Child’s Play (2019) – Film Review

After moving to a new city, young Andy Barclay (Gabriel Bateman) receives a special present from his mother Karen (Aubrey Plaza) — a seemingly innocent Buddi doll that becomes his best friend. When the doll suddenly takes on a life of its own, Andy unites with other neighborhood children to stop the sinister toy from wreaking bloody havoc.

I’m sure all of you know by this point that I practically grew up watching a wide variety of different horror films – yes, even when I was approximately six years old. The first memory I have watching a horror movie was the remake of The Hills Have Eyes which absolutely haunted me and gave me nightmares. The other horror film that gave me nightmares as a kid despite the fact that I only saw a few minutes of it on TV one night? The original Child’s Play film directed by Tom Holland (no, not Spider-Man).

There was just something so incredibly creepy about watching the killer doll Chucky flashing that wide grin and walking around wielding a knife. As soon as I saw just thirty seconds of that film on the television that night I had to change the channel because it freaked me out so much. It wasn’t until several years later that I finally decided to check it out and I ended up loving it and it also helped that I was older and I wasn’t scared of the doll anymore. To this day I love the original Child’s Play – it has extreme Fall/Halloween vibes and even though it’s genuinely eerie and has plenty of slasher moments, it’s a strangely comforting movie to me now.

When it comes to the sequels that came after, I enjoy some of them, particularly Child’s Play 2 and 3, but the rest just didn’t leave that much of an impression on me although I do appreciate the bold direction that Bride and Seed of Chucky took. However, there was just something so classic and simplistic about the original that hasn’t been replicated since, and that’s what Lars Klevberg aimed to do with this 2019 reboot of the Child’s Play series. He wanted to re-inject that sense of wonder and simplicity back into the franchise and for the most part, this is a solidly entertaining horror flick even if it’s not that bloody.

It is kind of disappointing how few kills are present in this movie. There are maybe only three or four in the entire film which is certainly strange for a film that is aiming to reboot a popular slasher franchise. However, this new Child’s Play does take a considerable amount of time to depict the relationship that Andy and the Buddi doll have. Andy’s mother Karen works at a retail store where the doll is quite popular and is constantly selling out. One day, she manages to get her hands on a Buddi doll (albeit malfunctioning and defective) and gives it to her son as an early birthday present.

At first, he isn’t too sure what to think of it. In fact, the very first thing he does upon seeing the present is sigh. But it doesn’t take long at all for Andy to start to warm up to the doll – it can say almost anything Andy tells it to say, it’ll have conversations with him, and he even uses it to prank Karen’s rude new boyfriend Shane (David Lewis). It’s all fun and games for Andy and Buddi but that doesn’t stay that way forever – as the film progresses Andy slowly but surely starts to realize just how unfriendly Buddi actually is, despite it constantly telling him “I’m your best friend”.

From here, we get treated to a few kills every once in a while which are certainly fun to watch unfold but I just wish there were more of them. I will say, though, that it was quite the delight to hear the legendary Mark Hamill lend his voice to the killer doll this time around. My favorite Chucky voice actor is still the original Brad Dourif but Hamill definitely gives it his all and you can tell just by listening to his voice that he had an absolute blast voicing Chucky, and honestly, who wouldn’t? He doesn’t copy Dourif’s performance in any way but rather, he makes it his own.

Gabriel Bateman also does a good job in the role of Andy Barclay and does everything he is asked to do. He’s not great or anything like that but for the role he needed to play, he did his job well and I wouldn’t be surprised if he only improved as an actor in the years to come. One actor that I genuinely loved here though, is Aubrey Plaza as Andy’s mother Karen. Sadly, they give her absolutely zero development which was disappointing to see but Plaza does bring a sense of charm and charisma to the character that makes the film more entertaining to watch.

There are a couple of moments where Plaza gets to truly showcase her acting abilities but I do wish she had more time in the spotlight here. Child’s Play is definitely not a boring movie at all. The kills are fun to watch, the performances are all good and the cinematography and lighting is superb. I just wish the film was more brutal and sprinkled in several more kills along the way. It’s not necessarily the reboot that changes the franchise forever but it’s definitely not bad either. It’s merely an entertaining one-time watch and sometimes, that’s okay.