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 1990’s Child’s Play 2
Killer doll Chucky returns to Chicago in an attempt to find 8-year-old Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) and kill anyone in his way.
Is Child’s Play 2 Scary?
Child’s Play 2 can be a bit creepy at times but it has fewer scares than the first Child’s Play. The kills are a bit gorier, especially one towards the end but overall the movie won’t leave you scared.
Child’s Play 2 (1990) Plot Synopsis:
The film opens with the Play Pals corporation, maker of Good Guys dolls, rebuilding Chucky in order to prove there was nothing wrong with the doll. Apparently, the best way to squash negative publicity is to try to prove a child is mentally ill.
We learn from one of the executives, Mattson (played by Greg Germann) who is overseeing Chucky’s glow-up, that the police denied Chucky was real, Karen was sent to a psychiatric institution, and Andy was sent to a Children’s hospital to be placed into a foster home.
As the technicians add Chucky’s eyes as the final step, things go Frankenstein and the electric shock kills a technician.
At the children’s hospital/orphanage while Andy talks with a therapist, social worker Grace (played by Grace Zabriskie) meets with Joanne and Phil Simpson (played by Jenny Agutter and Gerrit Graham respectively) and hopes to have them agree to foster Andy.
Phil is apprehensive about fostering Andy because of the murders but Grace assures him that Andy is fine because she doesn’t know the movie has just started.
The Simpsons agree to foster Andy and they bring him home. We learn that Joanne has some pretty precious fragile antique statues which she probably shouldn’t keep out in the open if they foster children. Andy also meets Kyle (played by Christine Elise) a 17-year-old smoking badass who has been in multiple foster homes; she’s the true hero of this story.
Joanne brings Andy to his room filled with every toy from 1990. Looking in the closet he pulls on a skateboard and a Good Guy doll falls onto him. Andy freaks out and tries to run out of the room but Phil catches him and admonishes him.
He also says “It’s just a doll” almost like he didn’t hear anything Grace told him about the gruesome murders that Andy believes a Good Guy doll committed. Joanna the more sympathetic and not total dickhead of the parents, apologizes to Andy and takes the doll, who calls himself Tommy, away.
That night Mattson leaves work and takes the Chucky doll with him. While he stops by a liquor store, Chucky reads Andy’s file. He then calls the orphanage and asks Grace where Andy is claiming that he is his uncle Charles.
Instead of Grace saying “Charles? Like Charles Lee Ray, the killer Andy believes is in his doll.” or something like “Sorry we don’t give out personal information regarding minors to random adults calling on the phone”, she gives Chucky Andy’s deets.
Mattson returns to his car and Chucky puts a gun to his head telling him to drive. Near the Simpson house, Chucky tells him to park in a convenient, empty parking lot and, after tying Mattson’s hand behind the seat, Chucky reveals the gun is a water gun.
Chucky then kills Mattson by suffocating him with a plastic bag. Chucky then breaks into the Simpson house and by “break in” I mean he literally just goes through the front door because they didn’t lock it. What the fuck?
Chucky hears Joanne singing to Andy upstairs and hears her telling him she won’t leave his side until he falls asleep meaning Chucky will have to wait to enact his plan. As he turns to leave, Tommy activates and Chucky attacks him with an antique statue.
Eventually, he breaks Tommy’s face and the statue which sounds pretty loud but only Andy hears it. Joanne assures him the sound was nothing as we see Chucky bury Tommy under a swing in the backyard.
The following morning Chucky has taken Tommy’s place in the house and Phil and Joanne find the broken statue. They then ground both Andy and Kyle since they claim they didn’t break it.
Later Kyle and Andy bond as they do chores around the house. As he exits the basement, Andy overhears Phil and Joanne talking about him, and Phil wonders if they can handle him because of the whole doll-murdering thing. It’s literally been 24 hours. Joanne tells Phil to give it some time and points out that she really likes Andy.
In an attempt to make the two feel more comfortable with keeping him, Andy grabs the Good Guy doll, checks if it has batteries, and then takes it past Phil and Joanne. He stops to make sure they see him as a happy boy who is over his trauma.
That night Andy wakes up with his arms and legs tied to his bed and his mouth stuffed with a sock. More importantly, Chucky is sitting on top of him and reveals he’s back to play hide the soul. As Chucky starts to recite his soul-transferring speech, he’s interrupted when the two hear Kyle opening the window.
Turns out Kyle snuck out for a date earlier and is now sneaking back in through Andy’s window. Why Andy’s? Because the movie needed a reason for Chucky to not win yet. Chucky pretends to play doll and a confused Kyle removes the sock from Andy’s mouth.
Andy immediately yells about Chucky and pushes him off the bed which causes Joanne and Phil to enter. Phil freaks out and thinks that Kyle tied up Andy so he wouldn’t rat her out for sneaking in. This probably makes as much sense to him as Andy’s claims that “the doll did it” so I can’t judge.
Phil loses his temper and grabs Chucky throwing him down the basement stairs as Andy watches. After they leave, Chucky gets up and notices his nose is bleeding meaning he’s running out of time to take Andy’s body.
The following day Andy gets on the bus for his first day of school and some random kid pushes him for no reason. As the bus drives off we see Chucky climb onto the back of the bus. At recess, Chucky searches through a stack of tests the kids took and finds Andy’s.
Later, that same jerk kid from the bus flicks Andy’s ear in class and the teacher, Ms. Kettlewell, somehow doesn’t see it.
Ms. Kettlewell dismisses the class for the day, she finds Andy’s test that Chucky has defaced with the words “FUCK YOU BITCH” and honestly, I feel it lacks originality. Meanwhile, as Andy puts away some toys, he finds Chucky in one of the cupboards. Ms. Kettlewell grabs Andy and shows him the obscenity on the test which he claims he didn’t write.
She forces Andy to stay after school and, thinking Andy will try to play with Chucky, locks Chucky in the closet. She then leaves the room to call the Simpsons like a snitch and locks Andy in the classroom which I’m pretty sure is a fire hazard.
Andy approaches the door and looks through the keyhole. In a jump scare, Chucky surprises him and demands he be let out of the closet. Andy escapes the school crawling out of a window. A few minutes later Ms. Kettlewell returns and assumes Andy is in the closet.
She searches the closet and doesn’t find him. Chucky pops out from behind some coats and stabs her with a ball air pump. Ms. Kettlewell falls back and is shocked to see Chucky coming at her with a ruler which interestingly is made by the Good Guys company.
Chucky attacks Ms. Kettlewell presumably killing her by bashing her head in with the ruler. I’m not sure since we cut away and only hear her yells.
Andy runs home where Phil yells at him for believing Chucky is alive. Opening the basement door, he shows him that Chucky is still laying on the basement floor. Since we don’t see how long it is between this scene and the last scene, this is completely plausible.
That night while Phil and Joanne argue about keeping Andy (Phil’s a dick), Kyle has a heart-to-heart with Andy in his room. Kyle tells him she’s been through dozens of foster homes and the only one he can rely on, is himself.
Later while everyone is asleep, Andy grabs an electric carving knife from the kitchen and heads into the basement for battle. Chucky is no longer on the floor and after a somewhat tense scene of searching, Chucky jumps down onto Andy’s back causing Andy to drop the knife.
Upstairs Phil hears the commotion and heads down to the basement. Meanwhile, Andy is able to grab the knife and get Chucky off of him. Phil opens the door just as Chucky runs off so all he sees is Andy holding the knife. He tells Andy to put down the knife and then starts walking down the stairs.
Chucky grabs an iron fireplace hook and hooks Phil’s leg through the slats of the stairs causing him to hang off the side upside down. Chucky introduces himself to Phil and lets go of the hook causing him to fall and break his neck. Kyle and Joanne hear Phil’s screams and arrive as he dies with Joanne blaming Andy for his death.
A short time later Joanne sends Andy back to the orphanage with Grace. Kyle grabs Chucky from the basement and throws him in the garbage outside of the house. She then swings on the swing outside while having a cigarette and ends up kicking off the dirt covering Tommy. Pulling him out of the dirt, Kyle remembers they only had one creepy-ass doll.
Kyle checks the garbage can and discovers Chucky is missing. Hearing a crash upstairs, Kyle runs inside, grabs a small hunting knife, and runs up to Joanne’s room but finds her dead with her throat slashed. Chucky attacks Kyle causing her to drop her knife because all knives are apparently coated in slippery vaseline.
Kyle fights Chucky off with a lamp but he grabs her knife and hides under the bed. As Kyle tries to exit the room, Chucky trips her, jumps on top of her, and threatens her with the knife. Cut to later, Chucky and Kyle are on a joyride as Chucky tells Kyle to hurry to the orphanage since he doesn’t have long before he’s trapped in the body.
A cop pulls Kyle over in a scene that leads to nothing and didn’t need to exist. Chucky does bleed from his nose and, I guess, you can argue that this emphasizes that he’s running out of time but he already said he was, we didn’t need to hear it and see it.
After they leave the cop, Chucky demands Kyle floor it, so she does and then slams on the brakes causing Chucky to break through the windshield. This raises a very unimportant but very interesting question, how dense is Chucky?
Anyway, Chucky jumps onto the front of the car, and Kyle floors it again, crashing into a barrier pole that throws Chucky against a chain-linked fence. This literally does no damage to him. Kyle tries to ram him but he runs out of the way.
Unable to spot Chucky and seeing that she’s close to the orphanage, Kyle gets out of the car. Of course, Chucky appears and jumps on her back placing the knife against her throat. At the orphanage the fire alarm rings and as the children are being ushered out, Andy spots Kyle with Chucky.
Grace sees them as well and blames Kyle for the fire alarm but Kyle tells her it was Chucky. Grace brings them all into her office, where she yells at Kyle and grabs Chucky. Coming to life, Chucky stabs Grace in the chest, killing her.
Kyle tries to grab Andy and run out of the room but Chucky slams the door closed before Andy can leave. Finally getting the door open, Kyle sees that Chucky and Andy have left through a window. She then sees them both hop onto a passing newspaper truck and she follows after in her car.
After a short chase, Kyle stops in front of the truck forcing the driver to pull over. Kyle jumps out of her car and runs to the truck but sees that Andy and Chucky are gone. She spots the two running across the street into the Good Guys factory from the start of the movie. Before she can run over she’s stopped by the truck driver whose acting is extremely over the top for what just happened.
Kyle pushes the truck driver off and runs into the factory where apparently security doesn’t exist because everyone gets in without issue. Also, the factory floor has a weird layout, and all the Good Guys are stacked up creating a maze, is this ADA-compliant?
After walking through the maze for some time, Chucky knocks Andy down and starts the chant. Kyle desperately searches for Andy as a lightning storm spawns outside. Chucky is able to finish his voodoo ritual without interruption but it doesn’t work because he spent too long in the doll’s body. Chucky is now forever a doll… until the sequel finds a way to change the rules.
A pissed-off Chucky now only wants to kill Andy but is knocked down by a tower of Good Guys that Kyle drops on him. Andy and Kyle regroup and wander through the maze looking for a way out but end up finding the assembly line. The two decide to climb up a conveyor belt despite them not having to climb down one.
Kyle is able to grab Andy before Chucky stabs him and then pins Chucky’s arm under a steel grate. With no other choice, Chucky rips his freaking hand off!
Kyle and Andy continue through the factory getting passed a machine that installs eyes that becomes clogged, and narrowly avoiding getting hot plastic spilled on them from a leaky pipe.
The clogged machine sets off an alarm and a security guard- there’s a fucking security guard this whole time! The security guard goes to check it out. Meanwhile, in another part of the factory, Chucky installs the knife into his stump.
The security guard/maintenance worker is killed by Chucky with his new knife arm in a pretty gnarly kill since he falls back into the eye machine and gets doll eyes installed. In another part of the factory, Andy accidentally presses a button that reverses the conveyor belt.
This causes the doll next in line to move backwards into a compartment that douses it in hot plastic and attaches multiple limbs to it. Why does this exist?
Chucky pops up but Kyle knocks him back onto the conveyor belt where he is pinned down by the machine. Andy presses the button and the conveyor belt reverses taking Chucky into the compartment. As he screams in pain we hear hot plastic being poured onto him and multiple mechanical arms jamming him with appendages.
Andy presses the button again and what’s left of Chucky is rolled out. Neither Andy nor Kyle notice that the top half of Chucky is missing. As they leave, the maintenance worker’s lifeless body swings from a rope, knocks out Kyle, and throws her onto the conveyor belt. When did Chucky have time to set up this trap?
Chucky appears, now dragging himself on a small rolling cart, and tries to stab Andy but misses. After getting his knife stuck, he realizes the leaky pipe of hot plastic is above him and Andy opens it, covering Chucky in it.
Andy is able to wake up Kyle before she gets dolled up and the two look upon Chucky’s remains. Chucky jumps awake and grabs Kyle. After a very brief struggle, Kyle grabs an air hose and jams it into Chucky’s mouth. Chucky’s head expands and explodes, killing him for good.
Kyle and Andy finally leave the factory and Andy asks where they’re going. Kyle says home and Andy questions where that is, which is a very valid question. The film ends as Kyle responds that she has no idea.
A happy ending but seriously where the fuck are they going?
Review:
Child’s Play 2 is good, it’s a bit of a step down from the first movie since it feels like a rehash of the first movie with all the same story beats except no cop this time. The acting is fine from the entire cast and the dialogue feels real. The story overall makes sense, it was weird how quickly Phil was not about fostering Andy despite agreeing to foster him after fully knowing his backstory. I assume he was doing it mainly for Joanne but we don’t see the justification for that argument.
My main issue with the story is the lack of any real threat, Chucky wants to switch souls with Andy so he doesn’t want to kill him. Phil sucks so you don’t care for his character, Joanna is a likable character just like Kyle but we don’t spend a lot of time with either of them so there’s no real suspense. The only time the movie gets suspenseful is in the last 10 minutes when Chucky realizes he can’t switch bodies and now only wants to kill.
Child’s Play 2 is still entertaining but it doesn’t have the suspense or the scares from the first film. Overall I do recommend Child’s Play 2 but really only if you’re a fan of Chucky and not necessarily a fan of horror movies.
Cast IMDB