An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 1988’s Child’s Play
Young Andy Barclay is gifted a Good Guy Doll named Chucky which happens to contain the soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray.
Is Child’s Play Scary?
Child’s Play has some pretty good jump scares and a few quick shots that will stay with you a bit and make you distrust dolls. Overall it’s not the scariest movie and you probably won’t be scared after it’s over unless you have a replica Chucky doll that you recently lost track of.
Plot Synopsis:
The film opens with Detective Mike Norris (played by Chris Sarandon) chasing after serial killer Charles Lee Ray (played by Brad Dourif) in Chicago. Charles’s partner Eddie Caputo drives off leaving Charles to fend for himself. With no other place to go and Mike closing in, Charles breaks into a toy store where he’s shot by Mike.
Charles struggles through the aisles and realizing that he’s dying, resorts to performing a ritual on a Good Guy doll. A large storm encompasses the sky above the store and a lightning strike explodes the store as Charles finishes his ritual. Walking through the wreckage and somehow still alive, Detective Mike finds Charles’s body next to a Good Guy doll.
The following morning Andy Barclay (played by Alex Vincent) prepares his mother breakfast in bed despite it being his birthday. Judging by his pajamas, the cartoon he’s watching, and the Good Guy cereal, we can tell he’s a huge fan of Good Guy Dolls.
Andy wakes up his mom, Karen (played by Catherine Hicks), and asks to open his gifts hoping that one of them is a Good Guy doll. He’s extremely disappointed when the large box turns out to be clothing. Karen apologizes saying she didn’t know he wanted the doll in time despite him appearing to be sponsored by Good Guy Dolls.
Later while Karen is at work at a department store, her co-worker and friend Maggie (played by Dinah Manoff) runs up to her and tells her a peddler outside is selling the doll. Karen and Maggie head out back and after some bargaining purchase the doll for $30.
Heading back inside Karen’s douchebag boss tells her she’ll have to return to cover the night shift at 7 pm so Maggie offers to watch Andy that night. Karen picks Andy up from daycare and gives him his latest gift. An excited Andy pulls the doll out of the box and we learn its name is Chucky.
That night Maggie is watching Andy as he plays with Chucky. A news report plays referencing Charles Lee Ray’s partner Eddie and we see Chucky’s head turn towards the screen. Although we don’t hear or see it, Chucky tells Andy he wants to watch the news but Maggie tells him it’s bedtime.
Sometime later Maggie is reading a book in the living room when we see someone in Good Guy’s pajamas run past her. Hearing footsteps she walks through the apartment assuming it’s Andy and finds a jar of flour spilled on the floor in the kitchen.
After sweeping up a portion of it, she turns around and someone hits her on the head with a hammer. Maggie stumbles back and falls out of the window to her death.
Later Karen arrives home to the police investigating the death. Detective Mike Norris and his partner Detective Jack (played by Tommy Swerdlow) are on the scene and informed Karen of Maggie’s death. Mike finds small footprints covered in flour on the kitchen table and matches the prints to Andy’s pajama sneakers. So you gotta start to wonder if Mike is about to read Andy his Miranda rights.
Karen realizes what Mike is implying and kicks the police out of her home which is something I had no idea you can do in an active crime scene. Before Mike leaves, Andy realizes Chucky has flour on his shoes and runs to tell Mike. Karen tells him to quit making shit up and pushes him out.
After hearing Andy talking to Chucky in his room, Karen questions Andy as to what Chucky was saying. At first, it seems innocent as Chucky supposedly tells Andy that his real name is Charles Lee Ray, and was sent from heaven by Andy’s dad to keep Andy company. But, Andy then reveals that Chucky said “Maggie was a real bitch and got what she deserve”. Damn Chucky, chill.
The following day Karen drops Andy and Chucky off at school. Moments later, Andy along with Chucky exit the school and wear the fuck are school security or literally other adult wondering why a 6-year-old is walking away from school?
At Chucky’s direction, Andy hops on a train and heads to Eddie’s hideout on an abandoned street. Outside of the house, Andy goes to take a piss and doesn’t notice when Chucky heads into the house alone. Inside we see Eddie sleeping and Chucky turning on the gas for the oven.
Hearing the sounds, trigger-happy Eddie, looks around searching for an intruder. Meanwhile outside, Andy walks around the house looking for Chucky. Eddie hears Chucky’s laugh coming from the kitchen and opens the door immediately shooting at the oven. Since the gas was on, a huge explosion destroys the house.
Cut to Karen entering the police station to meet with Mike where she finds Andy in an observation room talking to Jack. Karen tells Andy that if he continues lying about Chucky, they’re going to take him away.
Andy flips out on Chucky demanding he say something but the doll just repeats the line “Hi, I’m Chucky and I’m your friend till the end.” Andy punches Chucky and tells Karen that Chucky is lying on purpose. He reveals that Chucky threatened to kill him if he ever revealed that he was alive.
A doctor, Dr. Ardmore, interrupts and recommends Andy stay at his hospital for a few days. That night Karen returns home carrying Chucky and demands he talk but Chucky just says one of his pre-recorded lines. Thinking she’s been irrational, Karen heads to the kitchen to grab a drink but stops to look at the Good Guy box Chucky came in.
In an “oh shit” moment, the batteries fall out of the box, telling Karen that Chucky currently has no batteries. Karen cautiously opens the battery holder in Chucky’s back and confirms he has no batteries. In a jump scare, Chucky’s head rotates 180 degrees and asks Karen if she wants to play.
Karen screams dropping Chucky on the ground where he rolls under the couch. Grabbing Chucky she picks him up and demands he talk but when he doesn’t she threatens to throw him in the fireplace.
Chucky finally talks and by talks I mean he flips the fuck out calling Karen a “bitch” and “filthy slut” and tries to attack her. Karen and Chucky struggle with Chucky biting her shoulder and eventually biting her forearm. Karen throws Chucky across the room and he decides to run out of the apartment.
Karen runs after Chucky because he’s proof her son hasn’t lost his damn mind but she loses track of him. At the police station, Detective Mike is leaving but Karen catches up to him and tells him about the battery-less Chucky. Mike doesn’t believe her because honestly, who would? Angered Karen leaves stating she’s going to find the peddler who sold her the doll in the first place.
Karen eventually finds the peddler in an alleyway and offers him money to find out where he got the doll from. The peddler requests more but after Karen tells him she doesn’t have more money he tries to rape her. Detective Mike arrives, punches out the peddler, and demands he answer Karen’s question.
The peddler tells him he found it at a toy store that Mike realizes was the same store where Charles Lee Ray was killed. Mike drops Karen off at home and heads back to the police station to get Charles’s file. After getting back in his car, Chucky appears in the backseat and tries to strangle him.
Mike is able to get the cigarette lighter and burn Chucky forcing him to let go. Chucky then attempts to stab Mike through the seat, which is my worst nightmare, but Mike is an extremely lucky person and avoids getting stabbed. Swerving around, Mike crashes and his car flips upside down.
Mike pulls out his gun and tries to shoot Chucky but misses several shots. Chucky yells out that he can’t be hurt in his new body. As he tries to kill Mike, Mike is able to shoot him in the chest throwing him back. Chucky cries out in pain and runs off.
The following day Karen arrives at Charles Lee Ray’s home and finds artwork all over the walls worshipping Damballa, a spirit of Haitian voodoo. Mike arrives and tells Karen that he learned Charles Lee Ray’s nickname was Chucky.
He doesn’t mention that he was attacked by Chucky but says that Charles Lee Ray spent a lot of time with John Aelsop Bishop, a voodoo teacher known as Dr. Death (played by Ray Oliver).
Cut to John Bishop at home preparing to make some tea when Chucky arrives. Chucky asks why he felt pain and says he bled from the gunshot wound which was not supposed to happen. Bishop tells him that the longer he spends in that body the more human he becomes.
Chucky demands to know how to fix the problem as he doesn’t want to live the rest of his life as a doll but Bishop refuses to help. He tells Chucky he has become an “abomination” and perverted everything Bishop taught him using it for evil.
Bishop runs out of the room to call… someone? Who would even believe him? Chucky follows behind and tells him he thought Bishop would refuse to help so he found Bishop’s voodoo doll.
Chucky breaks Bishop’s leg and arm and Bishop finally relents, telling him that Chucky will have to transfer his soul to the first person he told he was alive. Chucky realizes this means he’ll get to take over Andy’s body and leaves laughing but not before stabbing Bishop’s voodoo doll in the chest.
A short time later Mike and Karen arrive to find a dying Bishop. Before he dies, he tells them the only way to kill Chucky is to destroy his heart. They’re lucky that Bishop lived long enough to tell them that one sentence.
At the hospital which looks more like a prison, Andy spots Chucky from the window and freaks out. Dr. Ardmore tells Andy to chill but he says this through the bars in the window of his door so I don’t think that would make anyone relax. Andy breaks down stating that Chucky is on his way to kill him.
Meanwhile, Chucky sneaks into a room through the window bars and steals an orderly’s keys. Entering Andy’s room he drops the keys and sees what looks like Andy curled up into a ball under the blankets of his bed. Chucky pulls out his knife but when removing the blankets, it’s revealed to be pillows.
Andy is revealed to be hiding and sneaks out of the room, grabbing the keys. Andy locks the room and runs off but not before Dr. Ardmore spots him. Chucky slips through the bar windows and enters another room to chase Andy.
In a surgical room, Chucky attacks Andy who arms himself with a scalpel. Dr. Ardmore appears and disarms Andy not noticing Chucky sneaking up behind him. Chucky stabs Ardmore’s leg and attaches a shock device to his head. Turning it up to 11, Chucky shocks Ardmore until he dies as Andy runs out of the room.
A short time later, Mike and Karen arrive and Jack informs them that Andy escaped after killing Ardmore. Karen tells Mike that Andy must be heading home and that there’s a spare key under the mat.
Cut to Andy entering his home and this kid is resourceful as fuck. I couldn’t even recite my home phone number as a child and this kid just traveled from a hospital to his home, alone… he’s 6! Andy barricades the door, grabs a bat, and hides in his closet.
Meanwhile, Chucky enters the apartment through the fireplace, and for some reason, Andy leaves his hiding spot. In a jump scare, Chucky jump scares Andy who misses with his bat and drops it.
After chasing Andy through the apartment, Chucky gets the jump on him and knocks him out with the bat. Chucky starts the soul transfer ritual as Karen and Mike arrive at the building.
Karen and Mike are able to bust into the apartment and stop Chucky before he finishes the ritual with Mike throwing him across the room. Chucky pulls out his knife and slices at Mike’s leg before running off. But Chucky brought a knife to a gunfight and Mike has two guns.
Giving one gun to Karen, he heads into the room where he learns that bat beats gun as Chucky knocks him out with the bat. Before Chucky can smash Mike’s head in with the bat, Karen appears and shoots out Chucky’s kneecap.
Karen tries to shoot him again but the gun jams and Chucky taunts her as he chases her to the living room. Jumping on top of her, he drops her to the ground but she throws him into the fireplace as Andy wakes up.
Karen thrusts the cover over the fireplace as she turns on the gas and Andy grabs the matches. As he lights one, Chucky makes a plea to his “friend” but Andy basically tells him to suck it and lights him on fire.
Luckily the fire doesn’t spread anywhere else and Chucky is left a crispy doll. Mike wakes up and calls out to Karen from the bedroom. Karen and Andy rush to the room to help him like he did anything special and Karen sends Andy to get the med kit in the kitchen.
Karen tells Mike that Chucky is dead which you should never say out loud in a horror movie. This is especially true when someone you met earlier, tells you the only way to kill the evil villain is to destroy the heart.
After grabbing the med kit, Andy notices that Chucky is missing and runs toward the bedroom but is tripped by a still-alive Chucky.
Andy runs into the room and Karen is able to close the door in time but the room has two entrances. As she struggles with holding the door closed, Chucky stabs her hand through the door and runs to the other entrance. What the hell is Mike doing at this point? Oh, he… fell asleep… are you serious right now?
Karen and Andy run to the living room and Karen remembers she has a gun. She manages to shoot Chucky’s arm, leg, and head off and unloads the gun into the body as its twitches die down. Jack arrives questioning what’s going on and Mike awakens calling out to Karen.
Jack, Karen, and Andy run to the room and Jack calls for an ambulance. Mike tells Jack that Andy was right and the doll was alive. Naturally, Jack doesn’t believe him and goes out to the hallway to look at Chucky’s remains.
Returning with the head, he makes fun of Mike for believing it’s alive. He’s then attacked by Chucky’s body as the head yells for its body to kill him.
Karen pulls the body off of Jack and throws it against the wall. She finally remembers you have to destroy the heart and tells Mike to shoot the heart. Mike finally does something and shoots Chucky’s heart killing him.
The film ends as Mike asks Jack if he believes him now and Jack questions whose going to believe him.
Review:
Child’s Play is great! I forgot how good it was since it’s been so long since I watched it. The movie tells its story well by revealing pieces of information as it goes instead of one big exposition scene.
The acting is pretty good for the most part and the characters feel pretty real. There are several suspenseful and nail-biting scenes that poke at some fears you might not have had. Someone stabbing you through the seat while you drive is one of them.
There’s still one (barely) negative thing that stuck out to me. While the characterization of most of the main characters is pretty strong, we barely know anything about Detective Mike Norris.
He just feels like a plot device to get Karen some extra information and seeing as he doesn’t really do anything to further the plot of the movie, you have to wonder if his character was necessary.
It’s one of those characters that you like but in retrospect you could cut him out, put in any other cop, and nothing would change. To a further extent, his partner Jack is definitely not needed in the film.
Overall I highly recommend giving Child’s Play a watch if you never have and a re-watch for any Halloween marathons you have going on.
Cast IMDB