Shocking as it may sound, if you haven’t heard, Child’s Play, the old school horror series about a killer doll named Chucky, got a reboot. Even more surprising is that, for the most part, it is a relevant and noteworthy reboot. From the producers of It (2017), comes a re-imagining of the classic tale about mass-consumerism in a day and age where smart phones have taken over our lives. There a few major differences between this iteration and the original. First, Brad Dourif (Child’s Play Franchise, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), who has voiced Chucky in every single Child’s Play film from Child’s Play (1988) to Cult of Chucky, got replaced by the very talented voice actor, Mark Hamill (Star Wars, Batman: The Animated Series). Chucky also isn’t brought to life via voodoo this time around. He is just an artificially intelligent robot gone awry. The final big difference is the fact that Andy, played by Gabriel Bateman (Lights Out, Benji remake), is a few years older than his counterpart in the original film, and he is joined by a group of kids, which is probably inspired by the massive success of that dynamic in It (2017) and Stranger Things.
Child’s Play begins with a television ad about the “Buddi Doll” featuring Henry Kaslan, the head of Kaslan Corporation, played by Tim Matheson (Animal House, Hart of Dixie). Kaslan Corporation specializes in smart-home technology like thermostats, vacuums, and speakers, as well as drone technology. The Buddi Doll is introduced as a similar device as Alexa, but in a kid-friendly form that does everything from singing bedtime songs to helping them remember their science book. A disgruntled Kaslan employee, working in a factory in Vietnam, disables one of the Buddi doll’s safety features following his unceremonious firing and all sorts of nasty shenanigans are in store for whoever’s hands the doll ends up in. Fast forward to Andy and his mother, Karen, played by Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation, FX’s Legion). After a sudden move for unknown reasons, Andy is a lonely kid, spending all of his time looking at his phone, while his mom works at the local Zed Mart, the local toy/electronics store.
Andy has trouble staying at home because of her mothers’ jerk boyfriend, Shane, played by David Lewis (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Man of Steel), so the only friend he has made since the move is nice guy detective Mike Norris, played by Brian Tyree Henry (If Beale Street Could Talk, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). Noticing her sons’ lack of friends, Karen decides to give Andy a Buddi doll she tactically acquired from work so that he has something of a companion. Sure enough, it is the same safety-featureless doll which was tampered with at the films’ beginning, and this is when the real fun of the film begins. As Chucky learns more and more from Andy and his ragtag group of friends the more violent he becomes. Without spoiling anything, the film definitely earned its’ hard R-rating with its’ horrific situations and intensely gory deaths.
The Child’s Play series has always relied on a combination of horror and comedy and the reboot, directed by Lars Klevberg (Polaroid), applies the same formula. Oddly enough in these films, there are times when we are almost rooting for Chucky, as an audience filled with a sense of blood-lust, and this film is no different. There are plenty of outrageous laugh out loud moments as well as truly horrific and violent moments which got groans and gasps from the mostly full theater I watched it in. Klevberg does a fine job of directing the actors during these tonal shifts from a debut screenplay written by Tyler Burton Smith. It’s really an interesting take on the Child’s Play story due to the fact that the majority of the technology in the film mirrors our current state of affairs. I could easily imagine this film as a twisted Black Mirror episode.
The child actors do a pretty good job, especially Gabriel Bateman, who seemed to convey so many different emotions of a kid who feels trapped and unhappy in a situation beyond his control. The other kids are pretty one-dimensional, but they serve their purpose well, as there wasn’t enough time to completely build their characters. Aubrey Plaza does a very good job of playing Andy’s mother, even though its’ her first time playing a mom. She conveys the necessary concern for her son, the reckless abandon of a recently single mom, and the unbelievable blind eye to the psychopathic doll living in her house. Mark Hamill does a fantastic job with Chucky’s voice, unsurprisingly. Hamill boasts a very large body of work as a voice actor, most famously voicing the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series and the Arkham Asylum video games. I would say his Chucky voice slightly resembles his Joker voice, but he does an incredibly good job with the small emotional subtleties which Chucky requires. Just like in the original film, Chucky seems to have two modes: good guy doll and evil psychopath. Hamill is incredible as he can switch from one mode to the other in an instant. Decades of voice acting experience made him the obvious choice to portray Chucky in this reboot.
Another reason I enjoyed this film is the shoestring budget which seems to be accompanying some of the greatest horror films these days like Don’t Breatheand any film produced by Jason Blum, who lives and breathes on small budgets. The reason I like a film with a small budget is that the filmmakers have to get creative and in the case of Child’s Play, it forces the filmmakers to use practical effects, which in this modern era of films is a breath of fresh air. It reminds me of the good old days of practical effects produced by Stan Winston (Terminator, Predator) and his protégé Rob Bottin (John Carpenter’s The Thing, Total Recall) whose creature effects redefined what could practically be done on a film set. The majority of the doll effects in Child’s Play are practical, with a tiny bit of CGI used when practical effects were simply impractical. Hats off to special effects coordinator Barry Hebein (X2: X-Men United, Trick r’ Treat) and his team for pulling off the cool robotics seen in the film.
Finally, the best horror films have great scores and Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Godzilla: King of the Monsters) creates an incredibly creepy score for this film. McCreary is having an excellent year as he also composed the wonderful score for the blockbuster Godzilla: King of the Monsters. It’s really a pleasure to listen to his work as each of his scores is so unique and different. His score for Child’s Play bears an overall theme, which is used in the Buddi song which Kaslan Corp uses as a marketing tool in the film. It is essentially retooled throughout the film as well, bearing many different toy instruments at its’ core. Everything from a kazoo to a child’s xylophone are used to create a very unique and creepy score, which plays on the fact that this is a film about a killer doll. The music changes from heartwarming to chilling in an instant, which plays well with the multiple tonal shifts throughout the film. Recently released on vinyl at Waxwork Records, I highly encourage fellow wax heads to check it out!
As far as reboots go, I was not disappointed with Child’s Play. It seems their clever marketing campaign, which feature Chucky humorously killing off different characters from the Toy Story franchise (seriously, checkout the crazy poster designs they came up with), has paid off as the film is heading for a $20+ million weekend. Considering the films’ small budget, this could be a good indicator that a potential sequel could happen. If you have kids, definitely take them to see Toy Story 4 instead of this, but if you’re a fan of horror films and can stand a bit of gore, I would give this movie a chance. After seeing this movie, I’m not going to lie, I’m slightly scared of going to sleep with my Amazon Echo device in the house. Hopefully it hasn’t gained the same malicious self-awareness that Mark Hamill’s Chucky did.