A six year old boy named Andy (Alex Vincent) gets a "Good Guy Doll" from his Mother (Katherine Hicks) for his Birthday. However, the doll is possessed with the soul of a killer named Chucky (Brad Dourif) who uses a voodoo spell to transfer his soul into the dolls body during a near death shoot out with a cop (Chris Sarandon). Chucky plans to get revenge on a few people by fooling Andy into helping him, as well as making Andy look like he's insane. But Chucky is slowly becoming human in the doll body and the only way to get out of it, is to transfer his soul to the body of the person he first revealed his secret too, which is Andy.
The victims in the film are likable and well acted. Alex Vincent as Andy does a good job. Throughout the film, you really begin to feel bad for him because we know he didn't commit those murders, and we know that he's telling the truth as Vincent plays off the innocence and fear of his doll ever so convincingly. Sure his acting is quite stilted at times, but I still think he did a good if not great job. Katharine Hicks as the Mother puts plenty of energy to the character who goes from not believing her son that the Dolls alive to doing what ever she can to find the doll and save Andy. I also adore watching her and Vincent in scenes together, as their Mother and son relationship feels completely authentic. You also have Chris Sarandon as the cop who gives just as much of a good performance as Vincent and Hicks. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something about this cop character that I find to be badass, and boy do I wish that he were in the sequels.
Ok that's enough with the victims, let's talk about the good stuff. Well to the film's credit, I like that they don't right away on show the doll being alive. We don't see him walking, cursing, and killing on-screen till we get to the middle of the movie. The first half is just Chucky pretending to be a doll and making Andy look like the murderer even though we the audience know that he's innocent because of the film's opening scene. Yeah...wouldn't it be more effecting if we saw the killer transfer his soul to the doll in a flashback like minutes after the doll reveals himself to be alive? Oh well, I guess if they didn't have a poster of a killer doll, the film probably wouldn't sell. Getting back to the effects of him pretending to be a doll. All we hear from the doll's mouth in the first half are just his catch phrases with that child voice, the only time we ever hear him say something that we know the doll wouldn't say are from Andy's mouth. What also makes the scenes in the first half thrilling is we see through it's eyes, see very little of the doll, and his actions and let the suspense and build up leave you off guard. I'm not kidding when I first saw the first half I was nervous, even now when knowing what's going to happen it still affects me in a way.
When the doll finally does come to life, he's pretty terrifying while also being fun to watch at the same time. This villain loves to swear and kill, and he'll stop at nothing no matter what gets in his way. The special effects for the Doll are really good and life like, and still hold up to this day. Yeah, he can be funny as well as looking a little goofy at points, in fact the film itself does have a few silly scenes as well but the film itself is a dark horror comedy, and come on, with a film that's turning innocent cute dolls into killer psychopaths how can it not be just a little bit funny? In fact, the film was actually made to satire the Cabbage Patch Kids, Teddy Ruxpin, My Buddy Dolls, the Care Bears and what ever doll franchise was popular during the 80's that also had it's own movie or TV show. It was the films way of turning a cute concept into a nightmare, and yes people at the time (I'm sure a few now) were terrified of dolls because of this film. Of course, the concept is nothing new, and been done before and scarier in films and TV Shows like "Magic" or "The Twilight Zone". However, this was the first of the bunch, or at least the first famous and iconic one to show the doll killing people throughout the whole film on-screen while also giving it an interesting and fun personality.
Some of the murders in this film are cool while at the same time goofy. For me the cool ones is when Chucky electrocutes a guys face, and uses a voodoo doll on one of the key characters. I also enjoy the sequence where Chucky tries to kill the cop in a speeding cop car where he can't hit the breaks since Chucky is preventing him from doing so, and the whole thrilling climax in Andy's apartment. For me the only death that's really silly is the first death. A person gets killed by a toy hammer which sends her flying out the window...is the victim really that clumsy, it's just a toy hammer not a real hammer. However, the effect of her flying out the window was cool, the scene does bring great suspense, and hey even one of the cops laugh at the death when they find the weapon, so at least the film knows that it was silly and unrealistic.
While being a goofy film at points, that was actually what the film was going for. It wasn't supposed to be a realistic horror film or thriller, it was supposed to be a dark horror comedy that made fun of those famous 80's toys made at the time, and even the film itself knew at points that it was silly but still managed to bring a few scares and some over the top gruesome deaths. What separates this film from it's sequels is it knew how to balance out the horror and the comedy. It knew when to scare us, when to make us laugh, how to make an over the top death look scary or legit, and it also gave us time to breath in between scares and laughter while the sequels were nothing but goofy over the top horror comedies filled with gruesome cartoonish deaths. So overall, I think this film is a horror classic. The villain's a great horror icon, the acting's good, the special effects still hold up, and it's still both scary and funny at the same time.
RATING 5/5
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