Child's Play

This review may contain spoilers! 

I have not watched a single Chucky film but even I have to say this is far removed from what anyone expected a Chucky movie to be. I would give Child's Play a 4/10.

Child's Play is a horror/thriller about a malfunctioning doll with artificial intelligence who takes his bond with the young boy who owns him over the edge when he starts to kill anyone who would hurt his 'friend'. The best aspect of this film is how the dynamic between the main protagonist, Andy, and the doll, Chucky, actually develops and changes over the course of this film. The relationship at first is quite sweet and a character who is initially quite lonely finds a friend; as this relationship begins to become skewed and fall apart you continue to emphasise with what's happening as the pair find themselves distanced from one another. The film also wields a pretty dark sense of humour that doesn't always enhance the story but is really fun to see; moments like Chucky's 'Tupac line' or Andy trying to smuggle the present out of Doreen's house are a lot of fun. The score for the film is masterfully executed, with quite a light optimistic melody steadily becoming discordant as the film becomes more chaotic and driven by the horror elements.

Aubrey Plaza, who played Karen Barclay, is not the sort of actress you'd expect to play a mother but really makes her mark in this film; Plaza really does a good job showing someone who is desperately trying to hold all the pieces together in a family that is clearly struggling to make ends meet. Mark Hamill, who voiced Chucky, really commits to the naive, friendly persona that cements the friendship between his character and Bateman's; as the narrative moves forward this drops away and Hamill warps his small doll into a sinister killer. Gabriel Bateman, who played Andy Barclay, does a great job as the central protagonist for the film; he's a very protective figure and is constantly endeavouring to save others in a hellish situation. Carlease Burke, who played Doreen, had such an incredible mother/son bond with Tyree Henry in this film; I think this was a character who seemed so full of life and could really deal some of the funnier lines in the feature.

However, the best performance came from Brian Tyree Henry, who played Detective Mike Norris. This is a character who is immediately charismatic and seems to have a lot of heart towards 'the little guy' in his community. Tyree Henry's persona is built upon being a figure of authority in an impoverished area where that isn't really respected; and he plays to that struggle of character very well. I really enjoyed seeing how he connected with Bateman and even acted as a sort of mentor figure to him throughout the feature. Yet when it came to his police role Tyree Henry was also able to show his role's intellect and ability to assess a crime scene at a glance. This ultimately led to his strong display of grief over the death of Burke's Doreen and his vendetta fuelled arrest of Andy.

Straight from the start this film was on the rocks a bit as the origin of Chucky was seriously underwhelming. We are presented with an ad for the 'Buddi' doll who can apparently play music, work your TV, control your roomba and call a driverless Uber for you. From this we cut to the factory in Vietnam where a lazy worker in charge of making some of these dolls get fired for laziness and then, disgruntled, decides to programme one of the dolls to be defective and violent before taking his own life. It's not a great set up and the poor imitation of other modern appliances seems like another mild attempt to create a 'technology has gone too far' theme. As the film continues there are constantly moments where really convenient events occur in order to advance the plot. Moments like Karen blackmailing her boss to get ahold of Chucky, or when the other kids very abruptly get introduced so Andy has friends other than Chucky, The creepy building technician bringing Chucky back to life was a bit of a letdown too. Crafting a moment that doesn't feel natural to serve the advancement of the plot is a flawed technique that never really works. The cinematography throughout Child's Play is incredibly boring and makes you feel just how confined the set pieces are. The design of Chucky is rather disappointing too, he never looks anything but creepy and disarming which makes the aspect of the film in which he's seen as 'good' harder to believe.

David Lewis, who played Shane, is supposed to be a significant antagonist in Andy's day to day life but the film is afraid to make this a truly threatening character; Lewis is incapable of playing a character who feels aggressive or intimidating. Beatrice Kitsos, Ty Consiglio and Marlon Kazadi, who played Falyn, Pugg and Omar respectively, are really heavily shoehorned into this film so that there are more child actors outside of just Bateman; yet the gritty doomsday warrior Kisos plays or the moronic oaf we get from Consiglio feel very generic and don't contribute a great deal.Trent Redekop, who played Gabe, is this creepy side role the film keeps on the backburner right until the narrative needs something to turn the second act into the third, this role seems really driven to remake Chucky but his reasons for doing so are hazy at best and you have to wonder what other purpose this role really serves.