Thursday, October 31, 2013

Child's Play Blu-Ray + DVD Review

CHILD'S PLAY

DIRECTOR: Tom Holland

STARRING: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Douriff


STUDIO: MGM

RELEASE DATE: September 15, 2009

ASIN: B002BE7JE8

RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes

RATING: R



REVIEW:



Child's Play was released to theaters when I was seven-years-old, but I didn't see Chucky's first outing until the mid-90s on TNT's Monster Vision (when it was on Friday nights). I liked it so much, that I bought the movie on VHS, though it had a white fuzz to the film. I bought 2-5 on a DVD set several years ago and of course I bought Curse of Chucky this month, but I wanted to own Child's Play on DVD too. I ended up ordering the Blu-Ray + DVD combo as it was cheaper than the DVD version. The DVD in the 2-dsic set is the Chucky's 20th Birthday Edition that was released in 2008.



Though you probably already know the plot, I'll still recap it for those who haven't seen it. First released in 1988, Child's Play opens up with Charles Lee Ray being chased by the police into a toy store. He is shot and before he dies he does a little voodoo and transfers his soul into a Good Guy Doll.



A struggling single mother Karen Barclay (played by 7th Heaven's Catherine Hicks) can't afford to get her six-year-old son, Andy, a Good Guy doll for his birthday, but luckily her best-friend Maggie finds a homeless man who happens to have the doll and Karen buys the doll. Andy loves the talking doll that calls itself, "Chucky."



That very night Maggie volunteers to baby-sit Andy while Karen works the night-shift. Karen comes home to a swarm of police cars outside her apartment building. Maggie was pushed out of a window and fell to hear death. The only suspect is Andy, who claims his doll Chucky is responsible.



The next day, the police find Andy at another murder scene, they insist that should he stay at mental hospital for observations. Karen returns home with doll, only to discover the Good Guy batteries were never installed. She threatens to burn the doll and sees the doll for what it truly is - Charles Lee Ray, aka Chucky!



Even though Child's Play is now 25 years-old, the special effects still hold up well, better than most CGI effects from recent horror movies. And of course the original is the scariest out of the franchise. I've never been a fan of extras on DVDs, but there is a hoard of extras on the discs, such as Evil Comes in Small Packages 3 Featurettes: The Birth of Chucky, Creating the Horror, & Unleashed, Chucky: Building a Nightmare Featurette, and Introducing Chucky: The Making of Child's Play Vintage Featurette. Overall, Child's Play has been and will always be a fun horror movie.
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