Single mother Karen and her son Andy move to for a fresh start after a messy divorce. She starts a new job at a deparment store while he struggles to find friends and escapes into his phone and games. One day, Karen brings home a defective Buddi doll as a peace offering and an early birthday present for Andy. They have a rough start, but Alex warms up to the doll and makes some human friends. Andy tries to get rid of the doll when it becomes violent, but it seems to have a mind of its own.
Child's Play is updated for the technological age and changed so it's almost unrecognizable. Honestly, it could have easily been an original AI or evil Siri/Alexa movie without treading into a beloved franchise. The focus goes from a murderer using voodoo to an AI doll with no safety protocols and the corporation that made it. From the time it's turned on, Chucky is learning from Andy and his new friends how to act, what's acceptable, and how to make him happy. Through weeks of experiences, the doll learns that violence is entertaining and a method to get people and animals that upset Andy out of the way. Things get even worse when Andy pulls away from the doll and tries to put more energy into his human friendships. This fresh new take paired with gruesomely fun kills made the film a delight to watch. Mark Hamill is brilliant as the voices of Chucky, which starts as childlike and innocent and then transitions over the course of the film to a deep, threatening voice.
The Kaslan corporation makes everything from self driving cars to Buddi dolls. Although it's in the periphery of the story, the implications speak volumes. The company seems to monopolize the market to the point where no other brands are seen. Chucky can also connect to any other Buddi product, making everything in their home, and by extension their neighborhood, a possible death trap. The defective doll was created because an exploited worker in Vietnam was fired, removed the safeties from the doll, and then killed himself. In such a small scene, it speaks volumes about the company's outsourcing, avoiding American labor laws, and exploiting workers with poor working conditions, abusive bosses, low wages, and impossibly high expectations. This corporation and the commentary on it gave the story extra depth beneath the expected killer doll story.
Although I enjoyed this remake, two things stood out as flaws: Andy and the look of Chucky. Andy is a teenager who has no friends as a result of moving to a new town and putting absolutely no effort into making new ones. He would rather sit in the hallway playing video games and make people think he's neglected than meet new people. Chucky becomes his first friend and the catalyst to human friends. Once the doll kills his cat, that should have been the moment when he drew the line and got rid of the doll. He waited until the doll stabbed him, killed his cat, and then killed someone else until he even thought about it. If Andy was going to be this dumb, he should have been much younger. Also, who would buy this Buddi doll? It's so creepy to start with that I wouldn't want it anywhere near my home. Big eyes don't make it cute. Other than these two flaws, the movie truly impressed me.
I wasn't expecting a lot from a remake of Child's Play that deviated so much from the original and was released while the original franchise is still going strong. It does leave a bad taste in my mouth that Don Mancini was completely ignored even while he's developing a TV show. To avoid this weirdness, it could have easily been an original film and not part of this franchise at all. Despite all this, Child's Play made me laugh out loud in the theater by balancing the horror with dark humor. I can't to watch it on movie nights at home with friends.
My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins
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