Chucky Is Finally Old Enough To Try Beer For The First Time

The horror community is often ready to provide a deep forest of shade when a cult classic is remade or revamped.  I tend to enjoy remakes for their tendencies to rile people up, and for the fact that they give new life to a story that I love. As a kid, I fell in love with the 1988 genesis story of a doll possessed by the ghost of a gruesome serial killer versed in witchcraft.  The film had a terrifying quality that somehow felt realistic despite it’s far fetched storyline.

Twenty-one years later the story is finally old enough to try beer for the first time and a new adaptation has left theaters and settled into a nice home on Hulu.  Our old friend Chucky doesn’t look as creepy or grimey as he did in his previous years, after all, he’s a miracle in modern technology. Thankfully, the doll wasn’t struck by lightning-like technology gone rogue in a dozen other films. Rather, his safety features were deprogrammed by a disgruntled employee causing him to malfunction in the deadliest ways. There is no supernatural element to the modern Chucky.  He’s basically an appliance with internet capabilities that aren’t working properly. 

Child’s Play (2019) does not deliver the scare factor of its predecessor nor does it succeed to make up the difference with witty humor. Dark comedies like Chopping Mall, Silent Night, and Deadly Night 5 present similar concepts but pair them with dark comedy which makes them more palatable then flicks like Friend Request or Arcade. While Child’s Play is mildly funny at points, it never really hits hard enough to laugh out loud.  The strongest moments in this film seem to be the scenes that pay homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre pt. 2.       

This was not a bad film and it actually could easily have been terrible. The acting in this film was above average without exception.  The characters had personality and kept my interest for the 90 minutes that I indulged in this modern revamp. Admittedly, I am not looking for a Child’s Play (2021) but I am interested to see what Lars Klevberg’s next movie will feel like. I did get the feeling that makers of Child’s Play (2019) are movie lovers and that is what drove this home for me.  

About Nathan Conrad:

He’s best known as the Nashville based Hip Hop/Indie Pop emcee Spoken Nerd, but this isn’t your typical rap project. He rhymes playfully at times, while sometimes playfully singing and/or rapping, he juxtaposes his style with real-life situations and subject matter. With six full-length albums into his career, the rapper has built a healthy catalog of music, which doesn’t include the number of EPs and singles released.