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"Child's Play" : My 12th Favorite Horror Movie

Alright, Bidites, let's keep this horror movie countdown moving along. With my previous installment, I looked as closely as I dared at British film The Last Horror Movie. With my next choice, we take a step back from the unflinching realism of that film to explore an American horror clasc with a concept that may be much more far fetched, but is thankfully taken seriously by the creative forces involved. Please join me in celebrating my 12th favorite horror movie of all time:Childs Play

t for her young son, Andy (cute-as-a-button Alex Vincent). Karen's friend and co-worker Maggie (Dinah Manoff) gets some inkling that she should maybe be afraid of Chucky, but she soon brushes it off, giving Chucky a chance to do her in. And that is the true secret to Chucky's success as a murderer, even (or especially) when trapped inde a toy. He uses the fact that most everyone thinks he's just an object to his utmost advantage, waiting to strike until someone's back is turned, or until they are hunched over cleaning up a mess he made when they weren't looking. He apparently reveals himself to Andy pretty early on, but this happens off camera, and seems to be just another gn of Chucky's cunning. He knows no one will believe the boy, even if he screams from the rooftops that his doll is alive, and it would be hard for Chucky to demand the things he wants from Andy if he never deviated from the handful of phrases a Good Guy doll is supposed to be able to utter. When it was released, Child's Play also had a canny timeliness going for it. It's no coincidence that Chucky ends up in a body that looks so much like the My Buddy doll from Hasbro, a mega popular children's toy in the '80s. The fact that this movie doubtlessly made a whole generation of tots (and probably at least a few of their parents) feel a bit uncomfortable around their own toys is just one more mark of its success, and another indication of the wicked senbility Mr. Holland brought to the project.

The cast responds well to the gravitas their director insted upon. Child's Play is effective as a horror movie because the characters and their reactions are believable. The adult characters behave as adults, even when Andy desperately needs them to discard their mature, logical ways of thinking and conder the posbility of magic. This conflict between the mindset of a child and that of an adult is a constant theme of the movie, and it nearly gets poor Andy killed more than once. It's eaer for Karen and Detective Norris to believe that Andy has developed a sudden and severe form of schizophrenia than it is for them to put any stock in his claims that Chucky is committing violent crimes, and Andy soon finds himself under lock and key in a mental institution. There, he represents convenient prey for Chucky, especially nce his new doctor (Jack Colvin) seems very quick to try and sedate him.The film really began to crackle for me when Karen first started giving into her instincts, and trusting her son. After Andy is taken to the mental institution, Karen is left alone at their apartment with Chucky. She regards the doll appraingly, picks him up, shakes him and soon starts demanding "Talk, damn you!" Chucky ignores the demand at first, except for one of his canned replies. Karen laughs at herself in exasperation and goes into the kitchen, where she happens upon the box Chucky came in. This is when she discovers the batteries which are still in their package. For the first time, Karen has a tangible gn that something isn't right with Andy's doll, and even her adult mind can't find a way to mply discard that. She approaches Chucky even more cautiously than before and confirms that there are no batteries inde him, meaning that he shouldn't have even been able to deliver the scripted line she just heard him use. She threatens to throw him in the fireplace if he doesn't speak to her, and what follows is one of my favorite scenes in horror. Chucky's first, foul-mouthed manifestation to Karen is cool, well-crafted and provides genuine jolts. And when Chucky is able to escape the apartment, it leaves Karen with a new problem. Obviously, she believes Andy's story now, but without a shred of proof, she has a hard road ahead of her when it comes to convincing Detective Norris that insanity doesn't mply run in her family. Watching Karen and the detective's growing exasperation with one another is one of the unexpected delights of the film, and as actors, it gives Catherine Hicks and Chris Sarandon some material that they can (and do) really nk their teeth into.

Strong performances go a long way towards increang the appeal of any film, but in this case, a lot also rested on the special effects team. No matter who was cast in the leading roles, Child's Play would be pretty much dead on arrival if they were acting alongde a lump of plastic that wasn't credible as a living entity. Luckily, this fact was not lost on the special effects team, who gave us a sadistic little murder doll that both looks and sounds real (Brad Dourif's gruff, intimidating voice also helps with the latter part). This accomplishment would be somewhat impresve even today, but when you conder that Child's Play

hit theaters in 1988, it becomes flat out astounding. The effects in this movie still hold up to scrutiny much better than those in a lot of more recent films. The character of Chucky also benefits from having a deeper motivation than just wanting to kill. Sure, he was a serial killer even before he was a doll, and he shows no gns of wanting to give up that occupation. However, his motive for continuing to stalk Andy even after the two of them are separated does not involve murdering the child. It turns out that Chucky is becoming more and more human the longer he stays inde the doll. Meaning he is becoming more and more vulnerable, and starting to be able to feel human pain. By the time he finds this out, his heart has already become almost entirely organic. As far as Chucky is concerned, if he can feel human pain and be killed like a human, he might as well be human. When he discovers that he can only possess the body of the first person he revealed himself to, Chucky becomes bemused at the prospect of being 6 years old again, and sets out to transfer his spirit into Andy's form. in my opinion, the dere to displace someone's spirit, essentially murdering or enslaving their soul, is a bit scarier than mply wanting to destroy their phycal body. There is a definite end point to phycal suffering. At least it can only hurt until you die. But being possessed by the soul of a serial killer is a form of suffering that seems like it might go on and on, with no end in ght. Chucky's need to possess Andy makes Child's Play a better and more versatile film. The posseson subplot adds depth to the story without ever diminishing or distracting from its success as a slasher movie about a killer doll. Even when I watched Child's Play

as a youngster, I remember being surprised at how fully cooked it was. I didn't expect this type of movie to have well-developed characters, a strongly established atmosphere, or to be helmed with such confidence by a director who was truly engaged in what they were doing. Every time I watch it as an adult, I come away impressed by how entertaining and effective it is. It doesn't make me believe in living, evil dolls, but it does remind me that if Chucky was real, he would use my disbelief to strike while I was unaware there was anything to be afraid of. I conder Child's Play 2 to be a perfectly respectable sequel, but it makes me sad to note that none of the other, campier installments in the franchise after that one have even come close to doing the original justice. In fact, they have done an awful lot to make people forget just how good the first movie in the series is. Which is why it gives me a special sense of joy to include Child's Play

on my countdown of favorites. The people in charge of where Chucky goes from here need to re-watch this film and get back in touch with the roots of this franchise. I hope that my fellow Bidites will join me in demanding that they do so. Because I want this

Chucky back - the one who is not a total joke and is actually capable of inspiring fear. Stay tuned for my next installment!

This was probably the first horror film to actually affect me as a child. I was only x years old when it was released and we must have rented it fairly soon after it hit video, because I remember seeing it from an early age. I also remember being absolutely terrified of my brother's My Buddy doll, and helping him start a fire on his bedroom floor to get rid of it. Luckily, we and the rest of the family survived with only a few scorchmarks left on the floor.

I look for that in horror movies now - that sort of visceral reaction that causes you to act strangely and against the laws of common sense: staying away late into the night because the shadows on the wall seem shaped the wrong way, afraid to peek behind closed shower curtains in an empty house, for a moment condering the imposble to be a reality. It's one of the reasons I shy away from the torture porn genre and more exploitive-type films. I go to horror looking to be scared.

I used to love this movie when I was a kid, but upon a recent re-watch, man was I shocked at how badly the film has aged. It's flat out not scary, it's cheesy as hell and most of the 'scary' scenes are just laughable now. Having said all that, the series is still a hell of a lot of fun!

I was about 10 years old, when I saw the first Child's Play. My aunt and uncle had seen the movie on video, and I kept asking all about the doll, and if it would speak. First when I saw the video cover, i thought it would be a Jeff Dunham kind of horror, but when i finally got to see Chucky doing his thing and having a pretty bad mouth ( come on, I was 10) I fell in love with the character and soon found out about a sequel, with another great poster. To me

Chucky still is a big fun thrill for me, I like the first three of the movies, but had my fun with the other two sequels. Because of Child's play 2, I started with my hobby, collecting stuff from movies, but the one thing i could'nt get in my collection, was a Good Guy doll. So at age 12 I wrote a letter to Universal Studios asking them for a Good Guy doll ( I was completely convinced that the Play Pals factory was real). It was in pretty bad language as I'm a Dutch guy, but about a month later the deliveryguy dropt a package all the way from the USA. It contained a plush Chucky doll, some tradingcards a few buttons and a thank you-letter from the studios. I was the happiest guy in my town, taking the doll to school, and making a little Good Guys box out of a shoe box. Anyway, thanks to Chucky, my horror-hobby really started and in 2009 my little boy-wish got completed with a life ze Chucky doll, that's now ting on the corner of my couch. Child's Play and it's sequels are big fun, and if I may say, very well created!

I love Child's Play.It was and still is one of the greatest horror movie's of all time.I love the sequel's too even the fourth and fifth installments which I liked for different reasons than the first three.Child's Play brought in a new horror icon known as Chucky.Chucky is awesome and I conder him as much of an horror icon as I do Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.I felt Chucky in the first film had a more creepier look too him especially when andy's mom threatened to throw him into the fire place and he came alive in her hands.That's the scene that comes to my mind when I think of that movie as far as probably the creepiest scene.It isn't just Chucky's creepy look but the fact that she is in her appartment all by herself when it happens.It's both of those factor's that and the lead into it where she starts to wonder maybe the doll is alive and then from there she starts to think shes being lly and then the batteries fall out of the box and after she looks in him and see's theres no batteries and then his head turns all the way around and say's hi im chucky.It goes on into that scene after she pulls him out from under the couch where he rulled under after she got scared and dropped him.I have great memorie's of this movie.I own the 20th anniversary dvd and the rest of the film series also.