{"id":4093,"date":"2024-09-18T17:35:56","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T17:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4093"},"modified":"2024-10-12T22:08:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T22:08:56","slug":"childs-play-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/18\/childs-play-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Child\u2019s Play (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Child\u2019s Play <\/strong>(2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (bloody horror violence, language throughout)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Lars Klevberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tyler Burton Smith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Bear McCreary\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Brendan Uegama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 21, 2019 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, Mark Hamill, Brian Tyree Henry, Tim Matheson, David Lewis, Carlease Burke, Ty Consiglio, Beatrice Kitsos, Marlon Kazadi, Anantjot S. Aneja, Nicole Anthony, Amro Majzoub.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $29.2M (US)\/$44.9M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Chucky doll introduced in the remake of Child\u2019s Play<\/strong> is NOT the Chucky we\u2019ve known for the past three decades. As you know, the original Chucky came into being when a voodoo-worshipping serial killer transferred his soul into a Good Guys doll, a toy that bore an alarming resemblance to the then-popular My Buddy dolls. That doesn\u2019t happen here. No, this is Child\u2019s Play<\/strong> for the digital age. This Chucky doll also serves as an Alexa-like device meaning it can control anything electronic (e.g. TVs, cars, drones, etc.). It\u2019s evil because a disgruntled factory worker in Vietnam disables all the safety protocols rendering it susceptible to violent impulses. While relevant to today\u2019s tech-obsessed society, I like the dead serial killer angle better. It\u2019s cooler than a mere product malfunction.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Obviously I had the same doubts about Child\u2019s Play<\/strong> that I have with ANY remake, especially horror. Way more often than not, they suck. I could give you a long list of titles, but why bother. I know, you know, we all know them, even the ones we forgot existed (Prom Night anyone?). Child\u2019s Play<\/strong> isn\u2019t one of them. It\u2019s surprisingly good and I\u2019ll tell you why. Even though I\u2019m not particularly fond of the new Chucky\u2019s backstory, I give the makers credit for updating rather than rehashing the original source. It opens up new possibilities for the killer doll that has haunted our dreams since 1988. He was always evil; now he\u2019s omnipresent too. He still kills up close and personal but now the killings are easier to facilitate. Look no further than the unfortunate potential victim in the self-driving car. Yeah, I won\u2019t be getting into one of those any time soon.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot outline is more or less the same. A kid receives Chucky as a birthday gift from his single mother only for the doll to turn killer. This time, Andy Barclay (Bateman, Lights Out) is a hearing-impaired teenager who lives with his single mom Karen (Plaza, Ingrid Goes West) in Chicago. They\u2019ve recently moved to a new apartment where Andy has no friends. By way of cheering up her son, Karen pilfers a defective \u201cBuddi\u201d doll from her job at Zed-Mart (guess they couldn\u2019t get the rights to you-know-what retail chain) and gives it to him as an early birthday gift. Initially unenthused, Andy and his new \u201cfriend to the end\u201d Chucky (voiced by Mark Hamill) become inseparable. Then it gets weird.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Chucky starts displaying strange behavior that isn\u2019t limited to repeating dirty words and scaring the hell out of his mother\u2019s abusive boyfriend (Lewis, Lake Placid). He tries to strangle the family cat after it scratches Andy. He wields a kitchen knife at Andy and his new human friends after witnessing their joyous reaction to the bloody violence in the movie they\u2019re watching (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2). He becomes super protective of Andy and starts killing anybody he sees as a threat. As the bodies pile up, Detective Mike Norris (Henry, Atlanta), whose mother lives in the building, investigates while Karen begins to question her son\u2019s sanity with all these wild stories about Chucky\u2019s misdeeds. After all, he\u2019s only a toy, right? Right?<\/p>\n

\u00a0I suppose the next big question on everybody\u2019s mind is how much blood is in Child\u2019s Play<\/strong>? It\u2019s a valid question. It\u2019s usually- okay, always- the first thing I ask about horror movies. I\u2019m pleased to report Child\u2019s Play<\/strong> more than earns its R rating. The killings in this one are bloody and brutal. One guy gets it with a lawn mower to the head, another with a table saw. A few victims are dispatched by drones outfitted with sharp blades. People get stabbed. Blood squirts from wounds. There\u2019s also a great running gag involving a literal facial mask (a la Texas Chainsaw Massacre) that falls into Andy\u2019s possession. For a change, the makers don\u2019t hold back on the red stuff which makes me a very happy camper.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Most people know Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars movies or as the voice of The Joker in the animated Batman movies from DC. I figured he was a good choice to voice the new Chucky. I was\u00a0 right, he does a fine job. I still like Brad Dourif, voice of the original Chucky, better. Hamill doesn\u2019t project the same level of psychotic malevolence as his predecessor. He\u2019s more like a seemingly innocent child unaware that he\u2019s doing evil. That is, until somebody tinkers with his wiring. Then he comes off as a dejected friend with murderous impulses a la Single White Female. It\u2019s a different interpretation of Chucky, one that I think contemporary young audiences will appreciate more than veteran fans of the old franchise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The rest of the cast of the new Child\u2019s Play<\/strong> is good. Plaza leaves her comedy comfort zone to play a young mother who makes mistakes that affect her child. Her boyfriend Shane picks on Andy so badly, the boy can\u2019t stand to even be in the same room with the jerk. It was a bold move to change Andy from an innocent six-year-old to an alienated, sullen teen. In the role, Bateman does a fine job. He has a certain na\u00efve way about him especially in his initial relationship with Chucky. Look at the way he shows the walking, talking doll around his room. It\u2019s like Elliott and E.T., don\u2019t you think? It\u2019s possible that director Lars Klevberg (Polaroid) had Spielberg\u2019s classic movie in mind when he gave Chucky a glowing finger. Tim Matheson (Animal House) has a funny supporting role as the CEO\/commercial spokesperson for the company that makes the Buddi dolls.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Child\u2019s Play<\/strong>, in addition to NOT being the soulless, pointless horror remake I thought it would be, also has a wicked, warped sense of humor. It satirizes consumerism and our reliance on technology to control every aspect of our lives. Look how easily it can turn on you. It\u2019s also sickly funny in how it deals with the killings. Chucky still drops amusing one-liners including one about Tupac when he takes somebody out. The bit with the facial mask is like something from a Troma movie. At its heart though, Child\u2019s Play<\/strong> is a horror movie with plenty of violence, blood, suspense and even a few good jump-scares. It\u2019s not only one of the better horror remakes they\u2019ve attempted over the years; it\u2019s a good scary movie in its own right.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Child\u2019s Play (2019)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 90 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (bloody horror violence, language throughout)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Lars Klevberg\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Tyler Burton Smith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Bear McCreary\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Brendan Uegama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 21, 2019 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, Mark Hamill, Brian Tyree Henry, Tim Matheson, David Lewis, Carlease Burke, Ty Consiglio, Beatrice Kitsos, Marlon Kazadi, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Childs-Play-2019-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4093"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4704,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4093\/revisions\/4704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}