Child's Play (2019)

My usual problem with remakes of classic movies is the same as when I hear a cover of a song.  There are two ways of doing it.  One is to copy everything to the letter, hoping to get a hit from what someone else did before.  The other is to take the original words, or some of them, and rearrange things so that it is different enough that the artist has put their own stamp on it.  The Vanilla Fudge and their version of "You Keep Me Hanging On" is one that always comes to mind.  So, in a world of bland horror remakes, the 2019 version of Child's Play might be considered the Vanilla Fudge version of the film. 

Andy (Gabriel Bateman) and his mother Karen (Aubrey Plaza) have just moved into a new apartment.  Andy doesn't have any friends and doesn't try to make any, although he kind of connects with a police officer named Mike (Brian Tyree Henry) lives down the hall.  Things are made worse by Karen's boyfriend Shane (David James Lewis), whom Andy has no liking toward.  It is the eve of a new release of the Buddi 2 dolls, an interactive smart toy from the Kaslan Company that can also control other branded items around the house.  When a customer returns a malfunctioning original Buddi to the store Karen brings it home as an early birthday present for Andy.

What they don't know is that this particular doll was sabotaged by a disgruntled worker at the factory in Vietnam where the toys are manufactured.  Everything that keeps the doll from swearing or acting out in different ways is shut off.  Designed to imprint on the child it is given to the Buddi doll, which insists on being called Chucky (Mark Hamill), begins to bond with Andy.  Problem is it has to learn from scratch and it doesn't understand that humans do not mean for it to take things literally, such as "removing" things that make them mad.  The attachment Chucky has for Andy soon becomes dangerous as the doll decides to murder anyone that comes between him and his best friend. 

This came out a few years before M3GAN, which itself took plenty of inspiration from the original Child's Play.  That means there are some similarities since Tyler Burton Smith, who wrote the script for this version, decided to make Chucky a dangerous piece of technology rather than possessed by the spirit of a serial killer.  In fact, all supernatural elements are removed and this is a standalone movie from the rest of the related Chucky universe, including the television series.  Don Mancini, the creator of the character and writer of the original, had nothing to do with this movie other than getting a creator credit. 

It was a risk and, despite some fan backlash, it was one worth taking.  Perhaps this is too far removed from the original Child's Play that at some point a few character names should have been changed along with the title.  Still, I'm willing to accept this on its own terms, as it has both a great sense of humor in places and provides some good thrills.  Gabriel Bateman is an older version of Andy, so he doesn't have to try to be Alex Vincent, and Aubrey Plaza is much more involved than the mother was in the original.  It also does have two great kills, although I would have liked the massacre at the end to have been a bit more wild.

Despite my initial reservations I found myself enjoying just about every aspect of Child's Play.  I say just about because, although it is good they went for a mostly practical doll, the face on this version of Chucky is horrendous.  Not horrendous in a great, spooky way, but in the way that if the effects crew had not been so rushed they may have come up with a better design.  Mark Hamill doing the voice work makes up for it, and for the absence of Brad Dourif, but even without his chips scrambled this would not be a Buddi I would want to invite into my home.

Child's Play (2019)

Time: 90 minutes

Starring: Gabriel Bateman, Aubrey Plaza, Bryan Tyree Henry, Mark Hamill

Director: Lars Klevberg