The hints of Steven Spielberg ’s 1980s action-adventure films frequently overshadow the Child’s Play elements, in fact. (There’s an evil, Freddy-ish teddy bear variant of the “Buddi” doll, because of course there is.) Especially omnipresent, particularly in the film’s middle third, is a Goonies vibe from Andy and his friends, who embark on a series of sitcom-y hijinks in an attempt to dispose of Chucky’s first kill. It does try its best to steal from smarter films, at least: The film is rife with meta-references to the Child’s Play franchise, and it winks at everything from 2001’s evil artificial intelligence Hal to Poltergeist, Halloween 3, and the viral horror game Five Nights at Freddy’s. In one shot, Chucky stares beatifically at a rack of steak knives as if they hold the keys to the universe, and in that moment, Klevberg almost manages to make you think Child’s Play is something more than mindless entertainment. But it’s also frequently hilarious and well-directed by Norwegian filmmaker Lars Klevberg. This sounds relatively formulaic, and it is. Soon he’s torturing and killing the family cat from there, it’s all downhill. Like all tweens, these kids have a touch of the hardcore misanthropic about them they show up to watch horror films and teach Chucky stabbing moves, and Chucky, like a YouTube algorithm gone haywire, rapidly proceeds to take those to the extreme. These people only exist to feed the growing bloodlust of Andy’s Buddi doll, who renames himself “Chucky” and quickly gains a fixation with death, thanks to Andy and his new, Goonies-esque group of friends. But apart from a single implied glimpse of Andy’s dad and a once-happy family now broken up because of Reasons, we have no idea who these people are or what they’re doing in this musty apartment building, overseen by the world’s creepiest maintenance guy, or why Karen is now dating an equally one-dimensional jerk named Shane.īut none of this actually matters. So far, this is all in line with the original Child’s Play film. The doll (voiced by Hamill) winds up going home with Karen (Aubrey Plaza), a nebulous mom archetype who’s moved with her son, Andy (Gabriel Bateman), to a nebulous new town for a nebulous new start. Which is why the movie promptly kicks off with a disgruntled sweatshop employee expertly recoding a Buddi doll to remove its “violence inhibitors” and fill the world with a little more sociopathic mayhem. If this sounds distinctly Black Mirror-esque, don’t be misled the new Child’s Play is mainly just here to have fun, not here to make you think. But where he once was an innocent receptacle for the soul of an evil serial killer, now Chucky’s a new smart-home appliance, called the “Buddi” system, designed to unite the best qualities of Alexa and Siri with a walking, talking doll companion for the whole family. He’s still an explicit callback to the “My Buddy” dolls of the ’80s, complete with cheesy overalls and a creepily chipper theme song. The new Child’s Play changes the backstory of Chucky, the evil doll of yore. Vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark vox-mark The new Child’s Play is downright Goonies-esque. But it’s also fun and funny, and if what you came for is a silly movie where dolls kill people, then, hey! You’re in luck! The new Child’s Play often feels like it came straight from the minds of tweens: It’s silly, even nigh nonsensical, full of flat stock characters, plot non sequiturs, and a hand-wave-y take on technological dystopia that never manages to get above eye roll levels of sincerity. But for the rest of us, there’s still the fun of watching a maniacal piece of plastic running around wreaking havoc and carving up bodies. It’s a remake of the original 1988 film, jettisoning the many sequels, retconning the backstory of Chucky the killer doll, and swapping out Chucky’s longtime voice actor Brad Dourif for Mark Hamill.Ĭlearly, this movie won’t be for every die-hard Chucky fan. Protective fans are also rejecting 2019’s Child’s Play on its existence alone. Those include the horror film franchise’s creator, who declined to be involved with the new production, as well as the many existing fans who have circulated hashtags like # NotM圜hucky in the wake of the complicated backstage drama surrounding the new movie. The new Child’s Play reboot has amassed its share of critics, even well before its official June 21 release date.
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