No one believed six-year-old Andy Barclay when he told him his new doll named Chucky was alive. And when the boy’s nanny was killed by falling out a window, he told his mother and the investigator the plain truth: “Chucky did it.
When the killer’s soul possesses an innocent-looking doll, no one but little Andy realizes that Chucky is responsible for the wave of gruesome murders sweeping the town. But the real horror comes when the villain’s spirit sets out to move from the doll into a living person.
4k movies reviews
Charles Lee Ray, a homicidal maniac in the guise of a child doll named Chucky, is perhaps the most original movie villain of the serial killer class, having appeared and evolved in the 1980s, along with the legendary Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees. Technically, Chucky is far from the laurels of the aforementioned movie maniacs, both in terms of the number of victims and the charismatic image, but in fact, he is no less vicious, unremarkable and deadly creature, who has also become the main character of a popular franchise, even if less box office and famous than “Nightmares on Elm Street” or “Halloween.”
“Child’s Play” is a typical example of how just one curious idea can provide a screenwriter for years to come, without his involvement in other, non-Chucky-related projects. Don Mancini came up with a purely thrashy plot about how a mortally wounded homicidal maniac has used black magic to “relocate” his soul into the plastic “body” of a child’s toy, the much-publicized Chucky doll that many children dream of getting their hands on. Initially, the idea of the script was that only at the end of the film the identity of the murderer becomes apparent, and the viewer with horror and surprise realizes that the main villain is not human. But in the end, they decided to focus specifically on the appearance of a sinister puppet, and the result is no less impressive. The very idea that the monster was created not by computer effects, which were still poorly developed at the end of the 1980s, but with a rubber stuffed animal which looks extremely vivid, sinister and frightening on the screen, is delightful. Chucky’s facial expressions as he transforms from a cute little baby boy into a demented monster with his rubber face twisted with anger are simply astounding. The psychopathic expression on the doll’s “face” even now puts a damper on many of today’s “virtual-animated” monsters. Chucky’s facial expressions and emotions are top-notch, definitely an impressive achievement of the visual effects masters of those years.
“Child’s Play” is not the kind of slasher where the number of victims is off the charts and the blood flows like a river. There aren’t many murders in the film, but almost every one of them is an impressive scene! By the way, the very first deprivation of life in the picture (not counting the death of Charles Lee Ray’s human form) is a direct reference to Hitchcock’s “Psycho”, and it’s not at all the classic “shower scene” that every horror fan knows, but the second “murder on the stairs”. In “Children’s Games” this episode is not copied, but it was definitely filmed under the influence of this scene. But the main thing in Tom Holland’s picture is not the carnage, but the suspense. And Joe Renzetti’s “suspenseful” soundtrack contributes to it in the best possible way. It’s not, of course, some instantly recognizable musical theme from “Halloween” or “Friday the 13th,” but a composition that lends itself perfectly to the visuals and envelops the “scary story.”
Don Mancini’s script is far from perfect, but it is really interesting and unpredictable. Since the plot and all the horrors are mixed with black magic, the viewer almost to the end of the story does not know how to stop this insane and bloodthirsty puppet? Especially since the main character himself is not afraid of death, for he is already dead. Chucky’s only aspiration is to get out of his plastic body, but it is no less difficult for him to do so than it is to die. So in the finale, the tension reaches its climax and erupts into a nightmarish scene that is still frightening to this day. And even the “conditional defeat” of the Chucky puppet in the war with people does not guarantee that this creature will not suddenly come back to life again and rush at the first person it meets…..
However, it wasn’t the devil’s powers that brought the Chucky puppet to life, but the impressive box office receipts. And the “children’s” horror movie turned into a serial project with more and more sophisticated special effects and impressive murders. And let the last series to date, “Chucky’s Offspring” has become a blatant comedy, a kind of parody of the original, Charles Lee Ray is still popular! A remake of the picture is expected in the near future.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (79.5 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles
English SDH.