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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