Before this new Child’s Play, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a horror movie and just felt … embarrassed for the villain. It’s the character’s endless anxiety over being replaced as Andy’s best friend that’s so off-putting. I don’t object to him being all stab-y and homicidal. But the big problem is this new iteration of Chucky. This is a bad horror movie that unsuccessfully tries to split the difference between being campy and gory. The characters do dopey things to further the plot, and the kill scenes are more and more elaborate/ridiculous. Unfortunately, the movie quickly grows increasingly inane and predictable. (Mark Hamill, who provides Chucky’s voice, leans into the eerily inhuman humanness of the character’s demeanor.) At first, it seems like this reboot will smartly skewer our willingness to just give our lives over to our A.I. ) And there’s something darkly comical about the Buddi doll’s uncanny-valley, creepily enthusiastic responses to everything. (One of the film’s supporting characters even makes an oblique Skynet reference. It doesn’t take much to scare viewers about the prospect that their interconnected home devices will one day rise up and kill them. In its early going, this new Child’s Play shows promise. Chucky isn’t inherently malicious - he just wants to do everything in his power to make sure Andy loves him as much as he loves Andy. But because Chucky wasn’t programmed properly, he takes his desire to be Andy’s best friend literally - killing anyone who annoys the kid and trying to eliminate those who might threaten their close bond. Andy thinks he’s too old for a Buddi, but the doll, who names himself Chucky, is such a warm, supportive presence that Andy soon falls for the toy. That livewire Buddi finds its way to Andy (Gabriel Bateman), a lonely, sensitive young teen and his single mom Karen (Aubrey Plaza), who have just moved to a new town. However, when a lowly worker in Vietnam gets fired at the Buddi plant, he snaps and sends out one of the dolls into the world without the programming that keeps it obedient. Here, the doll, named Buddi, has been designed to make your kid feel special - and because he’s part of a fictitious high-tech corporation, Kaslan, which specializes in interactive products, Buddi can remotely hook up to your stereo, television or smart home. But director Lars Klevberg and screenwriter Tyler Burton Smith have other ideas for their reboot. Nobody had to worry about the guy’s feelings. As a rule, they don’t walk around with crippling insecurity.Ĭhucky in the 1988 Child’s Play was of that ilk, blissfully slaying helpless bystanders and spewing menace in all directions. Maybe they have some traumatic backstory, but on the whole, they’re assertive, resourceful and upsettingly confident in their abilities. When you think of cinema’s most frightening bogeymen - Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers - they tend to be savage killing machines, devoid of emotion as they drain the life from their victims. That new plot wrinkle is meant to be social commentary, but instead, we’re just trapped with the neediest horror monster ever. Unfortunately, one particular doll has its fail-safes disconnected, and when that happens, the robot’s urge to be loyal turns twisted. But in the new film, Chucky is a super-advanced doll that’s programmed to be its owner’s best friend. The original was about a murderer whose dark soul enters the body of an adorable child’s toy. Nevertheless, that’s what kept occurring to me while watching this initially intriguing, ultimately brain-dead reboot. There are probably a hundred thoughts that the filmmakers behind the new Child’s Play want dancing through our head while watching this blah remake of the 1988 horror film, but I’m guessing that’s not one of them.
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