie. Also she was in that 7th Heaven show. I just can’t win.

Back to the cast…well after rambling on for a while…I’m done here. I’m lost for words. I’m still stuck on Twister with an airplane. New category…

SFX/Gore:

For being one of the classic horror films of all time, there weren’t too many deaths. In fact there were only four total. None of them required anything really from the special effects department. One chick fell out of a high story window (demise not seen), another died in an implied explosion, another in an implied stabbing, and the last was electrocuted. That death even required little attention for the effects department.

Does this mean that there weren’t any effects? On the contraire, a great deal of effects was used to bring the Chucky doll to life. After all it was late 80’s, and CGI really wasn’t a blimp on the radar yet. A great amount of skill was used to bring the little guy to life. I applaud their effort. I couldn’t see any cheesiness in the way they did Chucky.

TNA:

As for hot chicks in the film, it was the chick from Star Trek with whales. Big time Shark Factor! The other chick who died early on doesn’t even qualify for this category. Who cares if there aren’t any hot chicks or anything else in the film? I DO! But oh well, nothing I can do about it. How ‘bout photos of Catherine Hick’s two daughters in 7th Heaven. Jessica Biel and Beverly Mitchell pictured L/R. Much better.


Concept:

A murderous felon about to die transfers soul into doll, and then…a classic killer is born. Who knew? Four sequels later and Chucky is even more popular as when he hit the big screen. Unfortunately the four sequels are as good as this movie.

This movie used old school methods to create suspense and fear in the audience. Hell, the audience doesn't even get to see Chucky come to life until the 43 minute of the film. Before that the film used clever editing, quick cuts and showed little glimpses and hints of Chucky possibly being alive. You never heard a word he said, and never saw him move.

When you realized that something was wrong with the doll and somebody was gonna die, you still didn't get to see the doll move. Chucky just sat there on a chair or something, just an ordinary plastic doll sitting on a chair that didn't move. And then the next shot of him, the doll was gone. The next shot, he was there. That's classic old school of f*ckin' with the mind!

I remember the first time seeing this movie a long time ago. I wasn't even sure what to expect. I didn't know what type of evil doll Chucky was. I thought the doll was just one of those dumb possessed dolls that has been seen many times before. Nothing special. Just a doll that sat there looking scary and then at some point in the film turn his head and talk. Not this killer doll. One minute he's an overgrown Cabbage Patch kid and then...Boom! He's a walkin', talkin', head rotating, potty mouth killer doll coming after people.

T.Gun Factor:

Child's Play is a classic horror movie with a legendary killer. Chucky even goes on to coach in the NFL and win a Super Bowl. Oh wait, that's John Gruden. He looks like Chucky. He does. Man, I have plenty of time to talk about this...four sequels worth!

Just like other classic 80's horror movies, the first installment of the series is one of the best. Child's Play holds true to that statement. Child's Play is more creepy and scary than I remembered. It's following spawned sequels go on to give us a smart *ss killer who "puns" then kills...hmm...sounds like Freddy...blur the image of what the original film gave us, a true horror film.

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film opened on November 9, 1988 and made $33.2 million at the Box Office ($6.5 million opening weekend)
-Movie was filmed in Chicago
-Good Guy Dolls were based on Cabbage Patch Kids; it was rumored early on that they were based off another doll, The My Buddy doll by Hasbro