Chucky, la poupée de sang

This movie wasn't bad. It was somewhat scary, and stylish. The ending was good though. 6 out of 10. Rated R for strong horror violence and language.

I think I liked Child's Play 2 more than most people, given the reviews that I've read and the movie's low voter rating on the IMDb. A cute kid's doll is once again the unlikely home of Charles Lee Ray, notorious serial killer, again feeding off of the surrealism created by seeing a kid's doll screw it's face into expressions of the purest rage and spouting all manner of profanities. By now, Ray is becoming more and more desperate to get out of the body of the doll, because as we were informed in the first film, if he spends too much time in that body he'll gradually become more and more human until one day he'll be stuck in it forever. Needless to say, Ray's a lot more interested in starting life over as a 6-year-old (and who wouldn't?) rather than spending the rest of his life as a plastic doll.

Although, given that he becomes more human the longer he is in that body, how human will he eventually become? Will he ever reach full human-hood? My guess is that he'll gradually approach being a real human being in a sort of half life, where he gets closer and closer and closer but never actually gets there, kind of like computer generated actors. There is currently much talk about how close computers can ever get to animating convincingly real people into the movies, and the leading theory seems to be something akin to my theory of Chucky turning human. He'll always get closer but he'll never get all the way there.

At any rate, Andy's mother has landed in a mental institution and Andy has been taken in by a foster family with appropriate mental vacuity to be a horror movie surrogate family. When Andy becomes frightened and runs through the house, his foster father grabs him and says, 'Rule #1, no running in the house!' OK, 'dad,' but not even when I open a closet and find myself confronted by the doll that landed my mom in the nuthouse and almost cost me my life and my very soul? My God, man, what the hell is this guy doing with a Good Guys doll in the house in the first place? It's difficult enough trying to figure out why it's even there WITHOUT having to watch this mental giant grab Andy by the arm and ask him what on earth is the matter.

There are some funny moments in the film, such as when Chucky smashes the head of the innocent Good Guys doll, buries it, and takes its place in the house, and my favorite, when Chucky is later addressed by a doting adult, Chucky responds by saying in his cute doll voice, 'Hi! I'm….Tommy!'

The stockholders in the Play Pal corporation are distressed over the suffering that the company has endured due to the negative publicity of the events of the first movie provide the premise for the movie's rather impressive finale. In order to generate a more positive image for the company and the doll, they have decided to reintroduce it into the market. The original Chucky doll was collected by the company and examined by toy-makers, who decided that there really was nothing truly wrong with it, it was not really a demon-possessed toy, so they decided to melt it down and remake it. Why they didn't just throw it away I'm not really sure, but who cares. Waste not, want not, I guess.

At any rate, Chucky comes back in a fresh plastic body (too bad he can't be transferred to a human as easily as he can be transferred from one doll body to another), and once again resumes his quest for Andy's soul. I've heard complaints about why Chucky had to go after Andy and couldn't just find a bum on the street or something, but you'll remember in the first movie, the conditions of his plastic entrapment stated that he could only transfer into the body of the first person that he revealed his identity to once he was inside the Chucky doll.

Jarrett Friend, writing for HorrorWatch, made the above suggestion having forgotten that little stipulation, but also smartly suggested that the plot should have involved a huge number of Chucky dolls, since the original doll was melted down and whose plastic conceivably should have infected much more dolls than just the one that we saw in this movie. This would have made the movie much more interesting and added another level of originality; my guess is they just didn't have the budget for something that big.

Nevertheless, even though the first sequel in the Child's play series comes dangerously close to falling into that sophomore sequel chasm of falling flat because of obviously feeding off the success of its predecessor without having much of anything to add to the story, Child's Play 2 escapes into the world of moderately acceptable horror sequels, kind of like Psycho II, which had no hope of matching its predecessor but at least was able to justify its own existence.

I think it's easy to be put off by the conclusion of Child's Play 2, but I was pretty impressed with the toy factory setting, if only because it created such a great atmosphere for Chucky to make his hunt and Andy and his foster sister Kyle to try vainly to escape. There was some pretty clever stuff in the final act of the film, not including, however, the scene where Kyle and Andy run around completely lost, making the factory seem like a maze by editing together a lot of clips of them clearly running around the same corner half a dozen times or so. A bit trite, but nothing compared to my biggest gripe of the film, which is the final scene, one of the goofier things that I've seen on an otherwise at least moderately competent horror movie.

Odd for a movie to try so hard to live up to its expectations and then belittle itself with something like what I'll just call the air hose scene. I do, however, think that the movie was successful and good enough to deserve a better DVD than it got. I can't stand it when the only extra features on the DVD for a successful film are nothing but some foreign audio tracks and cast and crew history that is nothing more than a brief biography and a list of film credits. What do you think the IMDb is for?

The not-so-innocent movie about a child's doll continues with Andy Barkley (Alex Vincent) being sent to live in a foster care home while his mom is recovering from a mental hospital. Nobody believes Andy's story about Chucky the killer doll, but that soon changes when the doll returns, possessed once again by serial killer Charles Lee Ray. It goes on another rampage, this time trying to free his evil soul from the doll and transfer into Andy's body.

The plot's pacing, script, and music score work fine in this movie, with a some good humor and suspense, and some creepy moments. The acting was pretty good for the most part - especially enjoyed the characters of Andy and Kyle. Vincent portrayed Andy with innocence but determination and Christine Elise gave a rebellious yet tender-hearted and strong portrayal of foster teenager Kyle. Brad Dourif gave another sinister, dark, and sarcastically funny portrayal of Chucky.

The overall horror elements may seem tame by more recent standards, but it's still a rather entertaining horror sequel.

Grade B

Child's Play 2 picks up not long after where its infamous predecessor left off, and straight into the film, the original Good Guy doll housing the spirit of the Lakeshore Strangler is being fixed up and Good Guys are back in action. While unfortunately, Chris Sarandon and Catherine Hicks do not return, they are at least mentioned, and given plausible reasons as to why they could not be in the movie. Innocent Andt Barclay (Alex Vincent) however returns, and is once again at the mercy of Chucky (voiced by the classic Brad Douriff) when Chucky traces Andy down to where he is living in foster care. From there, the typical mayhem follows, with plenty of doll-style murders, witty lines from Chucky and a great finale at the Good Guy doll factory.

While the original Child's Play is a terrifying classic, part 2 is somewhat of a step down, only because one knows what to expect, for the most part. However, the cast are a great asset to the film. Alex Vincent is right on the mark in his role as Andy, Christine Elise is terrific as his foster sister Kyle, and Jenny Agutter adds a touch of class as their foster mother Joanne Simpson. Gerrit Graham plays her strict husband, and Grace Zabriskie is good in her role as the career at the orphanage. Beth Grant steals the moment in her small role as Mrs Kettlewell however. Overall, a fun sequel to the original, with a well rounded cast and plenty of thrills to keep one entertained.

If you never saw the first 'Child's Play' film... it's about a serial killer whose soul gets trapped inside a children's doll and then goes on to persecute the poor little boy (Andy Barclay) who buys him. Now, after sending the offending dolly back to hell, he's back again (you don't need to know how - basically the same way Freddy, Jason or Michael Myers always comes back - yet - again). And, guess what, Andy Barclay is top of his 'hit list.' Brad Dourif returns to voice the killer doll, Chucky, and he gets it right on the mark again. However, the story does get a little bit repetitive after a while. It focuses around no one believing Andy that his doll is alive (and evil), only to find they're proved wrong when the doll kills them in a grisly manner (rinse and repeat). Plus you can tell who's going to die a mile off - all the adults are pretty horrible and you won't really shed a tear when any of them get gutted. Then there are the lapses in physics, i.e. when a plastic doll can regularly overpower fully-grown adults.

However, despite all its flaw, Child's Play 2 just about does the job. If you liked the first one, this one does its best to keep the franchise going along the same lines. However, if you're new to the films, I'd start off with the first one (it's easily the best and scariest) before seeing if you want to watch this one, too.

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