Childs Play (2019) – a review

A thirteen year old boy get’s the ('last years’) hottest new item on the market: a Buddie doll! A fully functioning robot for younger children with all kinds of interactive gizmo’s and gadgets to make your life easier. But most of all, you get a friend for life! That is, until some abused programmer decides to say: “‘F- it all’ let’s take the safety features off!”

In a world of constant lacklustre remakes and uninspired reimaginings it is sometimes a breath of fresh air to get a remake that actually works from start to finish. Childs Play (or ‘Childs Play 2.0’ as I like to call it) is such a movie. It has the same concept as the 1988 original (a killer doll), uses the same three base characters (the mom, son and cop) but that’s about it. The rest of 2019’s Childs Play is deliciously different and, more importantly, the new subplot on why the doll gets killing actually works a lot better than that whole hocus pocus (although Brad Dourif was/is great) that was used in the 1988 original.

Update Chucky

A good remake (or reimagining) walks a fine line between the original and the new path. Undertaking such a movie can easily go wrong. To take a critique I have about 2016’s Ghostbusters remake as an example. That movie was riddled with cameo’s and nods to the original movie. But, at the same time the new stuff the movie put in wasn’t very good; not to mention tonally out of sync with the original movie (soup jokes, a very silly personal assistant).

So, as a result the movie became a strange mix of constantly reminding the audience that it’s supposed to be in line with the original whilst, at the same time, not giving any of the things that made the original fun (like macabre humour).

What Childs Play (2019) does is that it never overtly (no cameos here) connects itself to the 1988 original. But it does bring a whole range of scenes that are in sync with the ‘flavour’ of the Childs Play-franchise.

As I said the base trio is present. But the mother is dating, the son is older and the cop has a mom. Another reference I got was the apartment building the main characters live at, it’s similar to the original. But there’s a big difference between a cameo of an actor and a building.

“This IS the end!”

I can tell you (without spoiling much) that the famous above sentence gets a return as well. And, luck would have it, this time ‘round it isn’t overacted.

I love that moment in the original movie. It's so bad it's good!. The original child who said those words in the original tried his best but he was just too young to pull it off believably. What does the remake do? It ups the age of the child.

Now Andy (Gabriel Bateman) is a thirteen-something Millennial kid who swears, watches horror movies and laughs about them and is highly capable in the new high-tech-cloud-world we currently inhabiting (the movie takes place slightly into the future).

I was a bit shocked when I read an interview of the IT kids cast when the first chapter was about to come out.

They said they all saw the original Tim Curry mini-series and that they didn’t find it scary.

What’s up with this new generation? I’m still traumatized.

Because that’s the strength of Childs Play (2019). It uses technology to conjure up the danger.

The movie even spotlights this by a characters talking about the robot apocalypse.

If you have a machine that can command all kinds of other machines like a puppet master, a Roomba suddenly becomes a deathtrap. The only thing the writer needs to do is to find a way to get said machine on the path to murder. Which is where the character of the overworked and abused programmer comes in.

After that, you are the first hand witness of seeing Chucky following in the fictional Lenny’s (big) footsteps. Starting small Chucky’s lust for blood becomes bigger and bigger. And with all the power the audience, by now, already know he possess a lot of fun is to be had.

Critique

Before I get to the good part I do have to mention a little critique. Childs Play (2019) doesn’t take itself too seriously (this is a good thing). It uses the 80s mould of baddies getting slaughtered and goodies surviving. As such there are some hilariously vile characters in the movie that I was just waiting for to go.

Basically Childs Play (2019) wants you to sit down and relax and watch Chucky having a grand ol’ time. However, for this to happen the main character Andy has to make some rather strange choices.

True, as we all know, the puberty-brain isn’t the most stable mind in the world. But some of the choices the boy makes along the way made me (from a story perspective) scratch my head.

But this critique is quickly forgotten when Chucky starts having fun again.

Blood, gore and acting

For a movie that feels like an 80s movie in which every kind soul survives Childs Play (2019) is pretty darn bloody. The movie does cut away when things get too graphic but still, the amount of blood could fill the Overlook hotel elevator. But the murders are always done creatively with tongue firmly in cheek.

I’ve often talked about Space and Place in horror movies on this blog. I’ve also highlighted the usage of shadows in horror movies. This time ‘round I wish to focus on something else: the petite killer. As any other antagonist the small killer uses the above mentioned tropes to his benefit. Space/Place: kitchen cabinets suddenly become dangerous because he could’ve hidden in there. Shadows: He might be lurking in the shadows and lunge at you. There are two elements that I wish to highlight here. For starters: size. Ad I said above a small antagonist can hide anywhere. But, more importantly, a small antagonist can use its size against its prey. You can see and hear Jason Voorhees coming for miles. You don’t see or hear Cage Creed until he cuts your Achilles tendon. A movie with a small antagonist is, therefore, I argue, far more dependent on the suspense of looking for something in the dark (and the eventual pay-off) then the likes of Friday the 13th which are more about the suspense of the chase. The second point is the obvious one. Every ‘killer kid’ (small antagonist) movie uses this same template. The movie introduces a apparently sweet character and then toys around with childlike innocence contrasted with bloody murder. Again, to compare it to Friday the 13th there is no black-and-white killer in ‘killer-kids’-movies because your own morality/humanity gets turned upside-down. My favourite ‘killer kid’ was in the TV-show Highlander. Here a boy immortal used his innocence to convince other immortals to protect him. Then, when they had their backs turned, the boy decapited them with a meat cleaver (if memory serves). I remember, thinking, at the time, that the kid was probably more powerful than the Highlander.

Which is then underlined by the great Mark Hamill (the Joker himself) as the voice of Chucky. He brings the doll just enough innocence and menace to make this character memorable. Strangely enough it weren’t Chucky’s glowing red eyes that unnerved me, it was his voice. Hamill (after his Star Wars-tour he became a great video-game/voice actor) knows his craft of making a voice sound the way it should.

Hamill also sings two versions of ‘The Buddie song’ on the credits.

One version happy go lucky.

The other version darker (plus it feels like Chucky’s battery is dying out).

Andy, being an older boy gets to show a lot more emotions than the boy in the original movie was
ever allowed to. Moreover, teenagers are allowed to get hurt in Hollywood-fiction. So there are some nice action scenes for him.

His mother (Aubrey Plaza), then, is handed the delicious part of the ‘not perfect mother’. Too often mothers in movies are too perfect (almost like a Mary Sue). Thankfully not in horrors (e.g. The Ring) and certainly not in Childs Play. Plaza’s, Karin, has a terrible taste in boyfriends, isn’t scared of blackmailing people to get what she wants, but she does love her son with whole her heart. Karin is a rather complete character in a movie that doesn't need her to be, and Plaza portrays her quite well.

The third member of the party is ‘The cop’ (Mike Norris played by Brian Tyree Henry). The first half of the movie he is all charm. But thankfully the actor gets somewhat of an arch to go through. But, then again, the minute this arch starts the movie is already going full throttle towards the finale. So it's a bit of a letdown.

Still, Henry’s natural charm and the wonderfully delivered little quirky moments of him talking to himself is all you need to root for him.

Another shout out goes to the child actors and all the victims of Chucky. Even the most two-dimensional character (Omar) has a little scene for the actor to showcase his skill set. Childs play (2019) therefore is a very good harmony of witty writing and delivery.

This IS the END!

What a surprise this updated Chucky was for me. The evil doll is now a computer glitch (leave the paranormal for Annabelle) and it actually works. Chucky has more powers, less morals and a wonderful new voice. And even though Childs Play (2019) is very much in line with the 1988 original, never overtly so.

This is –like any Childs Play movie- one of those movies you watch with your friends on a Saturday night. Screaming at the TV-screen: “Don’t do that!”, “Don’t go out!”, “Chucky is there!” to which SIRI replies: “Roomba...kill!”