Written by: Ashtyn at 1:46 pm
Movie Info:
Writer: Don Mancini
Director: Tom Holland
Cast: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif, Dinah Manoff, Neil Giuntoli, Tommy Swerdlow, Jack Colvin
Rating: R
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Info:
DVD Release Date: September 9, 2008
Online Availability: Amazon for $7.99
Child’s Play came out in 1988, back when I was the ripe old age of ten. By that time, I was no stranger to horror movies. I was an old pro really, having watched my first horror movie, Halloween when I was a mere five years old. Ever since that movie scared me to death, I was in love with the adrenaline rush that horror movies provided. To this day, I watch every horror movie that I can get my hands on.
When I heard that Child’s Play was being released again on DVD in an anniversary birthday edition, I couldn’t wait for it to arrive. Though it’s laughable now, when I was a child, after watching this movie, we got a dog and named it Chucky. I am not sure if this is a coincidence or not, but that damn dog was about as evil as evil could get. He liked to try and eat our paperboy for fun.
Child’s Play was quite inventive at the time because of Chucky, the doll used as the central evil character in the film. A real doll was used for the film. In fact, a number of dolls were used to achieve different movements and emotions. There were also scenes with a little person, who was used to achieve more lifelike movements. The result of the creative team’s hard work is a relatively realistic, mean tempered, serial killing Good Guy doll.
Chucky and Child’s Play never actually scared me, but I have always loved the movie and the idea of a crazed children’s doll that is nothing less than twisted. That being said, this makes for a great addition to any horror fan’s movie library.
The Child’s Play: Chucky’s 20th Birthday Edition Plot
It’s little Andy Barclay’s (Alex Vincent) birthday and all he wants for his birthday is a real Good Guy Doll. His mom, Karen, (Catherine Hicks – 7th Heaven) is a single mother and cannot afford to buy the expensive doll. However, while at work, feeling completely guilty that she can’t afford the doll, she learns that a street peddler has one and she is able to suddenly afford one.
What Karen doesn’t know is that serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif – The List) knows voodoo and he put his soul into the Good Guy Doll that she just bought her young son! Andy realizes that something is different with Chucky, his doll, when he attacks and kills his Aunt Maggie (Dinah Manorff – Grease), his mom’s best friend. Naturally, when Andy tells this to his mom and the lead detective, Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon – The Nightmare Before Christmas) on the case, it doesn’t go over too well.
That’s unfortunate though because when Chucky learns that if he doesn’t get out of the doll body soon he will become the doll, he sets his sights on Andy as the next body to steal. If someone doesn’t stop Chucky soon, Andy will be in serious danger. It’s just too bad that owning a serial killing Good Guy Doll is a hard pill to swallow for both Andy’s mom and Mike.
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Audio/Visual:
Child’s Play was filmed 20 years ago and this new remastered version looks pretty good considering. The aspect ratio for Child’s Play is 1.85:1 in anamorphic widescreen. This doesn’t look like a new movie, but it doesn’t look like something made twenty years ago either. The film offers a strong color palette and fair quality. There are those occasional moments of age spots, dirt, and what not, but the film remains clear throughout the better parts of the movie.
Audio got a real workup including two English tracks in Dolby Digital Surround and in 5.1, a Spanish track and a French track both in Dolby Digital Surround. The sound was stable throughout the film with no volume toggling needed. I did not notice any problems. The dialogue was easy to hear and the sound effects, screams, and other goodies came through without a hitch. Subtitles are available in both English and Spanish, as is Closed Captioning assuming it is enabled on your television.
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Bonus Features:
The Birthday edition of Child’s Play comes with quite a few bonus features. Two commentaries are available. The first commentary is by Alex Vincent, Catherine Hicks, and the designer of Chucky, Kevin Yagher. This is interesting for the mere fact that we get to hear from the actors and the designer of the deadly doll. The second commentary is with the producer David Kirschner and the screenwriter, Don Mancini. An added commentary is available on specific scenes by Chucky. As you can imagine, some of these commentaries are more interesting than others, but they are all worth listening to at least once.
The still photo gallery offers various pictures that fans will enjoy looking through. Finally, there are four featurettes that deal with the making of Chucky from concept design to the final stages of filming. The featurettes include “The Birth of Chucky, Creating the Horror & Unleashed,” “Chucky: Building a Nightmare,” “A Monster Convention,” and “Introducing Chucky: The Making of Child’s Play.”
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Bottom Line:
Child’s Play is a classic horror flick that has spawned a number of sequels based on the adventures of a possessed Good Guy doll with the soul of a serial murderer. What could be more fun than that? Chucky is the exact doll that you’d never want your own child to end up with and you certainly wouldn’t want to cross him while on the street, but when it comes to movie watching, he’s certainly worth viewing. I highly recommend you pick up this version of Child’s Play as it offers an excellent set of extras and the touch ups to the film have been done to ensure that the movie comes out looking good even after all these years. If you already own the film and have found the quality to be substandard then you should offload it and pick this one up instead.
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Technorati Tags: DVD Review, Chucky, Horror, Haunted Doll, Good Guy Doll, Andy, Child’s Play, Chucky’s 20th Birthday Edition, 20th Century Fox
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Written by Ashtyn - Visit Website
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Ashtyn Evans is a writer, advocate, free thinker, and all around cynical person. Always quick to find the negative in anything pop culture, she loves being a part of that which she despises. Ashtyn and Dominick own numerous blogs together, as well as a full-time writing business. In her spare time she is a full-time college student studying History and Psychology. She plans to one day give up her freelance career and be a full-time blogger, novelist, and domestic goddess. She can be contacted for writing projects, fan mail, or just to say hi. She really is friendlier than we make her look.
