★★★
A mother gives her 13-year-old son a toy doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature.
Classification: 15
Chucky and Child's Play is one the more unique horror franchises that have maintained the same creative vision from screenwriter Don Manchini, who has written every previous instalment of Chucky's cinematic adventures. The new reboot from director Lars Klevberg does justice to elements of the franchise but does leave one craving a more consistent product. Issues with tone, characterisation and story logic don't detract much from Child's Play creative gore, terror and Chucky's creepiness but make the overall film less enjoyable than it could be.
The best part of any Child's Play movie is always going to be Chucky and for the most part, the new iteration delivers. The mix of practical and CGI can make the character off-putting with the new character design of the doll being more distracting than immersive. Mark Hamill's iconic vocal talents are a worthy successor to Brad Douriff's as Hamill's ominous delivery varies from feigned innocence to pure malice. The most creative element of the reboot is in Chucky's recontextualization, having him be an interactive cloud service hub product of a massive corporation. Essentially Chucky is given free rein to control his environment as he learns that most electronics are part of the corporation, allowing for amazing horror omniscience that leads to films most enjoyable scares.
While Hamill's Chucky does his predecessor proud, other elements of the film fall short. While the supporting cast is talented nothing really stands out with tonal issue and poor scripting making some motivations rushed and confusing. Gabriel Bateman as Andy, the child who Chucky becomes obsessed with starts strong but falls victim to convoluted plot devices. It really feels for the most part Child's Play is just waiting for the third act so it can let Chucky loose but before then needs to stretch out its tension as much as possible to middling effect. Aubrey Plaza and Brian Tyree Henry seemed like inspired choices for the characters but they are given very little to work with as they are regulated to clichés and not much noteworthy.
The scripting issue attributes to the pacing issue, it feels that too much time is spent building into Chucky's madness. While initially interesting and allows for Hamill to make his character more interesting, it begins to get tedious especially with Andy and his friends freaking out over the toy's homicidal tendencies. Henry's character, a police officer who investigates Chucky's murders isn't really given a chance to interact with Chucky doll at all, his scenes mostly being with Andy. Klevberg has all these characters and their connections to Andy and Chucky but very few are given real narrative closures.
Where Klevberg and his team excel is the ambience of the film, both cinematography and score make Child's Play a riveting experience. While Chucky's design isn't the most appealing sight, cinematographer Brendan Uegama is able to take a few simple locations and make them into nightmares. The tension that can be derived from the elaborate murder scenes is delightful as you can see the respect the filmmakers have for the character's history. Chucky's first murder involving a lawnmower and Christmas lights was a definite highlight. Bear McCreary's score has a childlike dread throughout that brings the horror up a notch and honouring the famous themes that had come before it.
Child's Play doesn't dishonour its cinematic legacy like other ill-advised horror reboots and Lars Klevberg creates an engaging visual spectacle for the most part. The scripting, tonal and pacing issues can break the immersion at inopportune moments but Hamill's Chucky has the ability to bring the audience back with his creative new powers and twisted motivations. Horror, gore and sinister toys are the main sources of enjoyment while the human characters leave much to be desired but there is a foundation for Chucky's new cinematic future.
Director: #LarsKlevberg
Release Date: June 21st 2019
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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