After watching the incredible Toy Story movies, kids might exclaim, "Wow! Wouldn't it be great if toys came to life?" To which I say, "No, because they might be evil, and try to murder you and everyone you love." Hmmm. I'm beginning to see why my friends never ask me to babysit. Oh well. Their loss!
The murderous ginger doll Chucky debuted in the 1988 supernatural horror film Child's Play. In the movie, a widowed single mother gives her six-year-old son, Andy Barclay the popular Good Guy doll as a present. But little do they know, 'Chucky' is possessed by the soul of infamous serial killer Charles Lee Ray. (After the police fatally shot Ray, he transferred his soul to the doll using a Hatian voodoo spell. Good thing he picked that pliable Good Guy doll, and not a Ninja Turtle, Cabbage Patch Kid or Slinky.)
Chucky wants to possess Andy's body, so he can reborn as a human, a plot that carries on through the sequels, Child's Play 2 and Child's Play 3. The next two movies, Bride of Chucky and Seed Of Chucky, take on a more humorous featuring Jennifer Tilly as Chucky's doll bride, plus their son, Glen/da. (Yes, the two dolls do it. And the doll contains the souls of two twins, male Glen and female Glenda.) The next two movies, Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky, return the series to its serious horror roots, and even bring back Andy Barclay as an adult.
Like Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Michael Meyers, Leatherface and Pinhead, Chucky is an instantly recognizable horror icon. And just like those others characters, his long-running film series is getting a reboot. The creator of Child's Play, Dan Mancini, and the unforgettable voice of Chucky, Brad Dourif, are not involved. This movie is unrelated to the previous entries in the franchise, and puts a new spin on the classic story.
In the reboot, a mother played by Aubrey Plaza (Legion, Parks and Recreation) buys the Kasdan Corporation's latest doll, Buddi, which is much more high-tech than the Good Guy. When her son, Andy, unboxes it, the creepy doll laser-scans his face immediately. Then Chucky gets down to business walking around on his own and murdering people, and total chaos ensues.
It is not known if the movie will use the original's Hatian voodoo soul-transfer plot, but I'd say that's unlikely. There's no mention of that in the trailer. Plus, last August, Comic Book reported that the film features 'A defective 'Buddy doll' whose programming code was hacked so that he has no limitations to learning and also violence." That seems like a more fitting angle for 2019.
However, if you're a fan of the original series timeline, good news: Creator Dan Mancini and original Chucky voice Brad Dourif are working on a Child's Play TV show for SyFy, and plan to continue making sequels for Universal. It's not clear what the eight-part hour-long series will be about, but Mancini said it will take place after the events of the last film, Cult of Chucky. (Spoiler alert: Chucky jumps out of the Good Guy doll, and into the body of a young woman, played by Brad Dourif's daughter Fiona Dourif.) "We want to definitely signal that we are going dark, darker than ever before," Mancini told Bloody Disgusting. "It’s going to be very creepy."
The Child's Play reboot hits theaters on June 21, the same day as Toy Story 4, hilariously. If my friends let me babysit their kids, I'll claim we're going to Toy Story 4, then take them to Child's Play instead. Wa ha ha!
