A Reel Review: CHILD'S PLAY

In 1988, the slasher-genre of horror got a much-needed twist when Chucky the killer doll arrived in the first CHILD’S PLAY film. By the time Chucky made it to his sixth (!) sequel, the series had gone into the comedy routine, and here in 2019…he gets an update for the modern world. 

A disgruntled employee sabotages one of the millions of Buddi dolls; a high-tech home companion. It lands in the hands of Karen (Aubrey Plaza), a single-mom, and her 13-year-old son Andy (Gabriel Bateman). The doll, nicknamed Chucky (and voiced by Mark Hamill), takes advantage of his quickly-learning, artificial intelligence to right some wrongs in the family. 

Anytime a remake comes along, filmmakers are always faced with the choice of copying the original work or trying a fresh take. In this CHILD’S PLAY, director Lars Klevberg deserves points for giving Chucky a modern spin that feels familiar yet fresh. The Buddi doll is like an Alexa or Siri with legs and arms, with the ability to sync-up with and control nearly any electronic device in range. This gives Chucky a virtual arsenal to work, and kill with…and gives the long-ridiculous franchise some fresh angles to play. Unfortunately, this take on Chucky makes it easier for the grown-ups to figure out how to beat him. 

But playing these new angles don’t last very long. Although the setup of the new killer doll and the way he learns how to kill and how he chooses his victims is decently done, the film eventually falls into the same-old, same-old of the doll running around with a knife. That would be passable, as that’s what we certainly expect and want out of a Chucky movie, but what’s not passable is the complete lack of horror in this horror movie. It’s not very scary at all, and the lack of tension or dread or any sort of atmosphere is noticeable. Horror movies generally lean on having surprises, and CHILD’S PLAY has none as the plot points are plainly spelled out and everything can be seen coming from a mile away. 

Klevberg films a nice looking movie with some clever lighting effects here and there, but pacing is an issue as the film feels much longer than its 90-minute running time. Editing is a hack-job as many transitions from scene-to-scene don’t make sense, Chucky is brought to life through old-school animatronics and CGI, which really work…but it never seems like we see enough of what Chucky can do. There’s plenty of blood and gore, but overall the movie feels restrained. 

The cast does a nice job despite not having much to work with. Aubrey Plaza and Gabriel Bateman have great chemistry together, and Brian Tyree Henry pops in as a friendly-neighborhood detective. Mark Hamill sounds fine as the voice of the killer doll, but like the rest of the film, feels like he’s being held back. 

The finale takes place in a Wal-Mart stand-in on the night of the release of a new and improved Buddi doll, which leads to Chucky’s new Bluetooth and Wi-Fi abilities taking control of a lot of dolls and electronic gadgets for his bloodbath. It borders on silly, and it’s a relief when all the chaos finally comes to an end. CHILD’S PLAY never pretended to be high art, and it never took itself seriously, but at the very least it had to be scary. Any horror film that whiffs on that deserves to have its batteries pulled. 

BOTTOM LINE: Fuck it