By Brett Blake This is a completely unnecessary movie, but it’s also surprisingly watchable and a fair amount of fun for fans of this sort thing, primarily because of a terrific vocal performance from Mark Hamill, nifty kills, and a strong cast doing some good work. The setup is a simple one: when a single mom (Aubrey Plaza) gives her son, Andy (Gabriel Bateman), the hottest new toy - a high-tech doll equipped with smart and A.I. capabilities - neither would expect that the doll, named Chucky (voiced by Mark Hamill), actually has the potential to be a dangerous killing machine, willing to cut down anybody that might come between it and Andy. It stumbles in the sense that you can feel the film sort of torn between trying to be a proper CHILD’S PLAY movie while also attempting to do its own thing (particularly in terms of explaining why Chucky is evil). One gets the vague sense that the filmmakers would probably have rather not been so directly tethered to an existing franchise, and instead been allowed to take their “smart tech goes bad” ideas into more dynamic and unexpected directions. Whenever the story starts to veer too far into new territory, we can feel it colliding with the CHILD’S PLAY template guide rails, and that results in story beats that are wholly unsurprising. At its weakest, the film predictably hits some rather tired marks that anybody who has seen ANY horror movies of this sort will be able to see coming. Beyond that, however, there is actually plenty of legitimately solid stuff in the movie. Chiefly, the dynamic that develops and evolves between Andy and Chucky gives the story a strong spine and a unique element when compared to the original movie. In this version of the narrative, the characters actually have a semi-bond that comes about before things turn sour, and Mark Hamill’s vocal performance when in non-overtly-evil mode is actually kind of affecting. All this Chucky wants - at first, anyway - is to be played with and loved by Andy. Hamill sells why this toy would be popular, and opposite him, Gabriel Bateman equally sells how a lonely kid would be sucked in by it. On paper, Aubrey Plaza should probably not be the first choice to play “Concerned Mom” in a horror movie; she’s got a natural edge to her that would seem likely to be at odds with arriving at genuine emotional. And yet... she’s actually quite good here. True, she plays her as the “cool” and “hip” mom, but there’s more range on display than one might have expected. Brian Tyree Henry is also quite solid as the detective investigating Chucky’s misdeeds, and he brings a fair amount of grounded humor to the movie that works well. Additionally, the movie is bolstered by a very strong score from Bear McCreary, who has followed-up his recent (and excellent) GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS score with another winner here. His primary theme has the feel of a dark lullaby, and the orchestrations - using odd, “children’s toy” sounds - give it a unique and off-kilter feeling. And then there’s the violence! This new CHILD’S PLAY doesn’t shortchange us when it comes to some gruesome bloodletting; in fact, some of the kills here are surprisingly splattery and refreshingly done-for-real. It’s not overly gratuitous stuff (okay, maybe it is a little), but it adds some nice, extra shocks periodically throughout. The movie is under no illusions about being anything other than what it is, and leaning into the fun kills seems like a pretty smart choice that worked out (for me, at least). This movie is not the most amazing thing ever, or anything like that, and it doesn’t top the original CHILD’S PLAY as the best entry in this franchise... but it is enjoyable for the work of the performers and for the effective horror violence. In an era where genre remakes can so easily be truly awful, the fact that this is modestly entertaining is a win.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
January 2023
Categories
All
|