Harefooted Halloween: Child's Play 3

What I Liked: The opening credits show a new Good Guy doll forming by reversing footage of the doll’s head melting.  A neat idea that’s made even cooler by flipping the image upside down so the goopy plastic interspersed with blood streaks looks like it’s dripping upwards.

Most of the film takes place at a military academy but the finale goes down at a nearby carnival.  The bulk of the action takes place in a haunted house/indoor roller coaster and man, it makes for a visually awesome set piece.  Admittedly this change of location kinda comes out of nowhere but they make good use of the gimmick.  The coaster cars whizzing by are constant threats, other props including a gigantic grim reaper statue are menacing, there are different elevations used like a mountain of fake skulls and etc.  This ending is colorful, fast paced and kinetic.  It casts such a striking difference compared to the dull and somewhat lifeless military school.

This is a silly item but Andrew Robinson (Cobra, Dirty Harry, Hellraiser) as the whacked out barber obsessed with all the cadets’ hair is very entertaining.  He gets so much damn joy out of his job I can’t help but be impressed with his dedication.  Make no mistake though, he’s a miserable fuck who relishes making others squirm in his chair.  In fact this guy is so into this shit that when he finds Chucky hidden in his cabinet (no clue why or how he got there by the way) he decides to give the goddamn doll a trim!  He just wants to cut hair, real or fake, human or dummy, he doesn’t care.

When Andy sees the head of the school carrying a Good Guy doll across the campus it’s a huge moment because for the past eight years he thought he was rid of Chucky.  Can you imagine?  Andy, now a sixteen year old (Justin Whalin (Serial Mom)), who’s been through some horrific shit directly linked to the doll can’t escape this fucking toy.  No matter what he does or where he goes Chucky finds him.  He has an absolutely terrified look of disbelief on his face.  It’s shot in glorious slow motion as well to give that scene the weight it deserves.

What I Didn’t Like: I know it’s stupid to complain about how they bring Chucky back but the toy factory fucks up yet again and reuses the remains of the destroyed doll from the previous film to make an all new one.  Now it was an accident this time with a few drops of blood getting mixed into the fresh liquid plastic but c’mon guys, you gotta implement better practices.  You’re like fifty percent responsible for the deaths and trauma in at least parts 2 and 3.  Arguably all installments aside from the first.

Something about the military academy setting is rather drab.  This is just a personal preference thing but films like this, Damien: The Omen II and The Substitute: Failure is Not an Option that involve kids running through drills and dealing with strict disciplinarian sergeants (as opposed to a regular high school situation) isn’t all that interesting to me.

Unfortunately we get basically the same plot as part 2 except Chucky sorta switches targets by going after a young cadet named Tyler (Jeremy Silvers) to transfer his soul to.  By this point it’s comical how he keeps getting interrupted during the voodoo magic ritual.  Simultaneously he also goes after Andy simply for revenge.  Kinda dumb since he can enact that at any time.  He should be laser focused on moving his soul out.  Once that’s done he can do whatever he wants.

Speaking of focus Chucky kills some people just for the hell of it.  Again, he doesn’t have time for this.  His soul is gonna get trapped in the doll if he dawdles.  I get it, we’re in a slasher so we need a decent body count but it would’ve been nice for the filmmakers to come up with motives behind some of the deaths.  He’s not Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees that more or less kill randomly.  Chucky doesn’t have much room for error.

Overall Impressions: While not as well constructed as part 2 it’s still a fun time.  As a sort of bridge they manage to incorporate Chucky murdering someone using toys at the top but then after that he uses whatever he finds around the academy like knives and grenades.  Chucky is still Chucky here though and that’s key.  He spits his one liners, insults everyone, gets a kick out of gruesomely dispatching his victims, sneaks his way out of most situations by going limp into inanimate doll mode and etc.

On a technical level the Chucky effects keep improving.  By this time the filmmakers had a complete handle on how to shoot him and incorporate him into scenes.  His movements are still a bit jerky due to the animatronics and puppetry involved but that’s simply become a character trait.  The scaling always feels right, like if he needs to emerge from a doorway or lunge towards someone it’s now all done pretty seamlessly.

I like this one.  It’s not incredible or anything but solid.