Let me get one thing out of the way. I have a soft spot for slasher movies. I don’t know what it is, but I just have a guilty pleasure for slasher movies. From the really dumb stuff like Friday the 13th to the classic Psycho. And the 1988 slasher film Child’s Play was no exception, directed by Tom Holland and not the Spider-Man one. Granted, I have not watched this movie in ages, so it will be interesting coming back to it. Does this movie hold up or is it just another slasher bore fest? Let’s find out. Also, I was never scared of dolls. Never. Never ever. I can understand people would be, but I was a weird kid.



Child’s Play takes place after a dangerous serial killer is shot down in a toy store. With his dying breath, he uses a voodoo spell to transfer his soul into the body of a children’s doll and goes under the name Chucky… Please, just stick with me on this. A single mother purchases the doll as a gift for her son, Andy. From there, the doll slowly starts to kill people in secrecy, and Andy is always seen as the suspect by the police. Now Chucky must find a way to gain his human body back in order to continue his killing spree. Yeah, the plots stupid, and yeah, it can be pretty silly at times, but the movie still has it’s scary elements in it when it can show them.
For instance, the first half of the movie. The moments where Chucky is just sitting there with that smile on his face, just total silence, before he strikes, and claims another victim. It’s nothing but the soon-to-be victim wandering around the room, with only Chucky in the shot somewhere. No noises, no obvious cuts, nothing. It’s just the anticipation of Chucky attacking and killing the victim that gets to the audience. The build-up of it is enough to make you unsettled. And it would have been perfect as a good suspenseful moment… But then Chucky opens his mouth.
Okay, I know a lot of people would look at this and groan, feeling that they were jipped of a good scene, but let’s be honest. No one watched Nightmare on Elm Street and is genuinely scared of Freddy Krueger. He’s got a big grin, a fedora, and a Christmas Sweater. Look at him. Christmas Story looking motherfucker. What was I talking about. Oh, right, Chucky not being scary. Once Chucky starts to talk, it changes from him being a creepy doll into an actually funny psychopath. His one liners mixed with his horrible actions just turn this film from a horror film into a horror comedy. It’s honestly kinda fun. Also, the effects on Chucky are quite good, if I might add. The combination of animatronics and actual actors was quite a nice mix up of them. It really brings Chucky to life in some scenes, despite being technically a dead killer.
Child’s Play is not a scary movie. God no, it is not. But it is so entertaining. This is probably the funniest movie I’ve reviewed so far because of the stuff that happens in it. And of course, we all know how big this movie got and launched Chucky into being a famous serial killer among the likes of Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. This launched a ton of sequels and is currently in the process of getting both a reboot and a TV series. Will they be bad? Most likely. Give Child’s Play a shot. It’s dumb, but it’s good fun