‘Child’s Play’ (2019) Review

Up until a couple of years ago, I was scared of Chucky. I never had a problem with other classic slashers, but Chucky got to me for whatever reason. At some point, the fear became mild discomfort, and my dad encouraged me to watch the original Child’s Play during my Halloween movie marathon last year. So I did.

The fear went away, and I realized I kind of really don’t like the original movie. However, I loved Chucky himself. I wanted more, so I watched more Chucky movies, and I’d consider myself a fan. The crude and offbeat humor, combined with Brad Dourif’s consistently great performance and fun kills connected with me.

So now that I’m a fan, I was allowed to have an opinion on the 2019 remake/reboot. The trailers didn’t do much for me, and the fact that neither Dourif nor Don Mancini (the original creator and continual creative force behind the series) rubbed me the wrong way. It wasn’t until Mark Hamill’s casting as Chucky that I was truly interested. Even then, I was expecting a mediocre film with a good performance at best.

I love being proven wrong.

Child’s Play (2019) is a surprisingly fun slasher movie. Unlike the original film, the kid who plays Andy (our protagonist) is actually pretty good. His relationship with Chucky is engaging, and surprisingly heartfelt. Yeah that’s kind of the biggest shock to me; the movie actually has a heart. It didn’t need to have a heart to be a good Chucky movie either. The original series is pretty ironic and silly. However, this reboot/remake/whatever actually makes you care about Chucky. He’s a surprisingly endearing character, thanks in no small part to Mark Hamill’s wonderful performance. Hamill sells the innocence of this toy who’s trying to understand the world. He also sells the gradual turn towards murder extremely well. Shocking, the guy who’s played the Joker for 20 years is good at doing a creepy voice.

Even with this emotional center, the films finds ways to incorporate the series’ offbeat humor. The kills, while gruesome, have some comedy sprinkled in. This is usually in the form of an ironic twist that fits for that character. There’s also plenty of crude humor outside of the kills (although it never gets as crude as the original series). While the humor usually lands, it can sometimes lead to some tonal issues. For example, there are gags sprinkled through a sympathetic character’s death, which leads to some mixed emotions.

What doesn’t really work for me though is Andy’s group of friends. They just feel a little undercooked. I wish we got more time developing Andy’s relationship with these kids. Also, most of the jokes that fall flat to me come from them. As it stands in the movie, they serve their story purpose well enough. We get that they like Andy, and that Andy likes them too.

This movie is the rare modern horror reboot/remake that actually works. It has it’s own identity, while still paying respect to the original franchise (well, the studio didn’t but the filmmakers did). While I still prefer the strange energy of the original series, this is a solid horror movie that old fans and newcomers alike should enjoy. Besides, we still have the TV series set in the old continuity coming, so this new take doesn’t take away from anything.