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I've seen this brilliant horror movie over twenty times so far and it is still great."Child's Play" is wonderfully original-a great concept(the soul of a serial killer in the puppet)and villain(Chucky!)are perhaps the keys to it all.Plenty of shocks and scares,pretty good acting and lots of violence.The direction and editing are so tight and carefully done.Now I can see why this movie was such a huge success in 1988.Managing to be both frightening and classy,this is a nerve-wracking experience.I actually found "Child's Play" to be a very scary film.I did not find it too gory,but what gore there is it was done to heighten intensity levels to the extreme.All in all,I wholeheartedly recommend it to any open-minded viewer,who likes to watch horror movies.The hammer in the head scene still gives me goosebumps.

Director Tom Holland does quite a good job scaring us with this cliche-ridden, unoriginal story of a serial killer transferring his soul to a toy store doll. The doll is incredibly eerie with its red hair and deep eyes, and goes by the name of Chucky saying things like, "My name's Chucky...wanna play?" Although much of the plot is very predictable(especially the ending), the execution of the plot is first-rate. Add to this some earnest acting from CatherineHicks, Chris Sarandon, and especially Alex Vincent playing a six-year old, and you have a pretty entertaining feature. The special effects are also first-rate, and the doll seems to actually be alive. Brad Douriff adds his voice to the demented Chucky, and his voice is evil personified. Dinah Manoff has a small role, but it is an important role which she plays very well. The atmosphere is definitely set on suspense and it is a rollercoaster of a ride as we see the doll slowly become human and seek out his only murderous hope for salvation. Good scares!

It was always the films where a child is in peril that stuck with me the most. Child's Play was probably the top of the crop.

The film taps into all those things you remember as a child like those colorful commercials that would promote the cereal you were eating. And those big dolls like 'My Buddy', that even as a kid I knew were creepy.

Script, acting, music, mood, atmosphere, direction, scares, everything works and that's why I give it the high rating it deserves.

Brad Dourif was the perfect choice for the voice of the Chucky doll. It's sinister and angry and darkly sarcastic. He is what I consider to be one of the all time great underrated actors.

The film is bleak. There's nothing happy about it although the good guy doll commercials insist it's playtime.

After this film, the only sequel I highly recommend is Child's Play 2, which I love just about as much as this one. Part 3 wasn't bad. Bride of Chucky was an interesting new direction to go in, but the feeling of the first couple of films is long gone by then, and Seed of Chucky was about the same.

This movie starts out pretty slow with a killer named Charles Lee Ray doing voodoo magic to put his soul into a kid's doll. After that it starts to get slow and generic even with the killer doll with things not making much sense (and I am not talking about the Chucky doll thing either). But when Chucky starts his sinister cacklying and cursing that he is known for the movie does pick up. The build up to that point isn't that bad though and I can understand why they had to go in that direction at first. It does add a sense of mystery even if the audiences does know what is going on from the start. The trademark Chucky voice really does add flavor to this slasher. As a matter of fact I wouldn't be shocked if Heath Ledger was inspired by Chucky for his role in "The Dark Knight" now that I think about it. It's cool to see Chucky not going on that unstoppable killer slasher direction, he uses stealth and pulls tricks to kill someone. Plus whenever found, he could just act like a regular doll. Which actually does adds to making him quite a dangerous and sinister killer. This does not have a lot of blood and gore, nor does it have a lot of body count but it does have entertainment value for a horror slasher movie. Overall this is a slasher movie that had a lot of cool and new elements to work with when it came to the direction at the time. And it's understandable how Chucky became one of the most memorable killer villain from the 80's. Thanks to Brad Dourif signature voice as Chucky.

8/10

Serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) gets shot by detective Norris (Chris Sarandon). As he struggles with his last breath, he transfers his soul into a Good Guys doll. Meanwhile Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) is a cash strapped single mom. Her kid is desperate for the doll, and she could only afford one from a shady homeless guy. It turns out that the doll has Charles Lee Ray's soul in it, and he wants to transfer to the kid.

This is a well made horror. The general idea of a killer doll may be an old one. But this is done with some fun freshness. Director Tom Holland is definitely a good study of horror. He's able to inject a lot of good old fashion scares into this film. He hides Chucky in the act of killing until late in the movie. This allows the tension to build. And the reveal is great. The whole thing works. The only thing holding it back is a little bit of unintentionally camp. The F/X needs improvements. These are all forgivable. Catherine Hicks and Chris Sarandon are both good character actors. At its core, this is a good film.