The horror movies of the 80’s brought with them an entire new generation of monsters to torment people in their nightmares. The long time favorites like Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, the Mummy and the other classics had lost their edge with the new audiences and the result was the creation of new terrors. Michael Meyers was at the forefront of this in the late 70’s followed by the likes of Jason, the reemergence of Leatherface, another 70’s icon, Pinhead, and a slew of others. Chucky, the murderous doll from Child’s Play seemed as though he could have been another of the many forgotten names in the industry, and there are plenty of those, but Chucky quickly managed to gain the attention of fans and has become yet another icon.

Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif), a wanted criminal known to authorities and the media as the Lakeshore Strangler, finally finds himself at the end of his criminal career, or so it would seem. Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) has managed to track him down but Ray isn’t giving up so easily. After being wounded, Ray flees to a toy store and thanks to a voodoo spell, he manages to transfer his soul into a new host; a doll. The store ends up burring to the ground after being hit by lighting and it would see that everyone has seen the last of Charles Lee Ray.

Meanwhile, Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) is about to celebrate his birthday and at the top of his list of gift wishes is a Good Guy doll, something his mother Karen (Catherine Hicks) can’t possibly afford. Fate however soon offers her the chance to buy one at a rather low price and now Andy has the perfect gift that he’s always wanted, but it also seems that fate has given them more than they bargained for. Andy’s new doll happens to be the very one that Ray transferred his soul into and it isn’t long before he takes his first life while Andy is seen as being the only possible suspect. At first no one will believe him that Chucky did it but soon, the dolls intentions become very clear and now all Ray needs to do is transfer his soul into another body to live again . . . and Andy is the only candidate.

Child’s Play was originally intended to be something of a “whodunit” variety of film before transforming into the horror film that we all know today. We were to wonder if Andy was in fact telling the truth or if he was the real killer, something that the final version of the movie does minimally. Most however probably had little problem seeing that the movie was trying to steer viewers in the wrong direction but at least Child’s Play doesn’t try and keep this approach going. It isn’t long before we see exactly what Chucky is, not that there could have been any other thought about it.

The film was released after what I still consider to be the boon of horror movies in the 80’s. 1985 – 86 still have some memorable movies but after that, horror started to take a nosedive with the originality being drained like a fresh kill and fascination with slasher films continuing to subside. While Child’s Play managed to remain cemented in people’s minds, I’ve often felt that this can be attributed to the approach of the movie. Instead of tossing in another silent killer, Chucky is given an attitude. This follows along with the likes of Freddy and even the Crypt Keeper. Writers decided that a one-liner and a kill was a great approach to freshen things up a bit and it worked for a while but eventually became just another tired gimmick. The “horror” was drained even further from the genre and created a new breed of fan that was more content to hear what the next “hilarious” comment would be from their favorite killer.

Child’s Play also isn’t quite the type of horror movie that works in the same way that other movies do. While it is a slasher to an extent, it never quite hits the same stride as others. There isn’t a high body count, there isn’t a huge amount of gore, and instead much of the movie first relies on trying to misdirect you as far as who the killer is before relying heavily on what Chucky will say next. There’s no real mystery in the movie, there’s no real horror and it’s by luck alone that Child’s Play and Chucky managed to survive the test of time and become yet another horror icon.

The transfer of the film onto blu-ray is decent, but some should keep in mind that this is a movie that was originally released back in the late 80’s. That of course means that there is going to be a good deal of visual grain seen during the course of the movie but once again I’d like to point out that this is going to be very common with any older movie. If you’re hoping for crystal clear, it’s probably best if you just avoid anything that was made longer than a decade ago.

Child’s Play was released last year as a 20th anniversary edition though for some reason a blu-ray wasn’t offered. A year later Chucky is back and with the same extra features that were found on the DVD. There are two different commentary tracks, the first one featuring Alex Vincent, Catherine Hicks and Kevin Yagher, the designer of Chucky. The second track meanwhile features David Kirshner and Don Mancini and technically there is a third commentary. Chucky himself provides scene specific commentary and this addition to the release shows that really, it’s more about Chucky than anything else. There are quite a few feautrettes that examine the movie from different perspectives and feature interviews with the cast and crew, but nothing that is overwhelmingly exciting.

Child’s Play has managed to earn itself a place in the “horror hall of fame” though there was definitely other horror movies that are better. If wise cracking killers is your thing, Child’s Play is a necessary high definition addition. Otherwise, if that brand of slasher film has managed to get on your last never, this is probably worth avoiding. The cult status of the film though guarantees that horror fans who still have a soft spot for the bad Good Guy doll will want to grab the disc for some high definition Chucky fun.
 

-mike-