Child's Play (2019)

There are horror icons: Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers, Norman Bates, Leatherface, the members of the high class that have immediate recognition, even to non-horror fans. And below them are the lower class that includes those like Pinhead and Pumpkinhead and the Tall Man, and, obviously, Chucky. The doll villain of the “Child’s Play” series that had a lot of box office success over the course of seven films over 20 years that, undeniably, here comes the remake, which came out in June.

The franchise maker, Don Mancini, and Brad Dourif, the voice of Chucky in every installment are not here because they’re working on their own TV series, continuing from the original series, which causes the story to make a reboot. Chucky the Good Guys doll is now Chucky the Buddi electronic toy: Same design, but instead of being infected and animated by the soul of a serieal killer, he’s given evil intentions by a rascal AI. Richard Whittaker said in his review, “That's explained in an awkward – and quite possibly a little racist – opening sequence in which a disgruntled employee in a Vietnamese sweatshop turns off his safety protocols.” Once he comes to lonely American kid Andy, played by Gabriel Bateman, this killer doll has already been returned to the store by one family – the smartest people in the film – for malfunctioning. Basically, Andy’s mom Karen (Audrey Plaza, bravely trying to give the action some volume and failing) simply blackmails her boss (Amro Majzoub) into letting her keep the damaged toy as a birthday present for her son.

Bad idea! Buddies aren’t only dolls. They’re also a walking, talking Alexa, a learning AI that can also control every electronic and bond with their owner. Once this damaged toy, voiced by Mark Hamill, bonds with Andy, he’ll do anything for his friend. Whittaker said, “Anything (stares pointedly at carving knife).”

Whittaker continued, “When in one of the first acts a major, supposedly sympathetic character commits extortion, that's a bad sign.” Actually, this indicates the direction the remake is going in. None of this is Chucky’s fault. Between the factory worker, and seeing that Andy is kind of a jerk, he gets some bad writing. Whittaker said, “That decision to make Chucky a victim of society never really works. Frankenstein's benighted monster, he ain't.”

Whittaker continued, “Aimed squarely at the late-night Friday night crowd, in its own right Child's Play 2019 is unexceptional. It's got a few laughs and a few decent kills, a couple of them even moderately innovative; but Andy works out Chucky is alive early in the bloody proceedings and starts covering up his crimes, while still supposedly being the likable one. Not only that, but he drags in his own Scooby Gang – Falyn (Kitsos), Pugg (Consiglio), and Omar (Kazadi) – in some misguided attempt to evoke Stranger Things.” Any commentary on how dangerous smart electronics, even digital observation looks like a random extra. Whittaker noted, “Similarly, any critique of end-stage capitalism and must-have toy culture was done better by Jingle All the Way. Worst of all, its mix of horror and comedy never walks the tightrope of shrieking absurdism that the originals did at their peak (and it's easy to forget that they started as a straight horror franchise). Instead, it ends up with the off-putting mean-spiritedness of late-era Charles Band, the king of 2000s straight-to-video exploitation.”

Where does this “Child’s Play” end up in the countless remakes nobody wanted? Whittaker said, “While not as obnoxiously and needlessly revisionist as last year's vile Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, it'll kill an hour and a few brain cells for anyone that doesn't know the original, and irritate fans of Mancini's chilling original.” For them, this Chucky can be thrown in the same garbage disposal as any other horror remake nobody talks about again.

I don’t understand why they didn’t decide to make a sequel to “Cult of Chucky,” seeing how that ended off great. I liked the direction that film went and would have welcomed another sequel following that, seeing how it was the only one in the franchise that I enjoyed. However, we instead get this sorry excuse of a remake that I will highly recommend to those who (unfortunately) liked the original, don’t watch the remake. Unless you want to see how good Mark Hamill is as the voice of Chucky, there’s nothing really likable about this film.

Alright, now that I have reviewed that sorry remake, look out tomorrow to see what I will finish this year’s “Halloween Month” off with.