Child's Play was directed by Lars Klevberg and stars Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman and Bryan Tyree Henry, and features Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky.
The plot concerns a mother and son who move to a new home, and as a present the son comes into possession of a very high-tech doll. But the doll goes against its programming, becomes self-aware and goes on a murderous rampage.
The acting is surprisingly good, but for different reasons. Firstly you have Bateman who gives a committed and enjoyable, if clichéd, performance as Andy. Bryan Tyree Henry plays a police officer who provides the film's comic relief when it needs it. But in the end it all does come down to the doll, Mark Hamill as Chucky. He definitely succeeds in giving all his scenes a feeling of unease, which makes him very watchable and entertaining. But despite all that I felt there was something Hamill didn't do, something lacking that could have made his performance even more enjoyable. He's good, but there is definitely a feeling of opportunity missed.
The film was written by Tyler Burton Smith, and what is most impressive about his script is how it manages to elevate the quality of the film. The script is mostly new material and that generally works in its favour. There are new characters, who are given more to do, there's some very inventive kills throughout, and some memorable dialogue. Plus some dark humour and a fair amount of set up for some of the key characters before the main events start occurring. I thought all those things went together really well to make an above average script.
The film was shot by Brendan Ugeama and if there's one thing he has managed to accomplish with his cinematography it's the images of the doll standing in the shadows. I thought those work very well because they create quite an unnerving sensation in the viewer because he's simply standing there waiting, there's little to no light, and yet it's very clear what he is capable of and that he could suddenly jump and do anything at anytime.
The music was composed by Bear McCreary. I feel that the score works and doesn't work at the same time. There are parts of it that sound like it understands the film's darker tones rather well, but then another part will come along that demonstrates that maybe the darker tone aspect was understood a little too well, for a film that is a horror but does posses some silly ideas. And when the music tries to play to the sillier side of the film, especially with a song sung by the villain (!), I found that part of the score to be annoying and confusing. The song sounds as if it wants you to be frightened, but it sounds too much like an obnoxious nursery rhyme to even be remotely scary, just aggressively annoying The music is good work most of the time, I just feel that the film needed music of a slightly better standard to help to contrast the horrific and comedic tones.
One flaw that I feel diminished the film takes place in the final few minutes. Without getting into specifics or spoilers, something happens that I feel damages one of the original film's key values and for a film like this, it's also kind of unnecessary. This sequence did maintain my interest in the film, but it wasn't without its problems. I would best describe it as an entertaining, but overblown climax.
The conclusions I draw from that is are that: Child's Play has surprisingly good performances; a very well written script; some unnerving shots; a score that has its moments but needs work with the tonal elements; an aggressively annoying song for and sung by the villain; and a flaw that I feel damages one of the original's core values, but does give us an entertaining but overblown climax.
Having taken all my pros and cons into account, I'm going to give Child's Play...
B
Thank you for reading.
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