"Child's Play" (1988)

Rating: R:18 

Genre: Horror, Mystery & Suspense

Directed By: Tom Holland

Written By: Don Mancini, Tom Holland, John Lafia

Released: November 9^th, 1988

Runtime: 95 minutes

Studio: United Artists

Summary:

Gunned down by Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon), dying murderer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) uses black magic to put his soul inside a doll named Chucky -- which Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) then buys for her young son, Andy (Alex Vincent). When Chucky kills Andy's baby sitter, the boy realizes the doll is alive and tries to warn people, but he's institutionalized. Now Karen must convince the detective of the murderous doll's intentions, before Andy becomes Chucky's next victim.

Review:

*Child’s* play perhaps, but certainly a far cry from our beloved Toy Story.

I have to say that the creepiest parts of this film were not so much the supposed-to-be-scary-parts as more the moments when the doll spoke as innocently advertised. Who in their glorious common sense would even want to be cuddling a doll that looked like that? He was practically the same size as the child.

I think the suspense was built well. I don’t think it was nail-bitingly tense but it was an enjoyable tension that shouldn’t leave horror fans unsatisfied. The film has its gasp moments and gross moments.

I think while seeing the doll scurrying across the floor is creepy, it’s generally the consensus that the not seeing the doll move is scarier. Once you see the doll moving it takes away slightly from the unknown (the whens and hows) and it is after all, the unknowns, that make a horror film so great. Once you show the monster, it ceases to terrify as much. I think the first half of the film for this reason was that much better than the final third. Of course the final third of the film is action-packed and has its tension too, but…it begins to lack the umph the film had began with. At least in my opinion.

I’ve been meaning to watch this for a while now. It was one of the those films I knew so much about and yet had not actually watched any from the series. So, I wanted to start with the original and I’m happy to say I was not disappointed. Would recommend.

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