Child's Play

All Andy wanted as a Good Guy doll. Well, he got his wish. Enter Chucky, a serial killer who favored strangulation and knew voodoo, who has been shot down in a toy store. He transfers his soul to the body of the doll and tries to put his soul into the young Andy.

Information
Title: Child's Play
Tagline: You'll Wish It Was Only Make-Believe
Producer: David Kischner
Director: Tom Holland
Written By: Don Mancini
Company: MGM
Rating: R
Year: 1988
Run Time: 87 minutes

Cast
CHUCKY - Brad Dourif
KAREN BARCLAY- Catherine Hicks
ANDY BARCLAY- Alex Vincent
MIKE NORRIS - Chris Sarandon
MAGGIE- Dinah Manoff

Reviews
The Chucky Source: I love this movie. Andy is just too cute and Chucky has some really great lines. It's a little dated to me, since I was one year old when it came out, but the special effects looked great for the time period. The story was good and at times it felt a little creepy. I know Chucky is the bad guy, but I cannot help but to cheer for him and laugh when ever he starts to swear. It's just adorable!
Roger Ebert: "Child's Play is a cheerfully energetic horror film of the slam-bang school, but slicker and more clever than most, about an evil doll named Charles Lee Ray, or "Chucky." This doll has been possessed by the mind and soul of the Lake Shore Strangler..." [ more ]
Channel 4: "It's unfortunate that the Child's Play series is most famous (in the UK at least) for the fact that its third instalment was allegedly watched by the juvenile murderers of toddler James Bulger..." [ more ]

Story *contains spoilers*
Charles Lee Ray is on the run. Detective Mike Norris is chasing his down. You see, this Charles Lee Ray, Chucky, is the Lake Shore Strangler. He is a serial killer and he is about to meet his demise in a toy store. Or is he? Norris shoots him down, but just as he dies, Chucky grabs onto a fallen box and pulls out the doll inside, a Good Guy doll. He chants an incantation that sends his soul into the body of the doll. Lightning strikes the toy store, causing the building to errupt into flames.

Cut to the Barclays. Andy is a small, six-year-old boy who loves the idea of having his own Good Guy doll, based off of his favorite characters from his favorite cartooon. He really, really wants one for his birthday, but his mom, Karen, didn't have enough time or money to buy it for him in time. An upset Andy sulks as his mom goes to work. At work, her friend tells her of a peddler that actually is selling a Good Guy doll. Excited, Karen goes and buys the doll from him. Andy is thrilled to get the Good Guy doll. The doll introduces himself as Chucky...

"Hi, I'm Chucky. And I'm your friend to the end. Hi-de-ho!"

Karen has to go back to work that night, so Maggie babysits Andy. She tries to get Andy to go to bed, but he wont. He says that Chucky wants to stay up and watch the News. Maggie takes Andy and Chucky back to Andy's room. Somehow, Chucky ends up back in front of the TV, watching the 9:00 News. A little concerned, Maggie sternly tucks the two of them, Andy and Chucky, in bed. Maggie starts to get pretty freaked out after she has sent Andy to bed. She keeps hearing something move around. She goes to check out the kitchen and discovers a mess. As she starts to clean up, she hears a noise in the corner. As she investiages, she is hit in the head with a hammer. She stumbles backwards, right out of a window. She falls to her death.

Karen arrives to a home crawling with police. She grabs onto Andy the second she finds him. Then she learns about Maggie's "accident." Detective Norris fills her in on the details. The only footprints found at the crime are very small. They look like Andy's Good Guy PJ sneakers, and for a second it seems that Norris suspects Andy having something to do with the death of Maggie. Andy insists that Chucky was the one who killed Maggie. No one believes him. He doesn't give up. Andy tries to convince Karen that Chucky is the killer and that he can talk and is a real person.

The next day, instead of going to school, Andy sneaks off with Chucky. They go to Eddie Caputo's hideout. Someone opens the oven in the hideout and blows out the pilot light. Then this same someone turns on the oven's gas full force. As Eddie looks for whoever is making these noises, he notices Andy outside and rests easy, thinking it was him. But it wasn't. You see, Eddie was Chucky's partner-type-dude. This was Chucky's revenge toward him. Suddenly, Eddie hears a laugh and shoots blindly into the kitchen, making the house explode.

Karen is called into the police's office and learns that her son was found at the scene of the burning house. He was currently under review of a child psychologist. He is still sticking to the story that Chucky is real and is doing all of the horrible things.

Dr. Ardmore, from the hospital, takes Andy with him for observation. Karen brings the doll home. She looks at it, goading it to speak. Karen goes to get a glass of water and she notices the Good Guy doll box. As she examines it, the battery pack falls out. Startled, she walks over to Chucky and picks him up. She opens up his back and sees that he does not have batteries. As she discoveres this, he says something to her... And she screams and drops him. Chucky rolls underneath of the couch. She pulls him out and demands Chucky to talk to her again. She makes him talk by lighting a fire and threatening to throw him into it.

"You stupid bitch! You filthy slut! I'll teach you to fuck with me!"

Chucky attacks her, biting deep into her arm. She throws him away and he escapes the building by way of the elevator. Karen tries to chase him but she never catches up. She finds Norris and tells him about what she's learned. He doesn't believe her at all. He shows him the bite as proof. She goes to find the peddler she bought him from. When she does, she nearly gets raped. Norris comes to her rescue. The peddler reveals that he got the doll from the burned out toy store. They very same story Charles Lee Ray met his demise in.

Norris drives Karen home. As he is driving away, Chucky attacks him from behind, attempting to strangle him to death. After that fails to work, he tries to stab him to death through the seat. The car spins out of control and eventually flips over and skids to a stop. Chucky reveals himself with a joyful, "HI MIKEY!" Norris shoots at Chucky. He manages to shoot Chucky in the shoulder just Chucky tries to stab him in the face. Chucky flees the scene, injured. He finally believes Karen and Andy.

Karen tries to find Chucky's teacher, the one who taught him how to beat death. But Chucky gets to him first. He is shocked. Chucky demands to know why it hurt when he was shot and why it bled.

"The more time you spend in that body, the more human you become."

This comes as quite a shock to Chucky. He needs to get out of that body and fast. He refuses to help Chucky, too...

"Because you're an abomination! An outrage against nature!"

Chucky takes out his rage on his teacher by using a voodoo doll. He breaks his limbs until he gives up the information he most needs... How to get out of the doll's body.

"You have to transfer your soul out of the doll into that of the first human being you revealed your true self to."

Haha! This mean Chucky has to take Andy's body.

"I'm gonna be six-years-old again! Well, John, it's been fun... But I gotta go. I have a date with a six-year-old boy."

Chucky stabs the voodoo doll in the chest, leaving him to lay on the floor, dying. Soon after, Karen and Norris arrive. They find him, nearly dead. He warns them to protect the boy. He tells the two to kill Chucky before he says the chant by attacking Chucky's heart. The hunt for Chucky begins. He's already on his way to see Andy. Andy notices Chucky climbing up the fire escape to come get him. He tries to get Dr. Ardmore to let him out, but he instead tries to find a sedative for the terrified Andy.

Chucky sneaks in and takes the keys to Andy's cell. Andy fakes him out by disguising a pillow as him to lay in Andy's bed. As Chucky discovers this, Andy runs out of the room and out into an checkup room. Chucky attacks him in there. Andy tries to protect himself with a scapel. Ardmore finds him and pulls it from his hand. The doctor struggles to give him a shot to calm him down, but Chucky stabs him with the scapel. And then he is fried to death with the shock therapy headset thingie. Andy escapes.

Karen and Norris go to the Barclay's apartment in search of Chucky and Andy. Andy makes sure that all of the doors are barricaded. Chucky makes his way up in the elevator.

"Ugly doll."
"Fuck you."

Andy hides in a closet. Chucky breaks in and prowls with his knife. Andy tries to use a baseball bat to protect himself. He ends up bashing Chucky over the head and runs. Chucky chases him, knife raised. Just as Andy thinks that he has escaped Chucky, he is hit and brought down. Chucky starts to say the incantation as Norris and Karen break in. Karen grabs Chucky before he can finish the chant. He bites her neck. Norris gets stabbed in the leg. He gives his gun to Karen. As Norris hunts Chucky, he is taken down by the baseball bat. Karen pops in just in time to shoot Chucky through the leg. As she goes to shoot again, the gun jams. He jumps on top of her and attacks. She throws him into the fireplace and closes the gate. She can't reach the matches and hold Chucky in the fireplace long enough. She begs Andy to get her the matches. He lights one and sets Chucky on fire. Chucky screams as he melts and burns in the fire.

Feeling safe, Andy and Karen tend to the fallen Norris. Andy notices that Chucky is missing. The attack continues. He may be burned, but he is still alive. Andy runs into the bedroom and Karen slams the door shut on him. Chucky tries to get in through the bathroom door. He starts to slam the knife through the door, cutting Karen's hand and nearly impaling her head. Chuck breaks in through another door and chases Karen and Andy through the the house. Karen shoots him. He shoots his head off, then his right arm, then his left leg. He wiggles on the ground for a few moments. She shoots him over and over until the gun runs out of bullets. Another cop arrives and calls for backup for the immobilized Norris. He thinks the whole Chucky being alive thing is crazy. In fact, he places Chucky's head on the dresser next ot Norris. Finally, Chuck is dead.

Or is he? Of course not. He comes in through the vents, grabbing onto this other cop's neck. Chucky's head shouts orders. The body gets thrown and tries to stand back up, using curtains for support. The head continues to scream.

"Kill them, kill them! Kill them all!"

Norris shoots Chucky in the heart, sending blood all over the wall and curtains. Finally, the body comes to a rest. The backup and ambulance arrives. Karen and the other cop help Norris downstairs as Andy stares at Chucky. Karen drags him away.