When sitting down to re-watch CHILD’S PLAY, I was certain of two things: A. It being anything Chucky-related, I was about to have a great time, and B. Having seen it more times than I can remember when I was a kid, there was absolutely nothing about it that could surprise me. I was right about the former.
Maybe it’s how we catalog Chucky nowadays in the collective zeitgeist where he’s simply just the funny killer doll – which he totally is or better put eventually became – that ultimately caught me off guard when watching. CHILD’S PLAY (1988), a movie I always remembered as being a fun bloody romp, is actually legitimately frightening. I was beyond confused. Had I gone soft in my older age where now, even my childhood faves were getting under my skin? Or was there something more? I saw it four times over the course of two nights, each new viewing peeling back a new layer. It got me thinking about what makes a classic just that or better put, what makes a classic for you?
With CHILD’S PLAY, it isn’t so much a work that has withstood, nor has it even evolved with me, though at first glance that’s how I may have perceived it. With this rewatch, it taught me something quite valuable, and that is that movies, same as all art really, can be like a friend. If you’re cringing at the cheese, trust me it only gets worse. But to me, that’s the truth. Like most friendships, a movie is boiled down to its two essential halves, first being the initial honeymoon phase, which with CHILD’S PLAY was the blood, was the grim sense of humor, was the groundbreaking effects. But what follows is something far deeper and something that usually can only come from more experience. But it’s almost as if the movie trusts you, and in so doing, unlocks its secrets and lets you in and allows you to peruse its every facet and in so doing the connection becomes that much deeper. CHILD’S PLAY did that for me, allowing me an insight as to just how it stays so effective now thirty-four years on. And it’s all to do with one key scene, where everything in the movie, as well Chucky’s own film series to follow, would have at their very center.
But first, for the uninitiated, what’s CHILD’S PLAY even about:
THE SCENE
Andy Barclay is a young boy of about eight, living with his single mom Karen, in eighties Detroit. With Christmas right around the corner, naturally, there’s only one thing that he desires which is the hot new toy: A GOOD GUY DOLL. So, his desperate mother manages, by some luck, to snag one given the help of a shady bootlegger in a back alley. Only luck probably wouldn’t be the most apt way of describing it. See, turns out Andy’s good guy doll is anything but. In fact, it happens to be possessed by the spirit of late serial killer Charles Lee Ray, whose sole motivation is to leave his doll body behind and place his soul in Andy’s body.
While Andy might be the linchpin of the series, his arc coming together wholly and complete through the initial trilogy, I’d like to turn your attention slightly to the side and focus on his mother, Karen. While Andy may be the perfect audience vessel, especially for myself as an eight-year-old who let other characters fall to the wayside, now, given the passage of time, my tunnel vision has expanded outward somewhat to allow others in. And what struck me about that was just how affected Karen’s character was, and what’s more, how I feel Don Mancini uses her as the key to what he’s ultimately trying to say with the piece.
The scene in question comes quite late in the game. Karen, finally having had enough of the craziness around her caves and begin believing Andy’s crazy doll theory. After demanding he reveal himself he replies in Chucky fashion, putting on his good-guy doll persona, all smiles and calm, mind you all without a pair of batteries. So, Karen offers an ultimatum, either he talks or she chucks him right into the fireplace. And this time, unfortunately for her, he complies with her wishes. Chucky launches into her, biting, hitting, scratching, and in addition to all that, he calls her every horrible word you can think of before scurrying off, leaving her in shock.
This scene is as effective as it is a miracle. So easily could it have fallen flat on its face, and become the poster child for bad movie parties, but it circumvents that path with ease. There are a couple of reasons for this, not counting the wonderful effects work by Kevin Yagher:
Up until this point, we’ve heard snippets here and there of who Charles Lee Ray was. How he acted. But ultimately it’s just words that lack any sort of meaning. Since, for the majority of the movie, Chucky doesn’t really speak all that much, it’s a bit hard to connect the doll with the flesh and blood of actor Brad Douriff from the very beginning. That is, until this scene. And it clicks who he was, and is, and more importantly who’s been in Andy’s possession every second of the day since being purchased. It’s enough to make your stomach sink.
Here’s where I need you to stay with me. CHILD’S PLAY is a movie about self-deprecation. Save for Andy, who acts as the shiny beacon of hope that everyone bands together to save and keep pure, every character is flawed and possesses a sort of shame against who they are. We’ve got Detective Mike Norris, guilt-ridden cause even when he finally captured Charles Lee Ray, he still managed to escape his clutches once more and put a new set of victims in danger. We even have Chucky himself, disgusted at his new appearance and so desperate to change it that he’d rather be eight years old again just to escape that fact. And then finally we have Karen who deceptively doesn’t seem that way, that is until you sit down and look at the clues:
We have a single mother who is so consumed by just trying to make ends meet she forgets to wake up early to make her son breakfast or even worse isn’t quick enough to nab a good guy doll. None of this makes her a bad person by any stretch but to her, she may very well be the scourge of the earth. Being flawed is human and to make mistakes against one’s self is natura,l but when your child suffers as a result the effect of that can be damning on the heart. So when Chucky attacks and he berates, it’s hard not to imagine that those words aren’t exactly what she might tell herself on a daily basis just trying to get through her day. Chucky is Karen’s, as well as everyone he encounters, darkest thoughts brought to life.
It’s one of the main reasons he’s endured for so long, Chucky has always, from his very inception acted as a sort of judgment against the blind all-consuming consumer. The sheeple if you will. Not considering them bad people, only flawed and in need of being re-directed. Maybe this sounds like a bit of a stretch but some decades ago back in 1983, screenwriter Don Mancini, along with most of the country, was witness to an event so odd and so downright cringe it would color his mind in a way to inspire a horror classic. It started with a cabbage patch doll.
THE CABBAGE PATCH RIOT
Don Mancini watched, embarrassed and quite amused, on November of 1983 as parents stormed through the doors of multiple retail stores, pushing and punching and clawing their way to get themselves a cabbage patch doll. Employees fended them off with bats and golf clubs as customers were trampled underfoot.
Mancini had already been wanting to write a dark satire about the dangers of marketing on the masses but had just never been able to find an idea to make it stick. With the riots came that bright beautiful lightbulb.
Now, couple that along with the idea that the original conceit wasn’t that Chucky was a possessed doll but instead was a personification of Andy’s id come to life. The studio put the kibosh on that, thinking the idea far too heady for modern audiences at the time and ultimately hoping to make the new Freddy Krueger. And while the idea was scrapped, in a way he still managed to sneak it in, whether on purpose or subconsciously.
Only, instead of Andy, it’s everyone else’s id that’s represented and on full display by Chucky’s doings. It’s no mistake that one of the final shots of Chucky is of him as a charred and blackened mess bearing down on Andy, who represents purity. And only Andy, unburdened, is the one who can save everyone and put a stop to it.
A FRIEND TILL THE END
By the end of my fourth watch, I weirdly, amidst all the violence, mayhem, and foul language, found this movie, if you can believe it, hopeful. Hopeful cause while I do think CHILD’S PLAY is a movie about being confronted by one’s inner turmoil, it is also about overcoming them. Andy surviving is proof of that, hope stays unmarred.
The characters are very much the film itself. In unison, they are more than meets the eye. Stock characters like Mother, cop, boy are actually flawed people trying their best to not only overcome violence but the brutality they show themselves. And the film itself is not just a throwaway slasher, but instead, a mirror held up to reflect the world. It worked for 1988 and it works now. Maybe that’s a bummer to know things haven’t changed all THAT much, sure, but to that, Chucky is still around, ready to provide his commentary.
But we are starting to realize that depth. The unexpected brevity of this character and these movies. We live in a crazy time that’s been tough on a lot of people. Self-anger and hurt have been running rampant and there are times when it seems as if that fire can never really be put out. But in these viewings, there was an odd sense of comfort. I have been dealing with those feelings, and much like a friend, it seemed to understand me and offered up an odd bit of catharsis. I don’t think I’m the only one finally beginning to take notice of this buried depth.
Just last year, SyFy and the USA network released their new show, CHUCKY, to rave reviews and ratings. In it, a young gay 14-year-old boy explores his sexuality amidst the horrors of Chucky. He’s become an almost horror therapist, maybe not able to fix the problem outright but able to address it and help you realize your worth and that you’re not alone.
So once more, I go back to that question: What makes CHILD’S PLAY a classic? Well…it always cared about us. In a decade, as well as a following few decades of horror, that looked to pilfer you for every cent you had with a few cheap blood shots and a jump scare here or there, CHILD’S Play has always put us first, before effects, before violence, before any of that.
Despite his mean and horrid nature, Chucky, shockingly enough, does live up to his good-guy doll slogan:
He really is a FRIEND TILL THE END.
Featured Image by Ieva Berzina.
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