Six-year-old Andy (Alex Vincent) is thrilled when he gets a brand new, Cheery Chucky doll for his birthday. But he quickly discovers that Chucky is possessed by the soul of a notorious serial killer (Brad Dourif, Exorcist III) who swiftly begins terrorizing Andy, his ill-fated babysitter, and his disbelieving mom, Karen (Cathrine Hicks, 7th Heaven). And he doesn’t stop there. Proving he’s nobody to toy with, the demonic doll schemes to transfer his evil spirit out of its “kid-friendly” container and… into Andy!

The filmmakers note that they capitalized on a universal concept of our childhood; the fantasy of dolls coming to life. It’s a fair idea, but one with which I didn’t strongly fantasize when I was young, so the impact remains diluted for me. (I did break into my older sister’s room, take her Barbie dolls and switched their heads, after which I got slapped around pretty good.) So like my breaking and entering, Child’s Play is an ambitious movie with strong components.

With a solid budget, a competent director in Tom Holland, a strong cast, and a talented production team it’s hard to go wrong. Despite starting off with a bit of measured direction, Child’s Play is a good-looking movie, carefully paced (as was Tom Holland’s Fright Night in 1985), and easy to watch. One is always curious to see what that sneaky doll will do. I had a good time with the film, but a couple of issues just didn’t sell me.

What’s the best way to bring Chucky to life to begin with? It’s outrageous any way you cut it, but isn’t there room for cleverness? Don Mancini originally wrote the script with Andy cutting his finger and rubbing it against Chucky’s cut finger, thus, becoming blood brothers and bringing Chucky to life. In the final cut, Chucky is brought to life through voodoo, which was never Mancini’s original intent. While this over-the-top plot device total works with ‘80s audiences (like me), voodoo is just such a crappy, cheap, low-brow way to make an inanimate object come alive. Yes, it works within the context of everything that happens, including scenes of voodoo exposition (ugh), the serial killer’s intent, and the movie’s climax, but going the route Mancini originated seems to be more interesting.

Still, when Chucky does small things, like a slight move of his head or suddenly moves out of frame, he really is at his creepiest. Likewise, seeing brief glimpses of Chucky running around in long-shots can give one chills.

Of course, he’s going to have to become fully alive, which the audience wants, but despite his recklessness and full-body action, it is hard to feel intimidated. The combat between Chucky and Karen, even when he bites her, is just absurd looking. When Chucky attacks Chris Sarandon’s character multiple times, I had a hard time not rolling my eyes. The doll doesn’t have much weight and it was difficult not to imagine an adult easily clamping his or her foot on Chucky’s throat. Then again, if a malevolent doll came alive and attacked me, maybe I’d sing a different tune. And I can’t deny that it is always fascinating to watch that damn doll no matter what.

Overall, Child’s Play delivers impressive moments with more subtle menacing, and, of course, the film became a hit grossing $33 million, and a cult phenomenon for MGM and United Artists. Note that all sequels are through Universal Studios. Why? It’s the business side of show business, in particular the selling of story rights. So, admittedly, I was mostly intrigued by the film’s cult status as I watched it for the first time, and I remain curious to check out the sequels for grins.

I think if the production could have used a little person to do all of Chucky it would have been far more impactful. Yes, that would have been difficult and I don’t know how they could have made that work. But during the film, in long shots they infrequently used a little person for Chucky (actor Ed Gale) and sets were constructed at 133%. His gravity and coordination were the most alarming in some of the shots, even while he tried to be a bit stiff like the doll.

For those who care, and I’m extremely curious, at the end of the second audio commentary as credits roll, Don Mancini notes that he is going to write and direct the original film of Child’s Play as a “re-imagining” (I guess “remake” is a dirty word these days). I’m guessing it will be based on Mancini’s original script, written in 1985. Mancini alludes many times to a satire of the over-commercialism of dolls, which he tried to instill originally (at the time, based on the insane Cabbage Patch Dolls craze). Who knows? If Mancini’s “re-imagining” includes character Eddie Caputo again (doubtful), I’d love to play that role; one word of dialogue, a gun in his hand, and a dramatic death. Sweet! If not, it still sounds like Chucky still wants to…”play.”

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is presented in anamorphic video. The print appears quite clean and nicely balanced in the matted, 1.85:1 aspect ratio (the previous September 1999 release was unmated). Overall, it’s not very impressive transfer, but it’s acceptable. The quality doesn’t appear to have been improved much. The print is grainy at first, but otherwise is very clean of artifacts such as cuts, lint, and dirt. As grain tightens up during the first seven minutes or so the picture improves. Late-‘80s filmmakers liked to have a gauzy atmosphere where light would spill into a room and some of that technique is here, which doesn’t help the grain issue. The contrast ratio is fair with clean whites and a nice rage of grays. Deep blacks are challenged, especially around nineteen minutes when Maggie is closing a window at night; it is there when blacks are noticeably faded. There is only modest shadow detail during those moments; it may have been an artistic decision, either in-camera or by adding black crush during postproduction. Daylight shots exhibit a wider gradation of contrast range. Colors aren’t too sharp or striking. Skin tones look fine but a tad on the salmon side. Finely grained textures on the actors’ faces and clothing is reasonably good. Edge halos are not noticeable nor are compression problems despite the rather feature-loaded disc. The film would benefit from a better transfer or restoration, but as it is, video quality looks respectable.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The audio may have been recorded originally in Dolby Stereo, based on the end credits, but this disc includes a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The ‘99 DVD release had a Dolby Surround 2.0 track, which is also provided on this release. There isn’t much to get excited about, but when comparing the two tracks, the 5.1 mix is more spacious. The score possesses the widest frequency range by a long shot and provides some nice bleed into the rears. Effects pan across the fronts, including dialogue placement, and faint sounds are noticed in the rears on occasion. Surrounds are not discrete, which is likely due to the original source. Unfortunately, dialogue is a bit low, so I had to turn it up by two decibels. Bass is quite weak in this film – worse than I’d expected – with explosions sounding timid and barely giving the woofer anything to do. The Evil Dead’s smooth 5.1 remix added effective bass that increases dread; I think if Child’s Play had had a home theater remix, fans would be loving it. Otherwise, this track remains merely ho-hum.

Other audio tracks include Dolby Surround 2.0 mixes in Spanish and French. English Closed Captions are included as are English and Spanish subtitles.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

First up is an audio commentary with actors Alex Vincent, Cathrine Hicks, and Chucky’s “designer and executor,” Kevin Yagher (who married Cathrine Hicks). Vincent doesn’t talk too much, Hicks talks quite a bit about the production nuances and her experience. But it is Yagher who dominates the track with quite a bit of interesting trivia about the challenging technical aspects; he was the Chucky wizard. This is an interesting commentary for anyone. I was curious to hear if Yagher was going to mention the flub at 1:15:11 of visible control wires going into Chucky, but he only noted that one could see the puppeteer.

Next is a second audio commentary, a great one by producer David Kirschner and original story and scriptwriter Don Mancini. Mancini was a junior in college when he originated the story in 1985. The differences between his original story and original script and the final cut are notable and dramatic, mostly due to the added voodoo aspect, which Mancini and Kirschner dislike but remain respectful. Admirably, Kirschner was present during much of the filming and has some great stories. While calm, Mancini becomes extremely involved with the details of everything: the story, the ideas, and the technical. And it’s great to hear him spur on Kirschner. Mancini wrote all of the sequels and directed Seed of Chucky. This is a great audio commentary.

A third Select Scene audio commentary pulls in an actor (Douriff?) to play Chucky’s cranky voice as he adlibs dark humor in four different scenes, selectable from the special features menu. It’s worthless and minimal, but admittedly fun once through.

The first featurette, Evil Comes in Small Packages, is made up of three sub-featurettes: The Birth of Chucky (25 minutes); Creating the Horror (18 minutes); and, Unleashed (5:27). All are new and include new interviews with all four of the principal cast members (wow), producers, and screenwriter Mancini. All comment generously and respect the film and the filmmaking process. Oddly, director Tom Holland is completely absent.

Following that is another featurette Chucky: Building a Nightmare (10 Minutes). Production of the different Chucky dolls is reviewed with new interviews and archive footage that look quite good. Makeup and special effects guru Tom Savini is also interviewed, as are producers and some engineers. It’s interesting and perfectly describes “boys and their toys.”

After that is the featurette A Monster Convention (5 mintues). Taking place at Monstermania (somewhere?) in 2008, actors Chris Sarandon, Cathrine Hicks, and Alex Vincent take questions from an audience. It’s a bit bland, but kind of interesting all the same.

For grins, I guess, a Vintage featurette: Introducing Chucky: The Making of Child’s Play featurette (6:11) is included from 1988. The faux scary narration and rough assimilation of scenes from the film certainly date it. Interviews with Tom Holland, cast, and crew reveal some of the doll-comes-to-life ideas. Some behind-the-scenes footage is included.

Theatrical trailers for Child’s Play, Mr. Brooks, and Pathology are included. A photo gallery of 73 impressive promo shots is also available to glance through.

The 87-minute film is organized into a hefty thirty-seven chapters.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.

Easter Eggs

The first is barely hidden in the special features menu. Click on the picture of Chucky’s eyes; they will turn red when selected. Press the appropriate button or key and you’ll get a quick, four second message from Chucky via not very good CGI. On page two of the special features menu, again click on a different picture of Chucky’s eyes, which again will turn red when selected. Press the appropriate key and you get another quick, four-second message from CGI Chucky. Each are utterly life changing and profound.

Final Thoughts

It was fun finally to see this iconic film phenomenon, but perhaps because I didn’t have nightmarish fantasies of dolls coming to life when I was a kid, I suppose it had less impact. The film is a quite an ambitious production and although parts of it are dated by an ‘80s style of filmmaking, it certainly has its effective moments. The grainy anamorphic widescreen picture quality is similar to the unmatted 1999 DVD’s presentation, but it’s actually very reasonable. The audio is relatively bland, even in a new 5.1 remix. But the supplements are very strong, which makes this a great recommendation, especially for horror fans.