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CHILD'S PLAY (2019)
Director: Lars Klevberg Cast: Gabriel Bateman, Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry, Beatrice Kitsos, Ty Consiglio, David Lewis, Carlease Burke, Trent Redekop, Marlon Kazadi, Tim Matheson, the voice of Mark Hamill MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:30 Release Date: 6/21/19 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 21, 2019 A good number of recent horror remakes have existed simply because they can. Child's Play, a new and updated version of the 1988 film about a doll that comes to life and kills, actually has a reason to exist. The core idea behind this new iteration is so good that the movie easily rises above many remakes of decades-old horror movies. It's also, perhaps, too good an idea, since the results don't match the ambition or the wicked satire of the concept. Those who recall the original film will remember that Chucky was the dispossessed soul of a serial killer that came to embody a doll. It was a silly concept, but the film was smart enough to realize that fact and to take advantage of the inherent humor of it. The idea behind the new Chucky is silly, too, but in a way that touches upon growing concerns about the implications of advanced technology taking over every part of day-to-day life. This Chucky is another doll, of course, but it's essentially an advanced computer—an artificial intelligence, really. This model of the Buddi doll imprints itself upon its owner, learns everything there is to know from the internet, and adapts its behavior to the owner's routines. Think of it as a smarter and more mobile version of your cellphone's artificial personal assistant or the one you might have built into the speaker in your living room. It's mobile, not in the way that you can carry it in your pocket, but in that it actually walks, following its beloved owner around, and can even carry things that aren't too heavy—like a science book or a roll of toilet paper or a butcher knife. If the original doll was possessed by an evil soul, this one kind of has evil programmed into it. The movie opens with a commercial showing off all of the helpful and playful things the doll can do, and then, it cuts to a sweatshop in Vietnam, where all the Buddi dolls are built and their systems are checked. All it takes for one of these dolls to become free to do whatever it wants—to swear, to scare, to kill—is for an abused worker to turn off all of the safeguards in its programming. Why someone would build a child's toy that actually has to be told not to be violent is beyond rational thinking. Then again, so, too, is the thought that a giant tech company would make its smart devices listen in to everything that anyone in the vicinity says. Those things are not exactly the same, but hey, they're close enough for satire. The story essentially remains the same, in that a single mother named Karen (Aubrey Plaza) obtains—through not exactly legitimate means—the most popular doll on the market for her son Andy (Gabriel Bateman). Naturally, the doll is the one without the programming safeguards, and after Andy activates it and connects it to his cellphone, Chucky (voice of Mark Hamill) develops a seemingly innocent but intense attachment to the kid—which turns out to be eerily co-dependent and defined by an unhealthy desire to keep Andy happy. It's obvious from the start that screenwriter Tyler Burton Smith isn't content to simply give us a retread of the original material. The movie, despite its eventual decline into the realm of gruesome killings that are more concerned with blood and gore than actually following through on the central premise, has something to say about our dependence on technology, as well as providing a creepy parable about what might happen if our technology became dependent on us. Smith deserves a lot of credit for not simply giving the Chucky character a shallow, modern-day upgrade. The killer doll means something in this version—a constant, reliable plaything that becomes an object of obsession and danger. The humor comes from this, but like in the original film, it also comes from acknowledging that there's something absurd about a creepy doll that looks like it might murder someone and, well, does—several times. The doll here is a joke to Andy and other kids his age (Internet videos mock it, and Karen gives it to Andy as an ironic gift). We know the thing is going to turn evil, beginning with threatening the family cat and turning to psychologically tormenting Karen's cad of a boyfriend (played by David Lewis), but the doll is so pathetic in its desire to be loved that we almost sympathize with the poor thing. Basically, there's a lot going on here beneath and just above the surface of this story, so it becomes a bit disappointing when the movie embraces Chucky's evil, murderous nature. It's a necessary turn, of course, but the imagination of the conceit for this new doll isn't present in the movie's assorted killings. A couple—when Chucky connects to a thermostat and, later, an automated car—are diabolically amusing and of a piece with the movie's technological concerns, but ultimately, the movie just offers bodies being devastated, stabbed, chopped, and grinded. This might seem strange—the notion that a movie about a killer doll deserves better. It's true, though, and while it's clever and occasionally biting about reliance on technology, Child's Play doesn't quite live up to its potential. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for
bloody horror violence, and language throughout)
