Child’s Play (2019)

Director: Lars Klevberg

Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Hamill, Gabriel Bateman

A mother gives her 13-year-old son a toy doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature, he also kills people who disobeyed Andy.

This remake has been cleverly updated to include today’s technology, apps and gadgets. However, with Andy now 13 years old and with all the technology, the innocence of the original film is lost. It is still not entirely believable for a 13-year old boy with mobile technology to be interested in a doll. (In the original film it completely made sense for a 6-year old Andy to be playing with dolls).

The opening scene and the reason for Chucky becoming a killer doll isn’t nearly as impressive as the original. In the 1988 film, a ruthless killer transfers his soul into the doll just before dying, whereas in this remake, the doll simply malfunctions due to programming errors. Chucky – nor the film – is therefore as sinister as the original ‘Child’s Play’.

As for the acting and characters, the only characters that really stand out, is Andy and his mother (played by Gabriel Bateman Audrey Plaza). The rest of the characters are disposable, especially the Detective, who is a comic relief character who adds nothing to the film. (The detective in the 1988 film played a huge role in the film, and was so well portrayed by Chris Sarandon). The rest of the characters are silly with silly dialogue, and very little substance. Although I miss Brad Douriff voicing Chucky, Mark Hamill really did a very good job, as well.  As for the new design Chucky, I don’t like this doll at all!

I wonder what my opinion of the film would have been if I haven’t seen the original film and had nothing to compare it to.  Even so, the film has way too many credibility issues. Credit where credit is due, though, the killing scenes are very well made, cringe worthy and brutal.

In general this wasn’t all that bad a film, but I’d much rather watch the original ten times over before watching this again…