Child's Play [1988]

Long-haired, voodoo-worshipping serial killer Charles Lee Ray [Brad Dourif] gets shot to death in a Chicago toy store and wills his spirit into a freckle-faced, red-haired 'Good Guy' doll. Widow Karen Barclay [Catherine Hicks] is unfortunate enough to have a disgrace-to-humanity of a son who actually wants a 'Good Guy' doll - they are so nauseatingly cute and wholesome they make the Care Bears look like crack dealers - and just happens to buy the possessed puppet from a wino. Soon, babysitters are being thrown out of windows, Ray's old enemies are being blown up and cop Norris [Chris Sarandon] is thinking of pinning the killings on Karen's brat. Then the doll, who calls himself Chuckie, comes after Norris intent on revenge.

Tom Holland has a thing about the 'Boy Who Cried Wolf' plot - he's used it in Scream for Help, Cloak and Dagger and Fright Night to date - and this is just another go-around for that old chestnut with only little Alex Vincent knowing that his doll is a psychopathic killer and nobody else believing him until they've been brutally stabbed in the ankles. The monster's size is a problem for the scare scenes, which require victims to trip over things so Chuckie can reach them with his favourite carving knife.

Given the worn-out plot, seriously stupid characters and plot holes you could toss a grapefruit through, Child's Play isn't all that bad. Once it's got through the setting-up-the-plot contrivances, the monster's familiar unstoppable rampages are well enough done, with the doll turned through clever special effects into an acceptable substitute for Brad Dourif. It's a bottom-of-the-barrel idea for a horror movie, and has all the subtlety you'd expect from the screenwriter of Cellar Dweller, but it's been given a hefty enough budget and good enough actors to put some life into the tired old killer doll concept. It'll look better on video.
KIM NEWMAN

First Published In: City Limits [review unknown]

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