Harefooted Halloween: Child's Play

What I Liked: Fantastic simple premise that’s executed wonderfully, a killer doll is on the loose.  While straight forward on paper it’s the details that make or break a picture like this.  The look of the doll can’t be too twisted or innocent, its movements need to be convincing, the actors’ interactions with the doll need to be plausible, the spooky shit the doll does needs to make sense with the story and etc.  Sure, every film is a tightrope but this type in particular can come off extremely silly and nonthreatening if not handled right.

Alex Vincent as Andy and Catherine Hicks (Peggy Sue Got Married) as his mother, Karen, give nice natural performances.  It’s a risk to have a seven year old carry a movie but Vincent pulls it off.  The filmmakers managed to find someone who’s not annoying or awkward.  And the relationship he has with his mother is touching and very believable.  At first Karen thinks Andy is making shit up about his doll but then realizes he’s telling the truth and does everything in her power to protect her son.  They land in a crazy situation and go from worried to confused to terrified in a relatively short period.

And of course Brad Dourif (Halloween (2007)) is perfect as the voice of Chucky.  He’s one of the all time great character actors and delivers one helluva performance.  This is the character he’s undoubtedly best known for and for good reason.  He exudes such rage in his voice over resorting to hiding his soul in a doll and then having to chase down Andy to take over his body next.  He’s also manipulative and cunning making him very dangerous.

They used a ton of tricks to make Chucky come alive.  The fear is the actors will look like idiots wrestling with a lifeless puppet Hobgoblins style.  But through the use of closeups, POV shots, animatronics, a little person dressed in a Chucky costume and yes, puppets, they breathe life into the plastic vessel.  It’s actually very compelling which is kind of the crux of the whole movie.  If that doesn’t work then you’re screwed.  And it definitely works here.

Coming in just under ninety mins the pacing is damn good.  Thankfully the film doesn’t waste your time with scenes that don’t move the plot forward.  It’s all economically told and shit escalates quickly so there’s good tension building.

The sparse soundtrack from Joe Renzetti (Poltergeist III) adds magnificent atmosphere.  Some reverbed harpsichord swipes succeed in creating a brilliant sense of anxiety.

What I Didn’t Like: The rule they setup is serial killer Charles Lee Ray can only transfer his soul out of the doll into the first person he reveals his true identity to.  That’s why he goes after Andy.  And honestly it’s a weird flimsy Gremlins-like rule (that only gets murkier with the sequels).  What if he told a room full of people he was the Lakeshore Strangler or wrote someone a note or started to tell someone but got interrupted or any number of other scenarios?  Look, the rest of the movie is well done so this doesn’t really bother me.  I mean you sorta need this rule to prevent Chucky from constantly hopping from body to body.  Then your possessed doll concept goes out the window.  Keeping Chucky trapped in a toy and focused on a specific target is necessary even though they didn’t come up with a great explanation as to why.

This is a minor one but the brand name of the doll is Good Guy.  Get it?  ‘Cause this particular one ain’t a good guy.  Matter of fact he’s a pretty bad guy.  Too on the nose.

Overall Impressions: It had been a long time since I saw this and damn it’s a fair amount better than I remember.  It’s just so perfectly tightly told.  This first outing is a little more serious than the rest of the series but that’s not a bad thing at all.  I like that while Chucky is less Jokey here than he would be in later films he still comes out of the gate as the scurrilous scamp we all love.

What I’m most impressed with is how incredibly smart the filmmakers were with shot choices, tone, the effects, the performances and what they felt they needed to explain to get the concept off the ground.  For example the wide shots or quick shots of someone in a Chucky outfit running around or getting up from the floor are amazingly convincing.  For my money these are the creepiest moments in the entire series because he moves like a real person and not a somewhat stiff animatronic.

I respect how the material is approached.  The story could’ve been told in a different way where the audience is kept in the dark for most of the film about an infamous murderer’s soul inhabiting a doll and we’re trying to determine if Andy is a mentally insane killer or not.  Apparently an earlier version of the script went down this road.  However, I think knowing from the start what the deal is with the doll works better.  Keeping it vague with the possibility of Andy being a killer would’ve led to a bonkers twist that probably would’ve been too much to ask of the viewer.  Would’ve made the part where Karen discovers the doll’s been functioning without batteries a truly holy shit moment instead of “well yeah, we already know he’s alive”.  Ah, who am I kidding?  That scene’s still cool as hell regardless.

Everything came together for this one.  They managed to turn a very Twilight Zone-ish idea into an effectively eerie feature.  They don’t overdo it with the doll moving around in the background or showing up suddenly in a chair when you know he wasn’t there before or shit like that.  There are only a couple of those moments because they push the piece along and ratchet up the situation efficiently.  I can’t praise enough how clever the filmmakers were in every area of production.  And as I mentioned earlier this is a tough assignment.  From having a little kid be the main star to the magic trick of making Chucky feel like a living evil doll.  They traversed a minefield to knock it out of the park.  If you haven’t seen the one that started it all you definitely should.  Without hesitation I can say it’s a goddamn classic.