A single mother gives her son a beloved doll for his birthday, only to discover that it is possessed with the soul of a serial killer.
Well here is the start of my “Child’s Play” franchise review, I’m really excited to be reviewing this franchise, so lets get on with it!
‘Chucky’ is now an iconic figure in modern Horror and it all started with this film in 1988, but who’d have truly thought that a film about a killer doll would become so huge?! ‘Child’s Play’ is the film that made me look at dolls in a whole different light. With his full name, ‘Charles Lee Ray’, being derived from the names of notorious killers Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray it gave the character more of a notorious vibe.
Casting Brad Dourif as the voice of ‘Chucky’ was a perfect choice, his manic sounding voice and now widely recognised laugh make the doll come to life and have that sinister edge to them (To help get into the right mood for Chucky, Brad Dourif would run around the recording studio, work himself up into a real frenzy and then deliver his lines. This would often leave Dourif feeling drained after each take. In fact, he nearly fainted after recording Chucky’s scream for the ending). Definitely a-lot better than the other actor who was considered for the role, John Lithgow.
Unfortunately the film attracted a-lot of negative publicity, During the initial release, a crowd of protesters formed around the entrance to MGM, calling for a ban on the film. They claimed it would incite violence in children. Local news reporters were broadcasting live from the scene, and the producer David Kirschner was watching, disturbed by what he saw. Jeffrey Hilton, who worked with Kirschner at MGM, said he could defuse the situation in ten minutes. Hilton went down and spoke to the ringleader and then the group disbanded, to the chagrin of the newscasters. Hilton never specified whether it was threats or diplomacy that saved the day.
Continuing the accusation of inspiring violence in children, one case linked to the film was a gang in Manchester kidnapping and murdering a 16-year-old girl. While they tortured her, they forced her to listen to recordings of the gang leader repeating the catchphrase “I’m Chucky, wanna play?” Director Tom Holland has always defended the first film from these accusations, stating that viewers of horror movies could only be influenced by their content if they were unbalanced to begin with.
Tom Holland did a fantastic job of bringing us an amazing film that actually made you scared of a plastic doll. If you haven’t watched this yet then you need to re-evaluate if you’re truly a Horror fan……
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
In an interview, Don Mancini said in the original script, Child’s Play was at first a satire on toy marketing and merchandising for children, before the idea morphed into a horror film instead.
The working title for the film was “Blood Buddy,” which seems to confirm the widely believed notion that the film was inspired by Hasbro’s My Buddy toy doll, which also dressed in denim overalls and a striped shirt.
All of Brad Dourif’s voiceover work for Chucky was recorded in advance so they could match up Chucky’s mouth with the words. Because of this, Dourif rarely ever appeared on set during the “doll” scenes. Instead, recordings of his voice would be played back for Alex Vincent to go by.
In the scene where Chucky runs behind Maggie in the hallway, Chucky was actually played by Alex Vincent’s younger sister.
Child’s Play was disowned by the studio, MGM/United Artists, because of qualms with the film’s subject matter. Universal bought the rights for the sequels.
Original writer Don Mancini stated in an interview that his original script toyed with the audience a bit longer, making them wonder if young Andy was the killer rather than Chucky. This idea was used by Kevin Tenney in Pinocchio’s Revenge.
One abandoned concept was that one sign of Chucky turning more human the longer he spent in the doll was that the doll would grow stubble like Charles Lee Ray had when he was human.
The original plot idea was to have life-like Good Guy dolls that had blood and latex skin. If the kids tore the latex skin, they could go out and buy Official Good Guy bandages. In a blood-brother pact, Andy cut his own hand and mixed his blood with Chucky’s, thus causing him to come alive and become human.
Catherine Hicks (Karen) and Kevin Yagher (Chucky’s creator) met on set and were married a year later.
The film was released on the same date (November 9, 1988) as the opening scene, when Charles Lee Ray transfers his soul into the doll.
The toy shop used in the opening scene was actually a Chinese restaurant that closed down in Chicago, on the corner of Wabash and Van Buren. Chris Sarandon even says the name of the street corner when calling for backup.
Chucky, the notoriously iconic talking killer-doll, isn’t actually shown speaking anything until approximately forty-five minutes into the film, just about half of the movie’s run-time.
The name of the TV channel announcing the death of Charles Lee Ray at the beginning of the movie is W-DOL.
Composer Joe Renzetti and singer/songwriter Simon Stokes recorded an ending credits theme song about Chucky the Doll that wasn’t used in the final finished film because studio executives thought it made Chucky seem less scary. The song can be heard in one of the trailers for the film.
Howard Franklin contributed to the screenplay. He remains uncredited in the final film.
Don Mancini and John Lafia were barred from the set after threatening to sue Tom Holland over a writing credit dispute.
The babysitter’s death scene originally had her being electrocuted while taking a bath. The scene was used later in Bride of Chucky.
Joseph Ruben was on the shortlist to direct the film at one point.
Robert Hy Gorman auditioned for the role of Andy Barclay.
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