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Official Synopsis:
Experience this pulse-pounding slasher-shocker as never before with this all-new 20th Anniversary Edition! Chucky's back with a new slew of "friends to the end" - including a gripping audio commentary, thrilling behind-the-scenes featurettes and more! Six-year-old Andy 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 who swiftly begins terrorizing Andy, his ill-fated babysitter and his disbelieving mom. 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!
Our Take:
Let’s be honest here, folks… the Child’s Play movies have never been scary. Not even a little. I’m sorry, but if you consider the Chucky movies to be horror films, you need to reevaluate what a horror film really is. Instead, they are fun little black comedies that are dressed up as horror movies.
The first, original Child’s Play comes the closest to being a real horror film, although there’s still something distinctly not-scary about a two-foot tall child’s doll. But at least the original film gives it a go, providing some mild chills and thrills along with some (sometimes unintentional) humor. What makes the movie work is the combination of some solid puppet work and the excellent voice acting by character actor Brad Dourif. Dourif is every bit as much Chucky as Robert Englund is Freddy Krueger, and with a different voice behind Chucky’s little plastic head, I doubt we’d have seen even one sequel to Child’s Play, let alone four.
The new Child’s Play: Chucky's 20th Birthday Edition comes with some good bonus features, a first for the film. The previous DVD edition was bare bones. It was also full frame, whereas this version finally presents the movie in widescreen.
* Audio Commentary - With Alex Vincent, Catherine Hicks and "Chucky" designer Kevin Yagher.
* Audio Commentary - With Producer David Kirschner and Screenwriter Don Mancini.
* Scene Specific Chucky Commentary – Chucky himself provides commentary on some scenes.
* Evil Comes In Small Packages: The Birth of Chucky, Creating the Horror & Unleashed (25 minutes total) – Three making-of featurettes.
* Chucky: Building a Nightmare – Looks at the animatronics created for the film.
* A Monster Convention – A 2007 cast Q&A session from a horror convention. I love these.
* Introducing Chucky: The Making of Child's Play – An archive EPK promo piece that focuses mostly on the puppet.
* Still Photo Gallery
Child’s Play is a fun little flick that spawned one good sequel (I have a soft spot for Child’s Play 2) and a few decent ones, and made Chucky a household name. Not bad for a low-budgeted scary movie about a killer doll.
Overall Picture:
Movie: B
DVD: B+
- Mike Spring
Editor
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