Chucky

...dolls home Andy complains of Chucky the doll speaking to him, and after the murders start they realize Chucky is alive and is getting revenge on his enemies, including Andy and his mom!

The storyline may appear trashy but is surprisingly well executed, managing to ditch any remnants of a poor B movie or a trashy horror; instead it comes across as a classy horror, something you wouldn’t laugh out loud at. The production values on this ...
...and the special effects on Chucky the doll are great. The film is filmed well and by today’s standards is very quality on DVD.

The actors and actress for this film are for the main part good. The child who plays Andy (Alex Vincent) is very convincing especially considering he was only about 8 or 9 during the shooting of this film. He delivers all his lines convincingly and with plenty of emotions, especially during one scene where ... more

Childs Play Review

Childs Play. The word means to most people an adjective to describe a noun meaning something is so easy or simple that a child could do it. Ask any horror fan what Childs Play means and they will tell you of a psychotic ginger doll running around killing people.

Please note – Although in Ciao this film is listed under the name “Chucky” the actual title of the film is “Childs Play” featuring the doll Chucky.

The Childs Play movies have been going now for over 15 years, and this winter the fifth in the series of films is going to be released, Seed Of Chucky. The first Childs Play movie was released in 1988, which was then followed up by Childs Play 2 and 3, and more recently Bride of Chucky. All of the films, although fairly successful, never drew huge money and thus became more of a cult following as it conjures up all those nightmares you had as a child of your toys coming alive and attacking you.

The film storyline, although fairly simple, has a lot of depth. It all starts off when the “strangler” Charles Le Ray is caught in a gun heist in a toy shop, and is shot in the heart. The wound is killing him, and being an expert at voodoo Charles (who likes to be called Chucky) transports his soul into a “Good Guy Doll” in a last desperate attempt to stay alive. It works. Several weeks later it is little Andy’s birthday and his mom cannot afford a Good Guy Doll, even though he is desperate for the damn thing. However, his mum comes across a street peddler selling a seemingly brand new Good Guy Doll, and at $30 instead of $100 she can afford it and she buys it for her son. You’ve guessed, the doll she buys is the one with Chucky’s soul inside. When she gets the dolls home Andy complains of Chucky the doll speaking to him, and after the murders start they realize Chucky is alive and is getting revenge on his enemies, including Andy and his mom!

The storyline may appear trashy but is surprisingly well executed, managing to ditch any remnants of a poor B movie or a trashy horror; instead it comes across as a classy horror, something you wouldn’t laugh out loud at. The production values on this film are quite good, hinting at a fairly large funding for the film. There are a variety of locations, and the special effects on Chucky the doll are great. The film is filmed well and by today’s standards is very quality on DVD.

The actors and actress for this film are for the main part good. The child who plays Andy (Alex Vincent) is very convincing especially considering he was only about 8 or 9 during the shooting of this film. He delivers all his lines convincingly and with plenty of emotions, especially during one scene where he is locked in a room and can see Chucky coming to kill, during this scene he delivers a truly chilling act of crying and begging for his life. In my opinion he is one of the best child actors to grace the screens of a horror film since the girl (Linda Blair) in the Exorcist in 1979.
Andy’s mum (Catherine Hicks) is also a good actress, you she here transformation from a rational mother to a scared women superbly. She displays her emotions fairly well throughout the film, especially towards the end when she is fighting for her sons and her life. The only downside to her character is that it is fairly one dimensional, with no real character to it other than the stereotypical single mum who will do anything for her perfect little son.
The cop who helps the family (like most horror films the family rely on a cop to help them out) plays a large role in the second half and opening moments of the film. Played by Chris Sarandon he is responsible for killing Charles Le Ray, and so indirectly responsible for Chucky’s creation. Chucky is out for revenge on him, for obvious reasons, and so the cop is drawn into the action. His character is less one dimensional than Andy or his mum, but at the end of the day he is the stereotypical cop who is sceptical and then suddenly gets attacked and joins their fight with the menacing doll. Sarandon portrays his character well, delivering lines well and executing the action as you’d expect.

The other main character is of course Chucky the evil doll. Chucky’s character is voiced by Brad Dourif, and is definitely memorable for several reasons.
Firstly his appearance, he is a fairly large doll about 3 feet high. He has an ugly kind of face, think Cabbage patch kids with ginger hair, and wears awful dungarees with a bright sweatshirt. His voice, when being Chucky, is very haunting and has a kind of gravely quality that really gets stuck into your head and injects you with fear. The idea that a doll could have this kind of voice is quite frightening. Chucky’s body becomes more battered as he gets more beaten up towards the finale of the film, as he is first burnt, and then shot to pieces. Chucky is my favourite horror creation of all times, as it takes a genius to take something as harmless as a child’s doll and turn it into something that will have grown adults squirming in their seats.

Child’s Play is directed by Tom Holland, not a famous director but he was responsible for other cult horror movies such as Stephen King’s Thinner, Fright Night, Psycho 2, and The Beast Within. He only directed the first Child’s Play movie, not bothering with the sequels, and he does it well. The film is well directed, with the production of the film having very little fault (especially considering this was an ‘80s flick) and it has aged REALLY well which is always a sign of a good director.

Unlike other Horror movies, such as Halloween, Child’s Play musical score is not that memorable at all. It does have one that plays over the opening and closing credits, that is a haunting child like simple symphony but nothing special at all, but in my opinion this is not an essential ingredient to a film, but a bonus if a film has a good soundtrack. The sound effects in the film are realistic, and pretty standard. The best sound effect without a shadow of a doubt is Chucky’s evil voice, which is superbly executed.

The locations in the film are impressive ranging from toy shops to apartments to asylums, this film covers it all. The budget for this film obviously wasn’t minute as the locations look their part and not like some crummy studio back lot. My favourite location is probably the asylum with it’s feeling of entrapment being conveyed to the viewer effectively, and making you feel as stuck as young Andy does as he waits to die. The locations on this film are very professional, and make you realise that the producers of this film pumped a lot of money into the project and hoped it paid off (in my opinion it sure did).

In this film you don’t actually see that much violence, its what you don’t see that’s a lot worse and builds up the tension well. Sure you see Chucky attack people like biting them or blowing their house up with them inside but the really gorey stuff such as the women who ends up with a hammer in head is shot very cleverly so as you can’t actually see the dirty deed. The film is not a blood fest, although it does feature a large amount of blood and it’s certainly not a non-violent film, it doesn’t rely on it to build the tension, which unfortunately too many films do these days.

The film is certificate 15, because of its horror themes and violent moments (Chucky also drops the F bomb a couple of times, that’s right a child’s doll with a potty mouth!). The film returns for a full 1 hour 23 minutes, which in my opinion is perfect as there nothing worse than a film that drags out for too long unnecessarily. The film is available on both DVD and VHS, although they are quite hard to track down offline. I got my copy from e-bay for £16 with all the other Childs Play films (obviously apart from Seed of Chucky), however that deal doesn’t come with a box so be warned! The film was released in 1988, and so is fairly old but doesn’t look very dated at all.

This is a very fine film indeed. It has a non-famous yet strong cast of actors, and is directed very well by Tom Holland. The idea of Chucky is genius, and is one of the only horror characters created that can still genuinely scare me when I watch it on the silver screen. The storyline is a fairly average horror movie, but executed with such class and agility that it has hardly dated a day since it was released over 15 years ago. The only downside to this classic is that it’s really hard to get your hands on it (I couldn’t find it on Amazon.co.uk and had to get my copy off E-Bay!), and that it is seen as a bit of a cult film so hasn’t not been given the main stream attention it truly deserves.

Thanks for taking the time out to read my review!

If you want to see the trailer for the film here is a link to a site which hosts it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094862/

 

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