I first saw the infamous antagonist of the series in the fourth film, Bride of Chucky, I was keen to see the three original films before it, and see how he became popular in horror culture, from director Tom Holland (Fright Night). Basically detective Mike Norris (Fright Night's Chris Sarandon) is chasing the notorious murderer, "The Lakeshore Strangler", Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif, also voicing) (named after Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray). Ray is mortally wounded by a gunshot, but before he dies he does a voodoo incantation to transport his soul into the body of a Play Pals Inc. Good Guy Doll. Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) is celebrating his sixth birthday, after seeing the commercial, he is desperate to get a Good Guy Doll. Andy's widowed mother Karen (Catherine Hicks) manages to buy one from a street peddler, her son is overjoyed to receive his doll, named Chucky. Later that night, Karen's best friend Maggie Peterson (Dinah Manoff) babysits Andy, she is hit on the head by someone, before crashing through the window, and falling to her death, landing on a car. Mike is investigating the death, small footprints are found, suggesting maybe Andy did it. The next day, the little boy takes his doll to the house of Ray's former accomplice Edward 'Eddie' Caputo (Neil Giuntoli), he is killed by a gas explosion. Andy is questioned about these recent events, he blames it all on his doll Chucky. With this apparent disassociation with reality, Andy is placed in a psychiatric ward, while his doll is left behind. Karen is throwing away the box that the Good Guy Doll came in, when the batteries that are meant to be inside the doll drop out. She confirms there are no batteries inside the doll, and he comes to life in her hands, attacks her, and runs away. Mike refuses to believe her story that the doll is alive, and possessed with the soul of Charles Lee Ray, until he is attacked himself. Meanwhile, Chucky goes to visit his former voodoo mentor, John "Dr. Death" Bishop (Raymond Oliver). Chucky got shot and is bleeding, meaning that the longer he stays in the doll body, the more human he is becoming, and he may be trapped. Chucky tortures John with a voodoo doll until he reveals the solution, he must transfer his soul into the first person he revealed his true identity to, that is Andy. Before dying from his hideous injuries, John is found by Karen and Mike, he tells them kill Chucky before he can get to Andy, they have to aim for his heart. Chucky has tracked Andy to the psychiatric unit, but he has already escaped to head home. Andy returns home, he is knocked unconscious by Chucky with a baseball bat, he starts his incantation to transport his soul, but Karen and Mike arrive to stop him. After a struggle Chucky is trapped in the fireplace, he is set on fire with the gas stove until apparently dead. But Chucky gets up and tries to attack again, Mike shoots his arms and legs shot off, he is finally killed with a bullet through the heart. Also starring Tommy Swerdlow as Jack Santos, Jack Colvin as Dr. Ardmore, and Home Alone's Alan Wilder as Mr. Criswell. Vincent is adorable as the child victim, and Sarandon and Hicks do their parts fine, but the star of the film is of course Chucky, brought to life with reasonable puppetry techniques, and the great fiendish and wisecracking voice of Dourif. At the time this cult scary movie did cause a big stir, it was a box-office hit, but also protestors wanted it banned, claiming it may incite violence in children, now it is just seen as a standard slasher scary movie, it does have some genuinely tense moments, it may be slightly cheesy and novelty at times, but for the origins of Chucky the killer doll, this is a fun horror. Worth watching!
Review of Child's Play
