Child's Play turns an innocent doll into a menacing foul-mouthed serial killer. Ahhh, Chucky. How I've never seen your debut film until now baffles me. A legendary face in the slasher genre, Chucky had always found itself in the mainstream despite the cult following for the franchise. You see an ominous looking doll at a toy store and automatically point whilst screaming "Chucky!". The media frenzy that spawned for this character was ludicrous, so I wanted to view the conception of this idolised fictional serial killer with Holland's Child's Play. Suffice to say, holds up pretty darn well. A mother gifts her son with a Good Guys doll for his birthday, unbeknown to her that the doll is possessed by a serial killer who transferred his soul into the toy.
My biggest concern was with the balance of horror and comedy. Subconsciously I've been susceptible to various scenes from the franchise throughout the years that made me question the legitimate nature of its slashing descent. Evidently, these moments must've been from sequels as I found the balance in Holland's original to be fairly even. The first half brilliantly emanating dread with Holland's signature slow panning and tempered camera movement. The POV perspectives of both the human characters and Chucky, although excessive to the point that its effect wore off completely, surprisingly maintained the inspired tension in the first half. Exquisite puppetry and animatronic manipulation meant that each head turn or eye roll from Chucky made the hairs on my arms stand up. Very effective work. Again, all in the first half.
Hicks gave an endearing and determined performance as the mother, whilst Dourif's killer voice acting gave Chucky a memorable personality. Not exactly a guy I would go for a pint with (I'm more of a cocktail person). Quickly changing from "I'm you friend to the end. Hidey-ho!" to "You stupid b*tch! You filthy sl*t!" ensued hilarity upon the first line delivery from Chucky. Like I said, going swimmingly well for the first half.
Then, unfortunately, we get to the inevitable slashing second half. The tension dissipates, Chucky won't shut up, animatronics are substituted for "little actors" or child actors and the plot becomes a little bit more stupid by the minute. I mean, don't get me wrong, it already started off non-sensical with the whole soul transfer scenario (although how else would they do it...). But to then incorporate the voodoo gibberish and the doll slowly becoming human. Eh. Failed to work for me.
The escapades that followed after Chucky realised what he needed to do in order to survive, were mediocre at best. Clichés from the slasher genre, let's be honest. Stupid character decisions are embedded throughout, such as the mother venturing out by herself to find Chucky or failing to shoot a heart at point blank range. I shan't begin to discuss the stupidly paper-thin windows that are installed in her apartment. She may want to get double glazing or something...! Chucky, for the sake of personality, excessively spits out expletives and loses that sinister edge from the first half. Vincent's acting teetered between annoying and semi-decent. Oh, and the connotations of inciting child violence were fairly explicit.
Still, even though the second half diminished the technical prowess and tension from the first half, it remained entertaining throughout. Holland does an impressive job at directing the silly antics shown on screen, and props to the actors for maintaining a serious approach to the ludicrous story. Just a shame that the latter half prevents this slasher from being my friend til the end...
