Child's Play

It would be naïve to want something from a remake of Child’s Play today. The 1980s, which sustained a similar theme, are long gone. However, the fact that this didn’t turn out to be an outright disaster deserves praise. The upgrade of the theme with the doll’s connection via a mobile telephone and the misuse of artificial intelligence hits the mark in our current era and despite the fact that Chucky’s sorcery goes beyond all limits of technological logic in later scenes, it works effectively. It’s not possible to see this as a horror movie (unless you’re eight), which the film itself is aware of, and even its cruelest scene is lightened up with ironic humor. The visage of Chucky with glowing red eyes (when he’s being evil) is cool, and his gradual descent into violence is depicted well. These are the movie’s best passages. Conversely, the “spectacular” climax, which is supposed to give the original, more intimate plot development a good kick, hinders the movie with hackneyed and not very imaginative moments. The screenwriter should have given it more time to crystalize in his mind. (01/05/2022)

The Child’s Play brand is unnecessarily applied to this film, but I really like this technological update. And when it comes to “remakes”, I like those that aren’t afraid of reworking the original, which to a great extent is the case here; so, basically… satisfaction. It’s well crafted, the characters are likeable and it’s well acted. On top of that, the film is permeated with an effective humour that’s quite fitting (certainly more than in this year’s It). And for a “kids” horror, it’s also quite bloody. My biggest problem, though, is with the look of the titular doll. It’s ugly AF and I can’t believe that any company would design their super commercial toy like this. (09/10/2019)

I liked the idea that admiring "fun" violence can very easily lead to real violence, if the man or the redheaded doll lacks discernment and if he skips over it for certain reasons. The new Child's Play delighted me with this, as much as with its more careful (by the standards of a horror movie about a murderous toy, that is, of course) portrayal of children (yes, there are a few of them, and that's a good thing) and adults, or its grand finale, which could easily have been bigger. On the plus side, I'd like to add Bear McCreary's score, which I thought was just fantastic – it practically keeps playing with the Buddy toy tune, also composed by McCreary, and it's very entertaining. Like the whole film. It's on a par with the original Child's Play. (07/27/2019)

Thirteen-year-old Andy has a new toy, a supermodern doll called Chucky. And Chucky's a little broken, so he starts killing people to make Andy happy. This new version of the horror classic doesn't scare too much, but it entertains with comic brutality, decent actors and a Stranger Things-style atmosphere. Nothing great, but as a horror one-off, the new Child's Play holds up. (07/26/2019)

If 2019's Child's Play was an original movie and not building on something that has been around for quite a while, plus there had not been a sequel in the original franchise two years ago, I would have probably given the movie a better rating because it manages to be entertaining and slightly creepy, although I think the original Child's Play is better at this. However, simply the fact that it is a remake makes me not take it that seriously. (10/11/2019)