| If you can get past the charmingly silly proposition of a serial killer transferring his soul into a doll to perpetuate his murderous ways, Tom Holland's Child's Play offers up a tremendously entertaining mix of humor and horror and puts a novel twist on the relatively uncrowded "toys gone bad" sub-genre.The events in the film revolve around six year-old Andy Barclay, whose mom gives him a coveted animatronic Good Guy doll for his birthday. Unfortunately for him, his new prize is possessed by the spirit of infamous mass strangler Charles Lee Ray, and when the repackaged <more> slayer gets up to his old tricks again, no one believes Andy's insistent claims that "Chucky did it." The most effective aspect of Holland's execution of the material is how he's able to wring some genuine scares out of a premise that automatically lends itself to unintentional comedy. Though the film wisely acknowledges its own goofiness by peppering the slasher elements with some keenly rendered zingers, the story itself is played fairly straight and the overtly sadistic nature of Chucky's homicidal rampage ensures that the tone remains as dark as the circumstances will allow. We pretty much know going in what this flick will have in store, but the excellently crafted pace generates an admirable amount of tension, and the way each propulsive layer of the plot unfolds makes for an engrossingly taut experience which belies the basic fact that our villain here is a four foot tall plastic plaything.Holland certainly deserves credit for much of the film's impact, but his accomplishments are handily eclipsed by FX whiz Kevin Yagher, who created the chillingly cherubic Chucky doll and brought him to life. Yagher's orchestration of the mechanical effects that allow Chucky to switch from beaming best friend to snarling psychopath remain captivating even in the modern CGI era, and the level of realism presented with this decidedly unreal character is startling and magical. Though later installments of the Child's Play franchise would replace Yagher's puppetry with whatever technological trickery was available at the time, the Chucky icon would never again be this frightening and primally savage, or look nearly as impressive.The limited capabilities of the the era actually augment the illusion rather than hindering it, and since the focus of the film is a plastic creation with limited jointing instead of a human being with full articulation, the doll's somewhat stiff and mechanical movements are more fitting than the sort of fluid animated motions you'll see in, say, Seed Of Chucky. The scenes of our blade-wielding antagonist methodically stalking down the hallway of the apartment where much of the action takes place are fearsome and indelible, and the sudden expletive-laden shift which occurs the first time Chucky reveals himself to the disbelieving mother of his "friend till the end" still packs a whopper of a jolt no matter how many times I've seen it. Despite Holland's sure-handed direction, this flick simply wouldn't work as well as it does without the efficiency of Chucky's menacing mien, and even if the notion of a killer doll strikes you as silly, there's no denying how powerfully that device is brought to fruition here.Our non-robotic cast does an excellent job as well, particularly the always welcome Chris Sarandon, who portrays skeptical homicide detective-turned-intervening hero Mike Norris. Young Alex Vincent is a bit over his head tackling the wide range of emotions his role as Andy requires, but he does a great job considering his age, and the final bitter punchline he delivers to Chucky is a true gem. Brad Dourif seems to relish the excesses he's allowed to indulge as the voice of Chucky, and his witty, mirthfully malicious banter adds as much nuance and actual character to the doll he inhabits as Kevin Yagher's machinery does.There isn't a ton of gore to be had here, but that dearth is actually pretty crucial to the plot since the initial killings are staged to look like accidents. Things get slightly more gruesome as the film proceeds, but the emphasis here is decidedly on suspense rather than splatter, so bloodthirsty viewers should probably be aware of that before they start imagining what nasty uses Chucky will concoct for the butcher knife he's grasping in most of Child's Play's promotional art.Some slippery mythology hampers the storyline a bit, and while the introduction of an inner city voodoo shaman responsible for teaching Chucky his Dambala trick is essential to our understanding of the film's rules, the wisdom he dispenses ends up being the lone befuddling portion of this caper. You see, the impetus for Chucky's climactic pursuit of Andy is the necessity of shifting his essence into the body of the first person he revealed himself to, otherwise he'll be trapped forever in the doll vessel he occupies throughout the film. I get that, and I suppose it makes some sort of sense in the realm of Child's Play, but the fact that Chucky's black magic mentor even knows this does not. I'm not intimately familiar with sorcery, but it strikes me as odd that the transference of human souls into talking toys apparently happens with enough frequency for there to be an established course of conduct when that occurs.This is ultimately a minor complaint, and taken as a whole Child's Play is a thoroughly enjoyable thriller. Though the rest of the extended franchise, with the lone exception of the surprisingly sharp Bride Of Chucky, is essentially useless, this inaugural outing has enough strong moments to make it readily apparent why subsequent film-makers were eager to get more mileage out of the concept sadly, the foreboding finale suggested by the exit frame here was never explored . Even if the sequels have left a sour taste in your mouth, do the original the justice of giving it another look. Hi-de-ho, ha ha ha. <less> |
