Speaker 1: Hello and welcome the All Eighties Movies Podcast, the podcast
where we talk about the blockbusters, the fluffs, and everything
in between from one of the freshest decades from movies,
the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2: I'm your host Bill Banton.
Speaker 1: Along with me on this journey revisiting eighties movies is
my co host Jason Massek. Hello, Jason, Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Chucky and I'm your friend to the end Heidi.
Ho ha ha ha ha ha.
Speaker 1: That's right, listeners, we're discussing with spoilers of twenty the
nineteen eighty eight supernatural horror movie Child's Play. It was
produced by United Artists and distributed by MGMUA Communications Company.
The movie stars Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, and Alex Vincent.
Directed by Tom Holland, this movie is rated R with
a running time of one hour and twenty seven minutes.
So what is this movie about? What's in the box.
If you grew up in the nineteen eighties and what's
your local video store to rent this movie, you would
find this description on the back of the VHS box.
It is What's in the box? Take it away, Jason.
Speaker 2: Nobody believes six year old Andy Barkley when he says
that Chucky, his new birthday doll, is alive, and when
Andy's babysitter is violently pushed out the window to her death,
the boy tells his mother and the detective the simple
truth Chucky did it. In this clever, playful thriller, voodoo
and terror meet when an innocent looking doll is inhabited
by the soul of a killer who wasn't ready to die.
Only young Andy realizes that Chucky, who promises to be
his friend to the end, is responsible for the ensuing
rampage of gruesome murders. But the real terror takes hold
when the deranged doll becomes determined to transfer his evil
sp hear it to a living human being. Child's Play
co writer director Tom Holland, creator of the popular Fright Night,
treats his audience intelligently in this stylish thrill a minute
chiller filled with startling special effects. Look out, Freddy, here
comes Chucky.
Speaker 1: So that was what's on the box. Let's move on
to our eighty snapshot as we highlight some of the
creative forces from this movie.
Speaker 2: Jason, who do you Got? I went with Brad Doriff,
who plays serial Killer Charles Lee Ray and also performs,
of course, the voice of Chucky. Some trademarks of Brad
Dorif are his deep, raspy, ominous voice. He often plays
eccentric or deranged characters, and also he's known for his
frightening expressive interpretations. His career as a wonderful character actor
goes back to the mid seventies, where he did some
notable work as Billy Bibbett in One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest, for which he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination.
He also was in the Eyes of Laura Mars and
I have to mention, of course, that he was in
three episodes of Studs Lot again. Oh my god, it
is back the TV miniseries from nineteen seventy nine. Always
have to mention that one starring Harry Hamlin, because it
feels like everyone was in that mini series somehow it does. Anyway,
he's got over. This is a Brad Doriff. He's got
over one hundred and seventy credits on IMDb, so let's
just say the guy's worked a lot. Here's his eighties snapshot.
He does Heaven's Gate in nineteen eighty, Ragtime in eighty
one Dune in eighty four. He plays a convict in
a Toto music video for Stranger in Town in eighty four.
He's in Blue Velvet in eighty six, does some TV
episodes and TV movies. Of course, we have to mention
as well that he was in an episode of Miami Vice.
That's season three, episode sixteen, the episode entitled Teresa one
of my favorites. Actually, yes, that one features Helen Bottom
Carter correct correct as the titular character Teresa.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Young doctor.
Speaker 2: That was in nineteen eighty seven. He does This Child's
Play in eighty eight, and then Mississippi Burning in eighty
eight as well. He goes on to be featured in
The Exorcist three Jungle Fever. He continues to do the
voice of Chucky in all of the following sequels. He
was in Color of Night, Murder and First I remember
him well from Alien Resurrection, but he's also well known
as Grima worm Tongue from the Lord of the Rings,
The Two Towers and the Return of the King. He
does thirty six episodes of Deadwood as Doc Cochrane, and
he reprised his role as the voice of Chucky in
twenty four episodes of the TV series Chucky from twenty
twenty one to twenty four Little Trivia. He is the
only actor to be in all seven Child's Play films,
although he only appeared on screen in Child's Play from
eighty eight and Curse of Chucky in twenty thirteen, and
all the other films his performance was voice acting. Only.
Out of all the Child's Play films, Bride of Chucky
from ninety eight is his favorite. Brad Dorif always a
pleasure to see him.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, definitely. I went with actress Catherine Mary Hicks,
who was born in New York City but grew up
in Scottsdale, Arizona. Her academic path took her to Saint
Mary's College to affiliate with Notre Dame, where she studied
English literature, but the pull of the stage was strong,
and she eventually made her way to Cornell University, where
her passion for acting truly came alive. After Cornell, she
moved to New York and things moved pretty fast. Within
just a week, she landed her first professional gig on
the ABC daytime soap Ryan's Hope. That kicked off her
career that would make her one of the familiar faces
of the eighties film and television. She appeared in Ryan's
Hope from seventy six to seventy eight, then made a
splash on Broadway in Tribute for eight months. Hollywood soon
came calling as Catherine's breakout moment came when she portrayed
Marilyn Monroe in Marylyn The Untold Story in nineteen eighty,
a performance at earned turn Emmy nomination and international attention.
Throughout the early eighties, Hicks appeared in a string of
notable films including Death Valley, Garbo Talks, The Razor's Edge,
and Peggy Sue Got Married, which we covered in Season four.
Then came her most iconic role as doctor Gillian Taylor
in Star Trek four The Voyage Home. But horror fans
know her best is Karen Barclay The Mother and Child's Play,
the film that introduced the world to Chucky. Not only
did it cement her status in the horror genre, it's
also where she met her future husband, special effects designer
Kevin Jeger. The Too Married to Welcome the Daughter in
nineteen ninety two. Then in nineteen ninety six, she found
a new kind of fame as Anne Camden, The matriarch
on the long running TV series Seventh Heaven Show became
a family favorite and stayed on the air for an
impressive eleven seasons, ending in two thousand and seven actress
Catherine Hicks. So that leads us to our earliest memories, Jason,
what are your earliest memories of Job's Play?
Speaker 2: You know what, It's interesting, it's mostly feelings. Those are
my memories regarding Child's Play. This movie came out when
I was fifteen, and I can still recall being nervous
to watch it because I am a scaredy cat, as
I've mentioned so many times, and so I was recalling
my early feelings just for this particular segment. And I
actually thought I was younger when this movie came out,
because I was like, oh yeah, I remember being really
scared when this movie came out, as if I was
like a little kid, but I was freaking fifteen. So
all I can say is I remember the concept really
creeping me out. That it was a kind of a
dark idea involving obviously this doll that is possessed by
a serial killer, and it had a supernatural aspect that
kind of weirded me out. I don't know, maybe the
fact that it takes place in Chicago bothered me too,
and I was growing up outside Chicago. My earliest memories
just revolve around those creepy feelings surrounding it. I thought
the doll, of course, was supremely scary. I thought the
voice was creepy. So I mean, I remember seeing the
previews for it. Then eventually, of course I did see
this film. I can honestly say that, but around that time,
I do recall the my Buddy Doll being a thing
and the commercials for that, along with the catchy song
that came along with that. But from the film Child's Play,
the memories are basically of Chucky saying Hi, I'm Chucky,
want to play and the Heidi ho and just saying
that over and over to your friends because it was
just super creepy. But that's it. That's all I got.
I hadn't seen or heard of like a movie before
this involving a possessed doll. Somehow it taps into something
that's very scary for me. So that's all I got.
What are your earliest memories for me?
Speaker 1: I remember when the trailers a commercials started coming out,
and I was always that shot of well, which found
out it was Maggie falling out the window, right, But
overall I was like, yeah, this isn't for me. I'm
not gonna see it or run out to see it
anytime soon. But then when it finally came out it
was number one the box office, I was like, WHOA, Okay,
So I think just because it did well in the
box office for a horror film, that really piqued my curiosity.
So when it came out on rental, I did end
up running it, and I was kind of surprised about
how much I liked it. It was one of those
I just wasn't sure how it was going to work
with the story, but I thought it did at the time.
And yeah, just kind of became a fan of Chucky
for it. But I mean, when you talk about your
eighty Slasher icons, Chucky for Me is down the list.
I don't watch these movies a lot. I don't even
know if I've seen all the films. I know I've
seen most of it was gonna be my follow up question.
I definitely know I saw a Bride two. I'm not
sure if I saw three. I've probably seen five of them. Wow, Okay, Well,
that's impressive. Unto itself, I haven't. Yeah, just because it
did well in the box office was really the reason
why I was like, all right, I need to check
this out. If people are going to see it, hopefully
it's at least somewhat decent. And I was just kind
of surprised that it did work. And that's it for me.
Speaker 2: There you go, short and sweet, but I agree. Yeah,
I have only seen bits and pieces from the sequels.
I seem to recall that the word of mouth on
the TV series was very positive and it went for
a few seasons, I want to say, but I still
never watched it. I was good with just the first movie.
Gotcha all r.
Speaker 1: Let's move on to initial thoughts. Where are your initial
thoughts watching it now?
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned the total running time at the top,
and that's the first thing. I love the fact that
this movie is only an hour and twenty seven minutes.
It's perfect for an good eighties campy, cheesy horror movie.
It's perfect for this. I gotta say, this movie moves.
It does not waste any time, and I definitely appreciate that.
I love a movie that gets right to it. We're
not sitting through opening credits alone. We actually get an
action sequence right from the top. We get right to it.
Although the credits do appear during the action sequence. I
kind of like that. I have mixed feelings about it.
There were some that were like credits that appeared in
moments that I was like, oh wow, did they time
that just perfectly with the you know, Braddorriff's name appearing
right as it's focused on him. I'll get into that
a little bit later actually, but the opening was strong,
great setup for an eighties horror movie. As mentioned, the
idea of this with the supernatural aspect still kind of
creeps me out, especially as I mentioned when I was young.
But now I look back upon it and I'm like,
this is fun. This is just kind of a fun
conceit for a B horror movie, So you just go
with it. Nice and simple, easy setup. I get it.
I love this Braddriff's character. He is supposed to be
a serial killer with the moniker, this strangler, but his
actual name is Charles Lee Ray. Great name for a
serial killer, and I'm gonna step on some trivia real quick.
They clearly borrowed part of names from real serial killers.
Are notorious figures such as Lee, Harvey Oswald, Charles Manson,
and James Earl Ray. So you just put it together,
you get Charles Lee Ray. I have a question for you,
Bill Bant, speaking of one of the opening scenes in
this movie, is the scariest scene in the entire film
of child's play, Andy himself making breakfast in bed for
his mom.
Speaker 1: I was gonna maybe ask you about that. It was like,
is that the worst breakfast we've ever seen on film?
I'm pretty sure there's another movie where someone makes a
terrible breakfast for their mom or dad, but that's got
to be one of the worst breakfasts I've ever seen
in my life.
Speaker 2: At first, I thought he was making it for himself,
but then it's clear he's making it for his mother.
But you know, the movie opens on Andy's birthday, the
six year old boy, and he's pouring what is it like,
fruit loops into a bowl that he spills all over
the place, and then he pours milk all over it,
which he spills all over the place, puts like seventeen
scoops of sugar on top of it, and then burns
the toast and puts a giant ball of butter on
top of It is just super gross. It is Is
this the freakiest scene in the entire movie. I want
to also shout out some you know, some Chicago aspects,
and this is a pretty solid Chicago movie. Always loved
seeing the old Chicago police squad cars. Carson Pierri Scott.
I totally forgot about this retail department store. And I
got to mention a little trivia regarding this because this
is where Andy's mother Karen played by Catherine Hicks works.
She works at Carson Pierri Scotton Company. It was a
former American department store that was sold in two thousand
and six and went bankrupt in twenty eighteen and closed
all its physical locations. They were still around as recent
as what seven years ago. Oh, I didn't know that
was a real place. Oh yeah, absolutely. Oh that's awesome.
So the brand still exists online, but the original flagship
building was in Chicago, a famous work by architect Lewis
Sullivan and is now called the Sullivan Center and houses
various retailers, including a Target on the ground floor. So
Carson Berry Scott was mainly a Midwestern retail merchandise department store.
So I was going to ask you if you had
that in Philly. Nope, no, Okay. So here's one thing. Now,
I'm going to get into some just I'm pointing out
some things here that caught me off guard or surprised
me in this. I watched this thinking I was going
to remember a lot, but some things did surprise me.
One being that when Andy finally, you know, he gets
the good guy's doll, which is Chucky, it sits Chucky
down with he's playing with Chucky, and he's playing with
the good guy's tool set, and behind them, the TV
is on with a newscast, and the newscast is speaking
of Charles Lee Ray's accomplice Eddie Caputo, and you see
Chucky turn his head to look at the TV, and
I was like, wow, they give it away right away.
Like we understand as an audience, especially as adults, you
watch this, you know the doll is possessed by the
serial killer Charles Lee Ray. But I was surprised in
the film that the doll itself than in once in
under the ownership of Andy turns his head like that
so quickly. That's a tell, Like that's like giving it
away right away. I thought there was going to be
more build up and tension before we actually saw the
doll move.
Speaker 1: Under its own power. I think because we know. Yeah,
But part of me thinks too, because when I was
doing the research, I think the first half or the
first acts is supposed to set up if we're not
one hundred perck shut sure that it is possessed, so
it might be sound activated. So it's just turning to
the TV. Okay, that's where the noise is coming from. Right,
But because we know what's going on, it does seem
like it's a giveaway.
Speaker 2: Yeah. That just kind of broke the tension for me
really soon quickly in the film, and I was right,
oh wow, they're just like giving it away. But it's
interesting you mentioned that you would think the doll is
sound activate, which leads into my next thought. Here is
the fact that the way they shoot Chucky in this
is wonderful. The doll. There's always something inherently creepy about
a doll's eyes, the lifelessness of a doll. It always
makes me think of the famous monologue from Jaws, your
favorite movie, the Quint monologue. He talks about a shark's
size a doll's eyes right, always scary, So all of
those shots of Chucky the good Guy's doll sitting motionless
are just really effective. They really really did a great
job with that. And when you talked about the doll
being sound activated, I had a question for you too,
because one Andy pulls the doll out of the box
for the very first time and shows his mom how
it works, and he says, Hi, my name is Andy,
what's your name or something to that effect, and then
immediately you see the Chucky doll look right at Andy.
He looks at him and then says, Hi, I'm Chucky
and I'll be your friend. To the end, I was like, Oh,
is that kind of a tell as in the doll
is like possessed by a human spirit or does the
doll have the ability to actually look where the sound
is coming from, because he looks right at Andy, right exactly.
Speaker 1: And you would think they could probably make dolls like
that today, but back in the vies, probably not. It
would maybe just reac looking straight right. It would just
look straight ahead and hear the voice and then respond
with one of the probably to one of its random passages,
but just happens to do the right one, like Hi,
my name's Chucky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just thought that was great. It was really
creepy because I only caught it up on Rewatch. I'm like,
oh my god, the doll actually looks right into Andy's
eyes and says it, and I like how it.
Speaker 1: Always emphasizes the sounds of the blinks.
Speaker 2: There's some great sound design in this, especially regarding the
doll and his movements. Let's get into some of the actors.
We mentioned Catherine Hicks and Brad Dorf, but this does
also star Chris Sarandon, who portrays the male detective Michael Norris.
Which is really funny because before I even watched this,
after so many years, I assumed the actor Michael Newry
was the star of the because I always get Michael
Newry and Chris Sarandon mixed up with good reason. Often
people would back in the eighties they'd look very similar
to and they were in big movies. And we did
Flash Dance starring Michael Newry, we did The Hidden with
Michael Newry and Chris Sarandon. Of course we covered in
Prince's Bride and now Here he is in Child's Play
and they purposely, as you find out in the trivia,
the detective name Michael Norris, which is very close to
the name Michael Murray. So I thought that was funny.
Good to see Chris Sarandon in this. How did you
feel about his performance? I don't know if it was
the fault of the writing or he just wasn't given
a whole lot to do in this. As a detective.
I thought he was a pretty good cop in the
opening sequence, but after that I was like, is he
a good detective and or is this a good performance?
I was mixed on Chris Sarandon in this.
Speaker 1: I think what was kind of throwing me off was
his voice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, thanks, sure.
Speaker 1: I think I'm so used to hearing him from Princess
Bride or even Fright Night.
Speaker 2: Right I should have mentioned Fright Night, that's the obvious one.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And I was like, is he trying to
do a Chicago accent or something. It didn't sound like
it was him, So that was kind of throwing me off.
One of my complaints is a whole Chucky attacks them
in the car scene I thought was very hokey. Okay, sure,
but overall I didn't have a prop He just played
the I don't believe what you're saying, and do you
find out it's too late kind of character, kind of
by the numbers, right.
Speaker 2: I agree, he's just kind of like, what are you
talking about? This doll is not alive. That's ridiculous. And
then also he's rendered useless in the final scene. We'll
get into the ridiculous, but we'll probably talk Yeah, we
will definitely talk about the entire twenty minute final sequence.
So Catherine Hicks, I thought was great. She plays it
well the mom, the single, hard working mom who just
really wants to believe her son, but it's just too
unbelievable until, of course she has to believe him and
turns out. Catherine Hicks won a Saturn Award for this.
I didn't know that Brad Dorf talked about him. He's awesome.
He's great in the opening sequence, but also his voice
is perfect for Chucky. I like what he does with that.
But the star of the movie in the standout is obvious.
It's Chucky. It's the doll. I mean, yes, the voiceover
work is amazing, but it's the stunt work. It's the
animatronic work, it's the makeup, it's the editing. It's fantastic.
And I couldn't believe Bill Band how well it holds
up today. Chucky looks awesome in this. To me, I
go with it. The suspension of disbelief is there. For me.
It went to the point of me asking how did
they do that? It's really well done the way they
cut around it, so you're not trying to match Brad
Dorff's voice to the lip movement too much. You're not
like they cut around you just buy it. I thought overall,
the kill sequences or the action scenes were pretty well
choreographed and well shot. So that's the best thing I
can say about this movie is what they did with
the doll and how they shot it. And the creep
factor is an eleven out of ten. On another positive note,
I'll say music I thought was pretty good in this,
so credit to Joseph Renzetti who went with a collection
of electronic and orchestral elements versus going with a full
orchestral score, which is what the studio and I guess
Tom Holland wanted. Originally thought the music was pretty good,
but I want to go back to Chucky the Doll.
Did you have any comments just on the effectiveness of
the good Guy's doll of the Chucky doll and how
they used it.
Speaker 1: I was really watching that just to see when do
they use what here? For me, I only pointed to
two shots where I was like, oh, okay, it's obvious
what they're doing here. That was it, and the rest
of it was like, Wow, I'm in this is cool.
I love the animatronics or it's a puppet or if
it was a person, it was like, no, this really works.
And even when they did the melted version, I was like, oh, yeah,
this is fucking cool too. I agree from nineteen eighty
eight holds up really well, and just even the evolution
of what you see in the beginning and what it
ends up because he's technically morphing into human. I was
just gonna say that I liked it all and there
was so many times it was shit, how did they
do that? I don't have CGI to erase stuff.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: So at yeah, a lot of fun stuff with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll probably talk a little more about that
in our trivia segment. So those are the positives. It's
the doll, the action sequences, the editing I thought was great.
So those are the strong points. The music I mentioned,
but overall, regarding the story as an adult rewatching this today,
I got some issues and I'm going to save most
of those for the complaint segment, but to give you
a preview, the writing isn't really strong in this. Some
of the scenes were really oddly structured. I had to
rewatch a couple of scenes and I was like, wait,
the dialogue's backwards here, or wait, we don't know that
information yet yet they spoke a line in reference to
that information. It was very odd how it was written
in spots, and I was like, we must have missed
something or there was a scene that was left on
the cutting room. I was confused. At moments, I knew
was going on, and I understood what they were trying
to relay as far as information and detail, but it
just it was odd. I didn't mind like the tone
shifting between horror and dark comedy at times, at very
Freddy Krueger esque type quips you know that Chucky delivers throughout.
But I found when I watched it today that I
wished it was even scarier, and I thought it could
have been even creepier than it was, even though I
said creep factor eleven out of ten. Because the way
they did shoot the doll, it was like Man, we
could probably could have done even more with this, So
I'm going back a little bit on what I said
that I'd love the running time of an hour and
twenty seven minutes, but I could have used maybe maybe
ten more minutes. I don't know. I'm a little mixed
on that. And I was going to ask you if
you saw the twenty nineteen reboot that they did.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I did, and I hardly remember any of it.
Speaker 2: I watched a couple of clips and it's very modern,
high tech sort of take on it, and it was strange.
My overall take was just that the concept still freaks
me out a bit because I still have these feelings
attached from when I was younger because of the supernatural aspect,
and the effects are the real standout. It's just that
the writing and a story I wished were a little
more polished and cleaned up. So overall, still fun, just
I found the story lacking. Gotcha, those are my initial thoughts,
all right for me.
Speaker 1: The idea of a toy, or in this case, a doll,
could be possessed by a serial killer, I mean, it's
kind of observed, but it's also brilliant. I think as
a kid you would always be worried about what our
toys came alive, and this is the worst case scenario.
I do like that they gloss over the whole voodoo
aspect of it, so they just give you enough, but
not too much where you start questioning everything. It only
gave me what I needed to know to understand how
Ray got into this doll and then what he has
to do next. I didn't need anything else, and I
wasn't questioning at that point. I'm like, Okay, he learned
how to do this, put himself in a doll, and
now he once to get out of the doll. He
needs to go possess himself into the kid perfect no more,
no less awesome, and then how to kill Chucky at
that point too, That's all I needed. That was fine,
but I totally agree with the actors were saying lines
about stuff they shouldn't have known at that point. That
was the best way to put it. Yeah, I totally
agree with that. As for the performances, I really liked
Alex Vincent as Andy Good Call. There was a scene
when he first opens the doll and the doll talks him,
and the way he puts his hand to his mouth
he's excited. I remember seeing my kids do that that
trying to stifle a giggle, so I thought that was cute.
Brad doriff As his vocal performance as Chucky when he's
screaming in the toy store. I mean, for me, I
mostly do remember him from Alien Resurrection and One Flu
of the Cuckoo's Nest and One Flu Cucka's Nest. He's
just a really timid character. So to see this other
side of him, Yeah, that just got me jacked up.
And I'm like, oh, wow, you really hear Chucky's voice
in this, and it's great how it carries over to
Chucky itself throughout the film. And I don't think I
can say anything else more with the special effects, in fact,
you don't really have CGI back then, and all the
stuff they were able to do with Chucky, I was
super impressed with. It's a well crafted film. I think
it works. But I do agree with you there are
some story elements that it's always characters' choices that always
just drive me up the wall when they don't make sense,
And there's right, that's it.
Speaker 2: There's a little bit of this throughout. I wrote that
down as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and That's what drives me up the wall. I'm like,
why are you doing this? It doesn't make any sense.
But that's yeah, that's my initial thoughts. I don't think
I have that much more to add than what you had.
Speaker 2: I'll yeah, and I'll just reinforce the fact that Alex
Vincent was wonderful as the child as Andy, Yeah, I'm
glad you called that out, because he's fantastic, He's very
he's natural.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because that's the two things you really need to work.
The kid has to work and the doll have to work,
and both of them.
Speaker 2: You got to sympathize with him, right or empathize? Yeah, Andy,
for sure, you have to connect.
Speaker 1: So the fact they both work and it comes off,
that's what makes the movie go. All right, let's move
on to favorite scenes or moments. What are some favorite
scenes or moments you have from Child's Play.
Speaker 2: You're gonna be shocked, but I'm gonna start from the beginning.
I'm gonna start with the opening sequence. We just go
right after the the opening production shingles that we just
get right into this movie, and I love it. We
can see what we assume is a cop chasing a
bad guy down an alley. Little trivia here. I don't
know if you caught this, and I hope I'm not
stepping on one of your trivia bites. But there was
a deleted scene where Chris Sarandon as the detective, as
the cop in this opening sequence, was kind of luring
the strangler in. He was dressed as a woman.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes, that's right. I did read that, and then
it made sense. It was tossing some clothes away when
he was chasing, like he's throwing a dress. Yeah, very
opening shot. You see Chris Sarandon in the background chasing
the strangler and he's tossing a dress off to the side.
Speaker 2: That's why it is, because he was he was in
costume trying to bait the strangler. So I thought that
was cool. So we see cop chasing bad guy in
the cop yells i've got the strangler. Wabash and Van Buren,
those streets in Chicago. We know we're downtown Chicago. And
then we see another cop in an unmarked squad car
turn the siren light on and well, our bad guy,
the Strangler, turns a corner. He and the cop change
exchanged some gunfire. We see the strangler approaching a parked
van off to the side, but before he gets to
the van, our supposed good guy cop shoots the strangler
in the leg. He goes down, and the guy in
the escape van, well, he panics and he takes off. Meanwhile,
our bad guy, the strangler is yelling after him and
he says, Eddie, don't leave me. Oh god no. Another
great moment from Brad Dorif. He sounds like he's really
scared in that moment. Actually, I was like, wow, that's
a great line delivery. So meanwhile we have our detective
or cop telling his buddy in the squad car to
go after the van, and now we're just focusing on
cop and bad guy. Cop continues the pursuit of the strangler.
The strangler hobbles, having been shot in the leg, over
to a toy store and he shoots the lock off
of the door, goes inside, and now we have our
detective played by Chris Randon, following him into the toy store,
gun drawn, of course. And this is great because this
is when we see the entire uh it's actually like
two rows of stacked good guy's dolls boxes with the
dolls inside, and that's when the title credit comes up
Child's play and I thought that was smart. That's really cool.
Our detective is in pursuit inside the toy store. While
they're inside, the detective manages to shoot the strangler in
the chest shoulder area. The strangler knows he's dying and
he just yells out, this is the moment you were
referring to Bill ban and it's wonderful from Brad Dorif.
He changes his voice because you see him and he's
like looking down at his gun shot wound. He's like,
I'm dying. I'm dying. And then all of a sudden,
he changes his tone and he yells out. He's like,
you hear this, you son of a bitch. I'm gonna
get you for it. I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna
get you, and I'm gonna get Eddie no matter what.
And it's just awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the strangler now is stumbling around, he is dying,
and he's saying to himself, I gotta find somebody. I
gotta find somebody. He finally falls over, grabbing and knocking
over a bunch of good guys doll boxes. He looks
into the eyes of the doll inside of one of
the boxes, takes it out, puts his bloody hands on it,
and begins an incantation saying, give me the power I
beg of you. And as he begins chanting, suddenly the
clouds in the sky above the toy store start to
gather lightning and thunder begin to crash, and as his
chanting gets louder and louder, finally the lightning crashes through
the glass ceiling of the store and there's a giant explosion.
Love the stunt where the detective is blown backward through
the store and we get this great storefront glass explosion.
It's a wonderful explosion. And then finally the detective walks
through the store and sees that the strangler is now dead.
And the final shot of this opening scene is on
the eyes of the good guy doll. It's just a
great way to open the movie. I love the fact,
Bill that you'd already pointed out that we don't dwell
too much on the voodoo aspect in this movie. You
just get it. You're like, Okay, great setup. I know
exactly where we're going. I know who the good guy is,
I know who the bad guy is. I know that
the doll is going to be possessed by the bad
guy spirit. It's all the information you need to get
this thing going. And there's some good action. It's well shot,
and the stunts are great and the explosion is great.
What more do you want from an eighties horror movie
to get kicked off? The choice to do the opening
credits kind of subtly or softly throughout that opening scene works.
I was a little mixed out, but I think it
does work. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I did like that they did that, and Brad doorf
in that too, because I do like the scene when
he looks down at himself and says I'm dying, and
he says in a way where you almost sympathize with them,
but you're like, wait a second, he's a serial killer.
I shouldn't be sympathizing. And then he just reverses course
and starts screaming at detecting Norris that I'm I'm gonna
get you, and that voice does a one eighty. Yeah,
he's only in the film for three minutes, but it
does a great job with it.
Speaker 2: You believe it. Yes, I love that. When he yells,
you really believe like he is he means it. It's
very dark.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's good because they when and I'll get
into it a little bit, when Chucky does his first
freak out, it does almost mimic Brad Dorf right in
the beginning with him screaming, I'm like, wow, they really
captured that on an animatronic donef that was pretty good.
Speaker 2: What he says is nasty, like he's an nasty guy. No. Yeah,
that's the aspect of this character that you really buy
thanks to his performance, is that he's a bad dude. Yes,
He's just murderous and violent and that's it simple. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So me, most of my favorite scenes are moments, are
just moments, And the first one for me is Karen,
who played by Katherine Hicks, ends up buying the doll
that's possessed to get to her son Andy. At this point,
Chucky's been doing some crazy stuff and he does find
his ex partner Eddie, who drove off in the beginning,
and kills him. So now Andy's in the police station
explaining to an officer what had happened to his quote
unquote aunt Maggie, who was the first person that dies
by Chucky, and the mom comes into the police station
and then Detective Norris is in there. The mom's telling Andy, look,
they're gonna take you away if you don't tell us
what happened. And Andy's like, no, it was Chucky. And
he told me if I were to tell you that
he was alive, that he would kill me. And then
he looks at Chucky and begging him to speak to
prove that Andy's telling the truth, and of course, Chuck,
he's not doing anything. And then he goes up to
it and he's literally face to face with it, and
he's almost streaming at it, and then he's like punching
it like he feels so betrayed. And it was one
of those I'm watching the scene and part of me
is chuckling because I just think it's funny, but the
other half of me feels so sorry for this kid,
because here it is, here's a kid telling the truth
and no one believes him. And that's the one thing
you don't want. You want to believe what your kids
are telling you is true, but it's so impossible to
believe it. It makes sense why they're not believing him.
I just really liked that moment. It was just pulling
on the hard strings and making me laugh at the
same time.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like a story device that always is
effective when you have a kid in a situation like
that that isn't has experienced or seen something, and we've
seen it so many times, especially like in eighties movies,
of course, from the kid's point of view, whether it's
like et or something where something supernatural, extraordinary is happening,
and the adults, of course, being somewhat either jaded or
they're blinded for someone reason, won't believe the child. And
that's all you want is for the kid to somehow
explain it to the adult. But yeah, it's tough. It's tough.
It is somewhat humorous as I kind of laugh a
little bit on the inside when Andy just punches Chunky
right in his stomach trying to get it. Yeah, it's stuff, man. Yeah.
So what do you got next for scenes or a moment? Yeah?
So my next favorite scene, I'm just calling no batteries.
So yes. At this point, Maggie unfortunately got smacked in
the forehead with a small hammeron went flying through a window,
so she's been killed and Charles Lee Ray's accomplice Eddie,
has been blown up in the squatter's house, and we
know Chucky, the doll committed both, but the blame's falling
on Andy. That's what Bill was just talking about Andy
being the police precinct and being questioned. Now Karen has
shown up at the police station, and it's determined that
Andy is going to spend a couple of days in
a psychiatric hospital. So now Karen alone comes home to
her Chicago apartment with the doll Chucky, and she sits
on the couch with it. I love the silence in
the scene really effective. She's exhausted. She puts the doll
on her lap at first, then she sits Chucky on
the coffee table and she just looks at him and says,
we'll say something, a little bastard, say something, damn it.
And then he just goes Hi, I like to be hugged.
And she realizes, well, she's kind of falling prey to
Andy's story that he's supposedly made up, and she's feeling
a little crazy herself. And I love this shot when
she gets up and goes into the kitchen to get
a glass of water and you just see Chucky sitting
motionless behind her on the coffee table in the background,
and I'm like, Wow, did they miss a bet here?
Should he have turned his head a little bit? But
super creepy with him just sitting there in the background.
You just feel maybe it's more effective because he doesn't
do anything. That's the point. You kind of think he's
about to do something there, but he doesn't. Karen looks
over in the corner of the kitchen at the good
guy's box that Chucky came in. She picks it up,
She rattles it a little bit, and suddenly a pair
of packaged batteries falls out of the box, and she's like,
dumbfound it. She looks at the box and it reads
batteries included, and she freaks out and drops the box
because she realizes, wait a minute, the batteries are still
in the box. Then okay, So she goes over to
Chucky on the coffee table, slowly approaches him, picks him up,
turns him over, opens the battery compartment and it's empty.
Great scare moment here, because immediately his head spins around
and he says, Hi, I'm Chucky. Want to play? She
immediately drops him. He rolls under the couch. Super creepy
moment when she gets down and looks under the couch
and pulls him out. I would never do that. I
don't have the balls to do that. I'd run out
of the apartment, super brave m She shakes him, and
now he's gone silent again. And now she's pissed, and
she's like, talk to me, come on, talk, I said
talk to me, Dan, It all right, I'll make you talk.
She lights the fireplace, holds up Chucky and says, I
said talk to me, or else I'm gonna throw you
in the fire. And all of a sudden, it's great
because it cuts back to his face and it just changes.
Chucky's face curls like and snarls, and he just says,
you stupid bitch, you filthy slut. I'll teach you to
fuck with me. And they tussle. Chucky and Karen tussle.
He ends up biting her on the forearm and runs
out of the apartment, takes the elevator down, and escapes,
all while Karen is chasing him. It's a wonderful sequence.
It's freaking freaky when he finally reveals himself, when he
goes full Charles Lee ray on her, because he says
such like gross things right off the bat you stupid bitch,
you filthy slug. Like it's like, whoa, this is one
angry doll. The way is face changes and the biting,
it's great.
Speaker 1: I like that scene, and I don't like that scene. Okay,
I just picked out two moments. The one, of course,
is the reveal of the batteries. I thought that was cool.
And she opens it up and sees no batteries in there,
and then right away Chucky turns and frightens her, so
she drops it. And I like when she threatens Chucky
and then Chucky goes all berserk on her, and I'm like, oh,
that's really cool. But I guess for me, in a way,
the scene doesn't make sense because all right, I'm gonna
bring the doll home and then I'm start cursing at
it to get it to talk. That doesn't make any sense.
And then the fact that she's automatically is gonna threaten
and throw it in the fire.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: I don't think I would think of doing that. I
think I would have been like you, I either would
I know exactly what. Either would have ran out or
I wouldn't have done that. And that's what was kind
of like that doesn't make any sense to me. But
the result of it of him going berserker and calling
her a bitch and slut and then biting her and
running off, I do like that moment, and I agree
to I don't think Chucky should have moved when he
was sitting there. I think it was more creepy because
as an audience, you're just so focused on gonna move,
what's he gonna do? Not doing anything with that. He's
really biding his time. I think in the inside you
want him to move, but I think they make the
right call by not having him move.
Speaker 2: Right. You bring up a really interesting and great point
that I totally agree with when I talk about the
fact that this movie moves very quickly. Sometimes it's to
its credit and sometimes to its detriment, because the dialogue
moves quickly, like doesn't make sense, or a character choice
doesn't make sense because they're going they're just getting right
to it. Because I totally agree with you with the
fact that it seems as though she is already believing
Andy like her son too quickly when she sits down
with the doll and starts talking to it, as if
it's like I don't think she would do that either.
I think she would just ignore the doll for a while, correct,
because there's no way after the police precinct sequence that
she just goes homes and all of a sudden, I believe,
my son, I believe that this doll is alive. The
turn happens way too quickly. That's the thing about this
movie is like they just are getting to it, if
you know what I mean, and it to its detriment,
it takes a little bit out of the believability because
you're like, no way she would already buy the fact
that this doll is alive. Now there's a little moment
where she kind of laughs at herself after the doll
doesn't react to her. But still it moves a little
a little fast, right.
Speaker 1: And granted I understand why they have to introduce the
fireplace because it comes into play later, but sure, it
actually would have been scarier if she lifts the couch
and then the doll's just sitting there and then she
goes to grab it and that's when it goes all persirker.
That to me would have been more frightening.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I probably would have jumped, thinking it's not doing anything,
and then she's grabbing it, and she's pulling it out
and she looks at it, and then it just and
then jumps on her from there. Instead of her setting
the fireplace and then holding it up and threatening it.
I love the shot how she turns into the camera
with it, like you better say it's.
Speaker 2: Up right cool shut.
Speaker 1: I would have probably introduced the fireplace a different way.
Speaker 2: Sure, Yeah, there's some interesting choices here. I'm of two
minds on a lot of things within this movie. It's creepy,
but then it is a little silly when they're tussling, right,
she's you know, has to credit to create Katherine Hicks.
She's basically wrestling, you know, with a doll. Right, And
then I'm thinking, also just being a little over analytical, going,
wait a minute, isn't he supposed to be the strangler?
So I'm assuming he got that moniker from strangling women.
He's a serial killer. But now he's in this doll's
body and his hands are too small so he can't
strangle her, so he just bites her. And I was like,
maybe he's they should give him him the moniker the bier.
Speaker 1: All right, what do you got next?
Speaker 2: So my final favorite scene is Chucky's visit with John
aka Doctor Death. At this point in the film, we
know that Karen goes to uh Charles Lee Ray's home.
Detective Mike shows up, and they figure out that Chucky's
probably going to see this John character, with whom he
had some relationship with and regards to the voodoo rituals,
he was either practicing rehearsing these life after death rituals
that surrounded this mighty dumbala character. So cut to John's apartment,
this African American gentleman who deals with the occult in
this voodoo aspect, and he's like going to the fridge,
and all of a sudden, he hears a voice from
behind him and it's hello John over here, and John
looks over and there's Chucky, who seems to have climbed
in through the windows, like standing near the kitchen sink,
and he's like, Hi, that's great. And this is where
I chose the scene mainly because you get to see
Chucky in all his glory. He's just standing there. You
see him thing and he's moving and talking and you're like, damn,
I'm actually buying this. Of course, Brad Dorf's voice is
great and he's like it's me, Chucky, what do you think?
And of course John freaks out and there's some information
that's revealed here. Chucky is upset. He's like, I didn't
think I could get hurt, but last night I got
shot and you know something, it hurt. It hurt like
a son of a bitch, human blood. Why is that? John?
And he explains to Chucky, you're turning human and he's like, what.
The more time you spend in that body, the more
human you become. He's like, you mean I got to
live with the rest of my life in this body.
No fucking way you got me into this, John, You
get me out. And John says, hell no, you're an abomination.
And John goes to call the cops, but Chucky all
of a sudden walks into the living room with a
voodoo doll, and this is gnarly. He's like, John, you're
not calling the cops because I've got your mojo here,
and he raises the doll and he snaps one of
the legs on the voodoo doll, and of course John's
leg then breaks like backwards. It's gross. You hear the
crunching and the cracking. It's really gnarly. Then Chucky says, hey,
I want to know how to get out of this
body of this doll, and John says no, So Chucky
breaks the doll's arm, and of course John's arm breaks.
Then Chucky threatens to stab the voodoo doll with an knife,
and then John explains to him, okay, okay, I'll tell you.
You have to transfer your soul into the first human
being you revealed your true self too. So Chucky realizes
the first person he revealed himself to was Andy. He's like,
I don't believe it. I'm going to be six years
old again. Well, John, it's been fun, but I gotta go.
I have a date with a six year old boy,
and you have a date with death. And then he
stabs the voodoo doll and we see John Groening has
probably been stabbed somehow internally through the voodoo. So it's
a creepy scene. I just like how great Chucky looks
in this where he's doing a whole walk and talk
sort of thing in the scene, and the voodoo doll
stuff always effective in every movie I've ever seen. I
hate it. It's creepy. I don't know what's going on
with it. I need to do some research on that
where that all came from. But you know what's going
to happen, and what happens to John is terrible, and
that's great for a horror movie. It's scary. I thought
it was an effective scene.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I could call and I had for a moment
just the snapping of the limbs like ooh ooh, and
just how easy he could do that, just with the doll,
just snap and he just collapses that snat breaks his
arm and then just stabs the don walks off. Those
are the two moments from that scene that really stood out,
And for me, my last two moments deal with Andy
in the psychiatric ward. And the first one is Andy's
looking out the window of his room and he sees
Chucky out there and sees that Chuck he's making his
way to him because Andy knows he's in trouble, and
he starts calling out for help and the doctor appears
and the doctor's like, oh, we'll protective, we're protecting, and
he's like, no, Chucky's coming for me. And he's at
that all is lost moment, and I feel so bad
for him, and he turns and just slumps down behind
the door and just starts crying and I'm like, oh, man,
he does a good job on that. Did you have
that trivia later about that Jason that Tom Hollands supposedly stepped.
Speaker 2: Over the line. Oh, it's funny because I mentioned et
earlier as well. Right. And you hear the behind the
scenes stories about how Steven Spielberg was great directing chill
learn how he got Drew Barrymore to get to an
emotional level and deliver the tears, et cetera. And in
this particular scenario, supposedly Tom Holland was working with Alex
Vincent playing Andy and told him to think of something sad.
But there's something in the trivia where there's little controversy
as to what he actually said to Alex to get
him to cry, and it was something kind of dark,
something about imagine your parents dying or being killed or
something like that. And it worked.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it does work. I feel terrible for him.
Speaker 2: It's a great moment to call out Bill. He is
scared as hell in that sequence, and it seems like
whatever the actor was going through, he was really scared
for his life. He was feeling it or extremely sad
because the tears are rolling and it's totally believable.
Speaker 1: And then the other moment is when Chucky does find
his way to Andy's room and we just have the
scene of Chucky walking across the room and hopping him
to the bed, thinking and he's in there and he's
gonna kill him. I was like, that looked really cool.
That really worked for me.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I'm glad Andy was able to get away, So that
was a good moment.
Speaker 2: I was happy for Andy as well.
Speaker 1: All Right, so it's time to move on to Swiss
Cheese and Complaints Apartment and what do we call it
Swiss Cheese?
Speaker 2: Because although this movie is delicious, it does have those
kitchen knife stab holes.
Speaker 1: Yes, and it doesn't have those kitchen knife stab holes.
We just filed the complaint with the Complaints Apartment. I'm
sure we have a little bit with this one. What
do you got, Jason, Swiss Cheese, got some complaints? Which
way do you want to go?
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to cut me off. I've got a
few things here. I always got to ask, as you know,
how many bullets did they shoot? How many did they fire?
Because it always feels like in these eighties movies, there's
no way he had that many bullets in that gun.
I had to count in that opening sequence, which could
be one of my favorite scenes. The strangler is using
a small revolver and should be only six bullets, but
of course he shot seven. Didn't go way over the
top with it. Appreciative of that, but I always get
nitpicky with that kind of thing. You're going to run
out of bullets eventually, and that's going to be a problem,
but they just keep shooting.
Speaker 1: Well, that's funny because mine's at the end with the
bullets because Karen unloads complete his gun, then runs back
into the room, drops it next to Norris, and then
CHUCKI comes back alive. He pulls the gun then out
of his holster. I'm like, wait, how many guns is
Officer Nora's carrying and that gun's full and then ends
up killing Chucky at the end.
Speaker 2: The gun stuff in that last sequence gets a little confusing, Yeah,
for sure, that's I wrote that down as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we see her literally empty it, empty it
because she's there click click click click, and then drops
it next to him. I'm intently watching, and I know
they cut away to the other officer to pick up
the doll, but he's tending to a wound. I'm sure
he's not putting new bullets in his gun at that point. Yeah,
he's in a lot of pain. So that didn't make
any sense to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was even confused in the middle of the
sequence when I was like, wait, when does Karen actually
get the detective's gun? When you get when does she
get Michael's gun to shoot the burnt up Chucky in
the hallway, you don't actually see or pick it up,
but she does go by the detective in the what
you would call the Shining sequence, which is an homage
to the Shining with Chucky's stabbing the bathroom door and
she's screaming on the other side because at that point,
Detective Michael he's been knocked out and she is weaponless.
At that moment. She grabs Andy and runs into the hallway.
I'm like, and then she turned, whips around, turns around.
She has a gun and she starts blowing limbs off
of the burnt up Chucky And I'm like, wait, where,
what how did you get that gun? But she grabs it.
At some points there's stuff that gets Yeah, that whole
ending doesn't make sense because so he gives her a
gun correct the ankle. He shoots it once right, and
then it gets jammed right, and then she's stupid enough
to drop it. Because Chuckie knows his jam he probably
knows how to unjam it too, so he just left
him a gun, so I'm glad he didn't pick it up.
And then Norris is knocked out. He comes too. Then
we have Burnt Chuck attacking them, and then burn Chucky
comes into the bedroom where all three of them are
at but only Karen and Andy run out of the room.
You barely see Norris's leg, so you kind of know
he's still in the room. Like Chucky, why don't you
just do a quick stab stab and then move on?
Speaker 1: So we don't know how Karen gets the other gun,
and then all of a sudden it's in the hallway
and she empties it. And then somehow Norris has a
third gun and uses that to shoot Chuck at the end.
Speaker 2: Or is it the same gun magically reloaded right? It
doesn't make any sense. Also, the detective he gets knocked
out by Chucky with the baseball bat. Fine, so he's
out for the scene. But then in the middle of
this whole ending sequence he comes too correct. Right after
they burn Chucky, he comes back to like so he
sits up, but then he's not in the rest of
the scene until the very end. So I was like,
why isn't he helping out? And I rewatched it and
I was like, there's one quick shot where it seems
as though he passed out again, because, like you mentioned,
you see Karen and Andy running around after the burn Chucky,
the you know stuff, and it's like, where's the detective Now?
I thought he woke up. I thought he regained consciousness,
but apparently he passed out again in the middle of
the scene because he's not effective at all until the
end when he's firing a loaded gun all of a sudden,
very confusing.
Speaker 1: Another one for me, Where the hell are all the
other police? When Detective Norris calls in that he is
pursuing Charles leed Ray. I mean, he's known as the
Lake Shore Strangler, so he's got to be if you
got a nickname, you're a big deal. And all they
have is one cop car and goes off with the van.
We're in Chicago, We're in a major metropolitan There should
have been police cars showing up at some point in
that scene, even if we just hear him outside twousand percent,
where is everybody? It's just one on one with the
Lake Shore strangler.
Speaker 2: Hell no, Yeah, where's the cavalry? Where's the backup? The
cops should have been right there on the scene for sure.
Great point that leads then to my next complaint because
after that scene, we see this giant explosion, good guy's
dolls flying everywhere. We know that Chucky was taken out
of the box, we know that Charles Lee Ray put
his bloody hands all over him. And then minutes later
we see Karen and her friend Maggie go into the
back alley and buy a Chucky doll off of a
pedlar that found it supposedly at the back, you know,
somewhere around or behind or in the dumpster of the
toy store. No way, the doll, the box, any of
it would look in pristine shape at all. Right, the
box is a little ding duck, except but the doll
would have blood all over it from Charles Lee Ray's hands.
There would be ash all over it. There's just no
way in hell that the peddler, a homeless guy or
bump whatever he is, would have found that doll cleaned
it up, made it all look nice, and found a
box that somehow stayed intact, put it in the box,
made it look nice, and then sold it for thirty
bucks to Karen. No way, no way that that particular
doll that Ray put his spirit into looked that good.
One agree totally. I don't need to add anything else.
Speaker 1: I was thinking the same thing away Aunt Maggie and
antswering quotes because I don't think it's an actual aunt,
right right, that's just yeah. She gets a little too angry,
a little too easy for me. Oh yeah, yeah, I
mean it's Andy's birthday, his mom's got to work, and
then she tells him to go to bed, and he's
brushing his teeth, and then we find out Chucky's trying
to watch the news to find out what happened to Eddie.
She seems a little bit too mad at Andy about that.
Speaker 2: She comes down on him hard.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm like, come on, it's a six year old.
If you never try to put a six year old
to bed before in your life, I wish it was
that easy, please.
Speaker 2: I totally agree. That stood out to me too when
I was watching him, like, oh, don't don't be so mean,
Just take it easy. You're right, it's a freaking birthday.
Speaker 1: Tell his mom gets home.
Speaker 2: I like that you are coming from a parent's perspective
as well, because here's my next comment. If your six
year old Bill Bant said to you that his new
doll told him that his name was Charles Lee Ray,
and then follow that up by saying Maggie was a
real bitch and got what she deserved, what's the first
thing you would do, sides tell him not to say
things like that. Wouldn't you be supremely freaked out? Yes,
And wouldn't you immediately look up the name Charles Lee Ray.
It's wild to me that Karen doesn't know who Charles
Lee Ray is until halfway through them even later on.
It's a complaint of mind. That's true. She should that
says absolutely, he's the Lake Shore strangler. So if she'd
been watching the news at all, would know who this was.
Or let's say she's working so much because she's a
single mom understood, maybe she hasn't been paying attention to
the news. But if your kid says the doll is
inhabited by the specific name this person, and then later on,
it's just there's no way she wouldn't know who Charles
Lee Ray because she the detective says that's where Charles
Lee Ray died. She's like who, And I'm like, wait
a minute, you don't know who he is?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what, that's a good one. I didn't
pick up on that, but it makes total sense. The
fact that she seems to have the TV on all
the time too. You would just kind of pick that
up in passing. It would be leading the news and
you're a single mom and you got to get back
and forth to work. Yeah, you'd be scared shitless thinking
that you could be the next victim. So she would
do Sure, that is a good one. So Andy takes
Chucky to school and then they ditch and they go
in the worst part of the town, which he's a
six year old. He has no idea where he is
in the neighborhood. And I get that. I'm like so
afraid for him, even though I know nothing's gonna happen
to him. And then he leaves Chucky to go pee.
Chucky takes off to take care of Eddie and then
he hears gunfire and he's six, maybe he doesn't know
what gunfire sounds like. But the fact that he runs
towards it thinking it has something to.
Speaker 2: Do with Chucky.
Speaker 1: What and how he did not get hurt during that explosion,
because I'm sure he was close enough to the house
that he would have felt the shockwave. It would have
knocked him on his ass for sure. Worst case, maybe
getting hit with debris. That was hello, I get the doll.
We'll talk into getting on the subway. I don't know
how you paid for the subway going into a terrible neighborhood.
You're a kid, you don't know any better.
Speaker 2: I get it. I wrote that down almost forbade him.
Speaker 1: I have it right here.
Speaker 2: It says, and when Andy Andy hears the gunshots from
the house, he goes running toward it, thinking it's Chucky.
That I was like that, I don't know would make Yeah,
like he's concerned for Chuck, is sure. But from the
beginning of that, I was like, wait a minute, this
six year old kid just hopped on the l or
the train by himself with a doll. No one notices,
no one says anything to him. You know what, that
doesn't surprise me. Unfortunately, a little kid that's only six
by himself on the train, and by the way, I
believe that it is in a deleted scene where Andy
ends up in a ditch after the explosion. Oh okay,
there was something shot where because I totally agree that
I had that as well in the back of my
mind at least where I was like, wow, that is
a huge explosion.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because he's pretty close to the house last time
I was seeing that stop.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so yeah. Just there's some strangely written scenes
here in the opening after Maggie dies, she gets killed
and falls out the window. Great stunt, by the way. Yes,
now we have we're introduced to Detective Michael Norris. Even
we saw him in the opening scene, but here we
get to we meet him officially. He's investigating the scene,
the crime scene. Karen comes home and she's shocked, and
supposedly the detective has already questioned the boy questioned Andy,
and the point of the scene is that they found
footprints in the baking flower on the countertop. And at
this point the detective is like, don't worry, I looked
through all of his shoes and none of them matched
the prince. But then because Andy then comes out with
Chucky in his arms, and Andy's saying some stuff and
then says, Chucky wants to know what's going on here,
and the detective says, oh, let me look at your slippers.
What are you wearing on your feet? And I'm like,
wouldn't that have been the first thing you looked at
the actual shoes that Andy was wearing before going through
the other shoes. And then with in this same dialogue,
Karen says, Andy already told you he wasn't up on
the countertop, So what else do you want from him?
How do you know that Andy never said anything that
he wasn't about that was we weren't privy to that.
There was no I didn't see that conversation. And it
was weird when she said that. I was like, wait, no,
he didn't say that, or was that part of the
conversation he had with the detective and we just didn't
see it, and so she's kind of relaying that information now.
It was just odd stuff like that, a character choice
and weird writing. I was like, something's either been deleted
or it's backwards. It was wild. I'm trying to I
just don't want to go too deep with this. There's
a couple other.
Speaker 1: Moments here, even the shoe size, I mean Obviously the
dolls got smaller feet than Andy, so they shouldn't have
right away. That wasn't his not that I would have
been maybe smart enough. Let me check all the dolls
in the house and see if any of their footprints match.
But you've ruled it out. Why are you still on
top of that? So I agree with that.
Speaker 2: And then on top of all of that, Karen is
obviously upset, and she's saying, I want all of you
out of here, clear out, And the detective says, you're right,
we're out here, and I'm like, no, no, you're not.
This is a crime scene. You're sending Karen and Andy
to a hotel to spend the night. You don't just leave.
That scene's gonna be totally contaminated. What are you talking?
Speaker 1: You can't well, just the fact that she so easily
even got in, Yeah, good point. They should have stopped
at the front door and been like, look, it's a
crime scene and then called Norris over, and then Norris
brings her in and takes her wreck to Andy. She
just got by everybody. That made no sense. Yeah, she's
contaminating the scene even more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point. Detective's like, yeah, all right,
we'll take off. Sorry, sorry to get in your way.
We'll just leave the table. If somebody was just murdered here,
diet Yeah, I love that. When after this entire action sequence,
when Chucky is attacking Detective Michael Norris in his car
and it's a whole thing because he's driving the whole
time and he's losing control and Chucky's trying to stab
him through the seat and all this thing, the car flips,
et cetera. Well, Karen has gone to Charles Lee Ray's
home and is seeing all this artwork on the walls
regarding his voodoo activities. Right, and then we know that
the detective survives the attack by Chucky and goes to
Charles Lee Ray's home as well to catch up with Karen,
and he says, oh, hey, Karen, I did find out
a couple of things. I pulled Charles Lee's Ray's file.
One he goes by the nickname Chucky. Great okay. Two
he's associated with his John doctor death Guy. And I'm like, oh, yeah,
how about this detective. Three you just got brutally attacked
by a killer doll. He doesn't even mention it.
Speaker 1: Nope, what are we doing?
Speaker 2: Like The whole thing is she thinks the doll is alive.
He doesn't. He doesn't believe her. But now he's been attacked,
he saw it firsthand. Wouldn't that be one of the
first things he says out of his mouth when he
catches up with her at Charles Lee Ray's house and
be like, oh my god, you are right this whole time.
Andy was right this whole time. The doll is alive.
Speaker 1: Well, the fact two is he already said he's been
at the house, so he should already know that. The
picture and John match like. He almost seems surprised by
that too. Good point is this the first time you're
looking at the final What the hell's going on there?
He should have just went there and said, I believe you.
I just got attacked by Chucky, right, and this is
the man we're looking for right now, and then shows
her the picture and then she looks at the wall.
I'm like, oh shit, that's the same guy. Not them
both being like oh wow. But yeah, that whole scene
went chucky. Part of me liked the fact when the
car flipped over and he's down there with the gun
and we're seeing Chuck you run around it, But if
I was Chucky, I would have jumped on the top
of the car, cut the gas line, set the car
on fire. See you later done.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: I kept saying to myself, like, Norris, why are you
not getting out of the car unless you're badly hurt?
Speaker 2: A couple of times? Yeah, yeah, there's that. Yeah. And
it seems like Chucky's got him dead to rights with
the knife, like he could just stab him in the
face a couple of times and just didn't. And then
on top of this is where I have a dialogue
issue again, because in the sequence when they're still driving
and attacking, when Chuck's attacking him, Detective Norris manages to
get the lighter out of the dashboard and burn Chucky
on the face and he screams out in pain. Then
minutes later, Michael tries to shoot Chucky and Chucky says,
you can't hurt me. He just did. Yep, he just
burned you on the face. Why are you saying he
can't hurt you.
Speaker 1: I gotta say, I love when Chucky gets shot and
it would just start like flying.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. I wanted to end on a high note here,
or a positive note, because we got some complaints, obviously numerous,
but that ridiculous ending sequence. There are so many cool
effects with Chucky, the way he's walking. There's one great
shot of him walking down the hallway and he's doing
this thing with his arm with the knife. It's kind
of going up and down and it looks like a
doll but human at the same time. And all the animatronics.
But you're right. The shots when Chucky gets shot, yes,
and goes flying backward in slow motion, slamming against the
wall or whatever, are fantastic. I can't get enough of those.
I love him anytime he gets shot and like limbs
are flying in slow motion. He's just getting blown away.
But you're right in that sequence with the detective in
the car and he shoots him and he's just like ah,
he goes flying backwards, all in slow motion. It looks
so great. Lots of fun. All right, I'm gonna end
my complaints.
Speaker 1: I think I'll onto two, even though I have some more,
but we need to move on, all right, Okay, time
to move on to Hey, what's that actor? So in
this segment with Spotlight, a character actor you have seen
in many other films, an actor making their big screen
debut or an actor that makes an on credited cameo.
It's hey, it's that actor. Who do we choose this week?
Speaker 2: This week we have chosen as our hay, It's that
actor Dinah Manoff. She plays Maggie. She's Karen's coworker and bestie,
also known as Aunt Maggie. Her career dates back to
the mid seventies, and she does a little TV but
gets a big break yes Marty Maraschino, in a little
film called Grease. She does also do fifteen episodes of
the show Soap in nineteen seventy eight. But here's her
eighties snapshot. She was in Ordinary People in nineteen eighty
in the role of Karen, and she received a Tony
Award in nineteen eighty for he performance in the Broadway
production of Neil Simons I Ought to be in pictures
role she reprised in the nineteen eighty two film version,
starring opposite Walter Mathow. She does a whole bunch of
TV episodes in TV movies This Child's Playing eighty eight,
and then she does one hundred and seventy episodes of
the show Empty Nest from nineteen eighty eight to ninety five,
playing the role of Carol Weston. After that, she did
do thirty nine episodes of the TV series State of
Grace from two thousand and one to two thousand and two,
and then seems like she hung it up around two
thousand and eight. Little trivia for you. In the film
musical Grease, which is from nineteen seventy eight, Dinah managed
to nab the plucky sex pop role of Marty Maraschino,
despite the fact she lacked in dancing and singing skills,
She faked her way through auditions and her personality alone
got her the part. Later, when it came down to
doing the choreography, Dinah remained conveniently hidden in the background.
There you go.
Speaker 1: I forgot it was her an Greece and as I
was like, oh, yeah, totally, but I more remember her
for Empty Nests.
Speaker 2: There you go. I never watched that show.
Speaker 1: And then when you mentioned you ought to be in pictures,
I have seen that and I couldn't stand.
Speaker 2: Her in that movie. I got you all right.
Speaker 1: Time to move on to facts and trivia. What facts
and trivia do we have left for child's play to
share with our audience?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Well, despite their long running collaborative effort to bring
Chucky to life. Voice actor Brad Doriff and special effects
wizard Kevin Yaeger never met in person until they were
both guests at a Horror convention in May of twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: So you didn't get invited to the wedding.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's tough. That's tough.
Speaker 1: So the original working title for the film was Batteries
Not Include it. But guess what, Steven Spielberg produced a
movie of the same name, so that got mixed, and
then it was changed to Blood Buddy. I guess I
was a little too close to My Buddy, So now
they settled for Child's Play, which I actually think is
probably the best title of the three.
Speaker 2: I agree, and uh speaking, which we're going to connect this,
but I'd read that the my Buddy doll line never
recovered from the first Child's Play movie, and I didn't
do any further research into the My Buddy legacy, like
how badly did Child's Play affect the My Buddy sales?
Speaker 1: I could see that it would for sure. Yeah, my Buddy, man,
that was one of the most catchy jingles. I remember
that kid, Ye, yeah, my buddy and the kids were
playing in the park with them my body and me.
Speaker 2: That's it. That's it. Did I know.
Speaker 1: Anybody with My Buddy? I might have known one at
the head of My Buddy Dell, and I think right
away we were like, oh yeah, Chucky, there ket it,
that's the problem.
Speaker 2: Yep. But you had mentioned one of the earlier titles
for Child's play was Blood Buddy, because it was going
to be based on My Buddy kind of a little
more closely. But the first draft of the script was
actually completed in the summer of eighty five and referenced
Chucky as Buddy, who came to life after mixing blood
with Andy and killed those that were against Andy, for example,
the babysitter and teacher, and manifesting Andy's loneliness and isolation
from an overworked mother and absent father. In addition to
being more psychologically driven horror film, Buddy also only came
alive at night when Andy was asleep, So that was
the original version. Yeah, it'd be interesting. Yeah, I kind
of like it. Blood Buddy, Yeah, me too. Sounds a
lot darker.
Speaker 1: So the film used various ways to betray Chucky, including
rc animatronics and little people or child actors Various animatronics
and cosmetics were used for every scene throughout the movie.
Chucky's cosmetics transition from looking toy like to more human look.
The film created multiple Chucky animatronics, such as a flailing
tantrum Chucky, a walking Chucky, and a stationary Chucky. The
Amatronk's face was controlled by a remote control through a
rig that goes on one's face and captures facial movements.
In the scene where Chucky runs behind Maggie in the hallway,
Chucky was actually played by Alex Vincent's younger sister great Stuff.
Speaker 2: We had mentioned that there is definitely homage to the
shining in that final action sequence, and on top of that,
Brad Dorriff claims that his Chucky voice was just his
Jack Nicholson impression, which makes complete sense, and if you
know that and you're listening to him, you can really
hear that you do in a couple of moments. I
thought this was cool because it is featured in the film. Obviously,
is the building where Karen and Andy live. That's the
Chicago Landmark Brewster Building, and the Brewster Building also appears
in the scene where Gregor y Hines and Billy Crystal
must surrender their trousers to Jimmy Smith's in Running Scared
from eighty six, which we covered on this very pod,
and it can also be seen on the right outside
Drew Carey's office in the Drew Carrey showing from ninety five.
Speaker 1: So, according to Tom Holland, the shot of Maggie falling
to her death was achieved by having a stunt woman
do the main shot, followed by a concrete filled dummy
when she hits the car, which had charges underneath the
windows to shatter.
Speaker 2: Them look great. Back to the effects, I don't know
if you had mentioned this that Ed Gayle was hired
to play Chucky for the fire scene, and since he
was around thirty percent taller than the doll, the filmmakers
created a living room stage that was thirty percent bigger
and actually set him on fire. But they did use
forced perspective for a couple of the sets because the
doll is supposed to be I think two feet tall,
but then they were using either children or a little
person to portray Chucky, and obviously they're still taller than
two feet, right, so they had to make the room
look bigger to make him look smaller.
Speaker 1: I think I missed that forced perspective. Director Tom Holland
makes some cameos in this movie, so he is the
voice of the creepy costume most of the Good Guy's
program that Andy's watching at the beginning, that's a terrible costume, and.
Speaker 2: Then it is.
Speaker 1: And then if you look at some of the pictures
in the apartment of Andy's father, that's actually Tom Holland.
Speaker 2: Also, there you go. I just wanted to mention that
in the reboot of Child's Play in twenty nineteen, that
the voice of Chucky was performed by none other than
Mark Hamill.
Speaker 1: That's the only reason why I want to say it,
just to hear what voice he was going to do
for that. So, composer John Rinzetti and singer songwriter Simon
Stokes recorded an ending credits villain's song about Chucky the
Doll that wasn't used in the final finished film because
studio executives thought it made Chucky seem less scary. The
song can be heard in the home video trailer for
the film, and you can find it on YouTube. And
I'd let you decide for yourself if they should have
kept it or not. I think I agree with the execs.
The tune is catchy.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I gotta listen to this.
Speaker 1: They almost sing out the story for you. That's kind
of what happens. But it does kind of have like
that toy theme kind of thing going for it too.
Speaker 2: I liked it, but I was like.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know if I would have put it
in the movie. I'll put the link in the show
notes so you can find it and listen for yourself.
Speaker 2: But yeah, lick to know. What do you think about it?
Love it? I gotta check it out, give it a listen.
I also wished I had this on DVD. It seems
like there's some good commentary and some behind the scenes stuff.
And one last thing I'll mention is that during that
commentary on the DVD, as mentioned that originally Chucky is
decapitated while approaching Karen and And in this final sequence, but
not by Karen shooting his head off, but instead by
Detective Mike quickly entering the frame and knocking his head
off with the baseball bat. Supposedly, if you slow that
scene down, you can actually see a bat coming into
frame and knocking Chucky's head off.
Speaker 1: That's the bummer watching him.
Speaker 2: It streaming right, I couldn't slow it down, and I
could not, so I watched it a few times. I
couldn't see the bat in the frame, but same, I
really wanted to.
Speaker 1: It's like, damn it, I have this on DVD. No
for sure, all right, Jason. Alternate titles, Yeah, here we go.
Speaker 2: In Italy.
Speaker 1: I'm going to do the Italian verse verse in the
translation La Bambola Assassinina nice, which is the Killer Doll,
Latin America Chucky, the Devil Toy, Brazil, Killer Toy, Germany Chucky,
the Killer Doll, Greece, the Devil's Doll, Netherlands just the doll.
Poland is Chucky, the Doll, Portugal is Chucky, the Diabolical Doll. Oh, Romania,
Wait on this one, Toy Spain, we have Devil Doll,
Sweden the Evil Doll, and Taiwan. They must have been
watching a different movie, Supernatural Invasion.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Maybe it kind of works.
Speaker 1: But that's some alternate titles for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. It's hard to choose my favorite with those because
some of them are so like I like the abstract
ones that almost have nothing to do with the subject
matter of the film. But I think the Diabolical Doll
is my favorite, hands down.
Speaker 1: It's toy.
Speaker 2: That's great. Okay.
Speaker 1: Moving on to box office, so, Child's Play was released
on November ninth, nineteen eighty eight and one and seventy
seven theaters with an estimated budget of just eight million.
Child's Play turned out to be a box office hit.
It pulled in thirty three point two million domestically and
added another eleven million internationally. The film made a strong debut,
landing at number one in its opening weekend, but by
the next week it slipped to number two, edged down
by the Land Before Time. Still, it held strong, staying
in the top ten for three more weeks. By the
end of its run, Child's Play ranked as the thirty
third highest grossing film of the year in the US,
coming in just behind Mississippi Burning. Second time we've mentioned
in Mississippi Burning in this episode. I never thought that
would happen, but we did. Moving on to reviews. From
growing up in the eighties, we would watch at the
movies with Gene Cisco and Roger Eber to hear their
reviews and watch clips of upcoming movies. Their review of
Child's Play was split. Jeane found the movie silly and
didn't buy it at all. Roger thought the movie was
well made, with convincing performances by Catherine Hickson Alex Vincent.
He thought it was an effective horror film Rotten Tomatoes
because it made meter score of sixty four percent, with
a Popcorn Meter score of sixty five percent, and also
has an IMDb rating of six point seven. So it
takes this to additional thoughts and questions. Do you have
any additional thoughts questions about Child's play.
Speaker 2: We know that Charles Lee Ray is a murderer son
of a bitch, But I was like, why does he
kill Maggie just because he's a murderer. Yeah. I couldn't
figure that out. There's lacking some motivation there. I didn't
know what why why he murder? I was like, why
would you kill Maggie?
Speaker 1: She wouldn't let him watch TV?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's like I'm like, or he she prevented him
from leaving the apartment, distracted, whatever it was, he had
some sort he was just pissed at her. Yeah, he's like,
smack around the forehead with a tiny, tiny hammer, yep,
send her flying through a window. And I don't know
why this was bothering me the whole time?
Speaker 1: Is how pissed is that Toy Star owner the next
morning when he comes and just sees Oh, so, who
do you think covers the cost for that rebuild? Do
you think it's the owner's insurance? Or does the city
pitch in because of what happened in the store.
Speaker 2: Because they could claim it was the result of the
police activity that occurred there, correct? Yeah? Or I don't
know if they have insurance for lightning strikes? Right, like
a natural disaster sort of thing. Storm? Yeah? Yeah, what
a mess? What an absolutely yeah? I mean, what a
It's a complete disaster. It's a total total.
Speaker 1: Christ is right around the corner too. So, man, the
guy's double screwed.
Speaker 2: A no kidding, This is a real nitpicky thing. Okay.
I would actually think this is probably how Bill Bant thinks.
If Charles Lee Ray has possessed this particular doll and
the doll has no batteries in it, how is he
able to perform the actual doll voice? Hmm? It's super
like overthinking it because you would think, as he's possessed doll,
he's going to speak as himself Charles Lee Ray. But
there's no batteries in it, and the doll has a
very specific voice when it has batteries in it, and
so now Charles Ray, with no batteries in it, has
to mimic the doll's voice.
Speaker 1: I'll try to go two ways on this one. One
Good Guy's Dolls is everywhere just as much as everyone
knows about the Lake Shore Strangler, so he probably knows
the voice. Maybe he's heard it as much as people
have heard about him. I don't know, you know, maybe
it likes cartoons. Who knows. The second thing is you
think with the doll itself, there is the audio is
already and there is, so maybe he just activates the audio.
Speaker 2: That's I think that's the simple answer. Yeah, he manipulates
the doll, I mean energy, his spiritual forces manipulating dolls,
so he would be able.
Speaker 1: To activate the voice. I like that question though, that
could be a bill question.
Speaker 2: It's like one of those questions where Jesus I would
have never thought of that. Why are you thinking even
thinking in that direction? Why are you thinking about that?
I like that. I got a couple more here, but one.
The screen would be real tough for Chucky as the
doll he gets around town by himself. A few times
in this movie, he takes he runs away from Karen,
goes down the elevator, takes off. How hard would it
be for Chucky to get around town without being noticed
just by general public, right, you know what I mean?
Like he'd have to constantly For instance, near the end,
when the older couple is in the elevator and he
plays dead or plays quiet, you know, as the doll
in the corner of the elevator, and there's the funny
moment when the woman's like, what an ugly doll or
something of that fact, and he's like, fuck you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, shot to wife, that's her favorite scene.
Speaker 2: Sure, it's great. But if he's by himself without Andy,
just walking about town, he's got to travel in the
cover of night, down dark alleys, and anytime a human
a person comes across him, he would have to go quiet,
go limp, and pretend just to be the doll.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, a little toy story reaction there. Yeah, that's
a good question. So he gets out to Eddie's with
the help of Andy, that's true. There's a couple of
times he's got to go across town. How the fuck
does he do that?
Speaker 2: Two times? Specifically once when he runs out of the
apartment after Karen threatens to throw him in the fire.
The first time and the second time is when he
leaves the psychiatric hospital to go back to Andy's apartment
to get him. Yeah, he's traveling by himself.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I was thinking when he ran out of
the apartment, I'm like, I wonder if he's just somewhere
in the area. And then once Detective Norris pulls up,
he's somehow knocking the back. I don't know how he's
stuck into the car, but yeah, there's definitely times he's
he's got to go a distance. Right, These are the
things we think about as adults. Unfortunately, it's kind it's
fun to think about, but sometimes it's annoying. That's a
good one.
Speaker 2: I like that one. I wonder if that's Please listeners
tell us if that actually is addressed in the sequels
or in the TV series.
Speaker 1: I wonder if yeah, I gotta start watching them all
again now, God damn it. Yeah, right, damn me, chucky,
I got fine, that's what happens.
Speaker 2: I have one fun last observation here, Okay, question is
Karen a good mom? Now? Look, I have the utmost
respect for single mothers, trust me. But you know, in
this beginning, she knews his birthday. She knew her son
really wanted a good guy doll, but she didn't have
enough time to save up for it. And on his
birthday she gift wraps a large box which looks identical
to a good Guy's doll box. And when he opens it,
it's got some clothes in it, and she just pulls
like a pair of jeans out of this giant box,
and I'm like, what the why would you put the
jeans in a giant box like that and wrap it?
I get parents trying to get be cute every once
in a while. Even my parents would do this, like Christmas.
They would wrap a big box and it was like
a Russian doll situation where you'd unwrap it and there'd
be a smaller box inside of it and then a
smaller box inside of that, and you know what. It
was kind of funny at the time, but it sort
of pissed me off too. As a kid, if you
see a big box and you think it's you just
automatically think it's a big present, that's the big ticket
item that you've been waiting for. And that's that don't
mess with your kids hopes that way. That's just my
little commentary.
Speaker 1: There.
Speaker 2: I felt for Andy, There I got. I got a
little mad at I got a little mad at Karen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like pants.
Speaker 2: Come on, put the pants in a smaller box.
Speaker 1: It's only getting two presents. One's a pair of pants
and a good guy's tool. Outside of that, I think
she did a pretty good job for being a single mom.
Speaker 2: No, she was Yeah, she was good. She's good, all right.
Speaker 1: Tied to move on to a rating. So on a
scale of one to five good guys, dolls, what do
you give child's play?
Speaker 2: This was tough because after the first rewatch, I was
a little disappointed because the story really just the or
lack thereof, or the strange dialogue writing character choices threw
me off and it took me out of the just simple, fun,
entertaining aspect of this movie. So originally I was going
to give it two and a half good Guys, but
I'm raising it to a three because upon revisiting the
film for the notes and the favorite scenes, et cetera,
there's some really great stuff in here that's very inventive
and creative with the doll, the way it's shot, the effects,
the effects alone in Brad Doriff's voice of the doll,
and the fun just the idea just raised it to
a three for me. So I'm going to give it
three good guys Dolls for now, reserving the right to
change it later on, but absolutely love the conceit of
this film. The idea is really creepy. I mentioned the
story is super flawed, that whole ending sequence has a
bunch of problems, but overall it's still fun and it
goes by quickly, and my suspension of disbelief it was
there for the most part. It was just unfortunately the
writing would take me out here and there. But overall
it's still still worth a three because of the legacy
it has and you know, spawning so many sequels and
it's fun eighties horror. What I just I can't overthink
it too much, and I think I was guilty of that,
as you could hear in this podcast, but I'm try
and correct that. I'm giving it three.
Speaker 1: Oh that's funny, Jason, because I initially started with a
three and then I bumped it up three and a half.
Oh wow, nice, because I do like the premise exactly.
I don't think the movie is that scary, and yes,
there are a lot of things with scenes being cut
out or dialogue that we've all discussed that are issues.
But I think because of the three main characters, Chucky,
Andy and Karen, they do a great job. They carry
this and the fact that all these special effects were
done in eighty seven are into eighty eight and percent
of them still work. For me today, I'm like, wow,
I would have to recommend this movie who had not
seen it. I did enjoy it.
Speaker 2: I love it totally great, so much credit to all
of the effects crew members. Definitely all right.
Speaker 1: That just about does it for this week's episode. As always,
we appreciate you tuning in. Don't forget to follow us
on your favorite stream platform, leave a rating, and drop
us a review, hopefully a positive one. Want to know
more about the show, of course you do, head over
to All Bebiesmovies podcast dot com for all the red details.
We hope you join us next time as we dive
into another classic from the greatest movie decade ever, the
nineteen eighties. Till then, stay cool, stay retro. Have an
excellent day. Everyone, We're friends to the end.
Speaker 2: Remember this is the end, friend, thanks for staying up
with us.
Speaker 3: Good Night world, m hmmmmmmmmmmm.
Speaker 2: But the real terror takes hold when the deranged doll
becomes determined to transfer his evil spirit to a lieve
the ship