By Geno McGahee
In 1988, CHILD’S PLAY introduced a new horror character that captured the imagination of the public. When the sequel was announced, the horror community rejoiced. I remember going to the video store and even they had promotional posters for the upcoming film. When it was eventually released on VHS, the video stores were given promotional material like bumper stickers that said “back off Jack, Chucky’s back.” I didn’t have the chance to see it at the movies, but rented it the day it came out. I remember digging it, but it’s been a long time since I’ve last seen it. I didn’t like it as much as I once did, but it wasn’t that bad.
Chucky was left dead at the end of the original CHILD’S PLAY. He was burnt and shot through the heart, but for some reason, the company that makes the good guy dolls, retrieved the remains and used those parts to make a new good guy doll to prove that the story from Andy (Alex Vincent), his mom, Karen (Catherine Hicks) and Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) was bogus. Actually, I was not happy to find out that Norris threw Andy and his mom under the bus and refuted the killer doll story. Even if that is the case, how do they explain the Chucky doll’s internal organs? Karen was locked up in a nuthouse and Andy was put into foster care. Are you happy Sarandon? Are you? Are you happy that you brought some fright to their night asshole?
Andy is still reeling from the incident but Phil (Gerrit Graham) and Joanne Simpson (Jenny Agutter) opt to bring him into their home to give him a fighting chance. Phil is immediately against it. He is a real prick. I think he was happy with the 17-year-old, Kyle (Christine Elise) in his house. Maybe Phil just wanted to help young teen girls and Andy was bad for his reputation. Then again, he treated Kyle poorly too. Perhaps she turned down his advances.
Chucky (Brad Dourif) seeks out Andy and finds the Simpson household. He removes the good guy doll “Tommy” that the owned and went back to his plan to put his soul into Andy’s body. When things start happening, Phil quickly points at that little shit Andy. Andy claims “Chucky did it,” and that just makes Phil that much angrier.
Chucky begins doing some strange things. He writes “fuck you bitch” on some schoolwork that Andy hands in which enrages the prissy teacher. He then kills the teacher. I was kind of surprised that Chucky felt the need to make Andy’s life difficult. What was the point of fucking with his teacher? Maybe it was just for fun or to pad the movie a little. Who knows? It just seemed odd.
Nobody believes Andy, as usual, but Kyle becomes his ally. She tells him that she has bounced around from foster home to foster home and that Andy had to rely on himself. What a bad deal Andy got. He got a possessed good guy doll, lost his mother, and is now being treated like shit from his foster parents. After the death of Phil, Andy is shipped back to the foster center. That’s when Kyle starts investigating and she discovers that Chucky is alive and is murdering people. A big showdown in the toy factory ends with another Andy victory and the potential guardianship under Kyle.
CHILD’S PLAY 2 is pretty uninspired. Chucky is always amusing, but there isn’t much to this story. It’s a re-telling of the first one, but it’s not nearly as good. It’s missing the atmosphere the first one had and has none of the grit. I think that they had to produce this one so quickly that there wasn’t much preparation. They knew it would sell because of the popularity of the first and didn’t pay too much attention to detail and the quality control team was on vacation. It’s not a bad movie, but you can’t compare it to the first. I recommend it, but it should have been much better.
Rating: 5/10
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