Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 3.0 | 1/31 | Franchise 1/7
You seen dolls that pee? This one bleeds.
At the end of Child’s Play, Chucky is dead and charred. Now, we watch as Good Guy, who made the doll line, sands down the charred bits, recasts his head, and makes him as good as new.
Mr. Sullivan, the Good Guy CEO, gets the rundown on Andy Barclay and the killer doll rumors. They intend to show the refurbished Chucky to the stockholders to convince them the doll isn’t possessed. He watches the mechanics put the finishing touches on the doll. But as they lower the eyeballs into the doll, a power surge comes through the machine, killing one of the toymakers.
Meanwhile, Andy, now 8, sees a child psychologist, who asks him about his Chucky nightmares and how Chucky wanted to take over his body. The psychologist assures Andy that dreams cannot hurt him. Phil and Joanne talk to another doctor about fostering Andy until his mother recovers — institutionalized for corroborating Andy’s Chucky stories.
Mr. Sullivan’s assistant, Poole, stuffs Chucky in the back of his car on his way to his girlfriend’s. When Poole stops to get liquor, Chucky uses the car phone and calls the psychologist, pretending to be Andy’s Uncle Charles. Information in hand, Chucky kills Poole and looks for Andy.
Though the director is different, the writer and special effects team return. Ed Gale came back as Chucky’s body, which they used a lot more of in this movie compared to the first. The ambition to have Chucky on screen more bites back — the puppetry is not convincing in the full-body scenes.
The writing is effective at establishing new emotional bonds for Andy. Joanna is so loving — she’s the foster mother you dream of a kid finding. Phil, on the other hand, is not cut out to be anyone’s parent. The moments between Andy and Phil and Joanne’s other foster child, Kyle, made my heart swell.
The kids reading Pinocchio in school is funny.
When Chucky starts killing, I like the movie less. I get it — he’s a killer, but the silly kills and Chucky’s wisecracking clash with the more emotional aspects of the script excels at. The first movie succeeded because it took the kills as seriously as the characters.
I get why folks love this one — it’s slicker, bigger, and zanier. But these movies need to go in a different direction if I’m going to be on board for the sequels.