Very impressed

I remember being intrigued by this film when it came out but never got around to seeing it until today.

I was very impressed. As thoroughly daft as the concept is, it totally works because of the acting and direction. This film would utterly fail if the child actor was limited/annoying. He absolutely smashes it.

As does the mom. The actress is totally believable and just as charming as the kid, their relationship is as real as you’d get in a top draw drama. That made me really fearful for them, especially after the film had the balls to kill off Maggie.

With the character stuff locked down, the director then cuts loose with the insane plot, creepy horror, and absurd comedy. It shouldn’t really work but in the end it does because we care about Andy and his mom. Chucky himself is another great character, and Chris Sarandon plays the cop with sympathy.

I wonder if they took inspiration from Gremlins? That film had a very well rendered family unit then built the horror and comedy around it. Child’s Play goes full R rated and constantly threatens to kill an adorable child… but still holds together.

The film also uses different kinds of tension. The first half is all ‘will they discover the truth about Chucky before he kills again?’ dramatic irony. It’s full of mystery and revelation, and really plays on Andy’s ‘nobody believes me’ predicament. In the second half the mysteries are solved and it’s all thrills, we now get full body shots of the demonic doll attacking people, and multiple endings.

I wish modern films would create that warm, cozy domestic feeling which was core to a lot of early Spielberg and similar projects. It seems that happy families are off the table these days.