Child’s Play 2

Directed by John Lafia

Viewed on Amazon Video

 

Summary: Although this sequel doesn’t have as many original ideas and good characters as the first film, it is still a fun slasher romp with an insanely good climax.

 

After enjoying the first Child’s Play a great deal for its great blend of weird doll voodoo horror and fun 80’s slasher goodness, I decided it would be a good idea to check out the sequel, Child’s Play 2. This was especially appropriate because the reboot of the Child’s Play franchise was just announced for release next year, so I have some catching up to do before that movie comes out! Made by the same team, with the director of the first film swapping duties with the writer John Lafia, the movie feels not just like a sequel but like a direct continuation of the first film, picking up where the first film left off. That’s an interesting move for a sequel, picking up essentially right after the final scene of the previous film, but does it pay off? Let’s find out as I dig a bit deeper into Child’s Play 2!

So I really enjoy the approach the Child’s Play team took with Child’s Play 2. The story of Child’s Play 2 continues logically and sensibly where the first film left off, with young Andy Barclay’s mom, Karen, being evaluated at a psych ward due to her explanations to the police that the murders happening around her were being committed by a killer doll. Subsequently Andy is placed in foster care until she is cleared. Before that though, we see how this scandal has affected the manufacturers of the ‘Good Guy’ doll that had its body used by the serial killer Chucky. The CEO of the company wants the issue swept under the rug, as the testimony of the Barclays has hurt sales, and the board was worried that the doll in question was ‘defective’. To that end they rebuild the doll in question and give new life to Chucky. Those fools. Appropriately, Chucky sees this as another opportunity to use his voodoo spell and steal Andy’s body, in order to be reborn through him. Sometimes I forget how insane the plot line of the first film is, then I remember and just start smiling. For a more in depth discussion, see my review of the original at https://scaredsloth.com/childs-play-1988/!

 

To that end, Chucky tracks down the foster home that Andy has been sent to and tries to get him alone and incapacitate him long enough to perform the ritual undisturbed. That’s an issue though because not only are Andy’s two new foster parents there, but also his new foster sister, Kyle, is there to watch his back. Andy realises what’s going on and tries to tell people, but gets the same treatment as he did in the first film, everyone just assuming that his explanations are just trauma or cries for attention and can be safely ignored. I’m a little torn on whether or not I like this plot. I do enjoy that the events here are so closely tied in with the premise of the first film and I love the clear motivation and desperation in Chucky’s actions, he has to perform the ritual before his soul bonds with his new body or else he gets trapped in it forever, but a lot of the film feels like it is treading the same ground that the original has already covered.

 

Countless scenes are repeated from the first film, like Andy trying to tell adults and them not believing him, someone dragging Andy over to Chucky and screaming that its just a doll, people assuming that Andy is responsible for some bad thing that Chucky has done. These moments feel like rehashes generally, but I don’t think they’re that bad because it would be pretty reasonable for the average horror movie adult to believe that some kid who just got out of a juvenile psych ward would not always be telling the whole truth about the things they see. One thing that is different that I’m not a fan of is that Andy is now the main character and (SPOILER ALERT) Karen, his mom, NEVER appears in the film. That really bugged me, particularly because Karen was a great character, providing a firm emotional anchor to the film and delivering a believable and enjoyable performance. (END SPOILER)

 

In contrast to that, Andy just cannot handle being the sole main character. In my review of Child’s Play I kind of went easy on his performance because he was really young and not generally the main focus of what was going on. Here though, I have to take my gloves off and admit his performance is just bad. Not terrible, he never chews the scenery or anything but its just a really bland, blank performance that might have been intentional but I suspect not. Maybe the idea was that Andy is now emotionally damaged from what he’s gone through and is having difficulty emoting, but I don’t think that was the case, it just seemed like Andy didn’t react to things he really should have had some reaction to, like being yelled at in a really tense situation or being chased by a killer doll. Everyone else is pretty much fine, no one really stands out for good or ill. Andy’s new foster sister, Kyle, is pretty cool, taking over some of Karen’s role by looking out for Andy and trying to help him when she begins to piece together what is happening.

 

While I mostly like the story the writing can occasionally get a little sloppy, not in terribly noticeable ways, just little moments that could have been fixed pretty easily. At one point Andy’s new teacher finds an assignment that he completed only to discover that it has a slur on it directed at her (this was of course written by Chucky…for some reason), so she keeps Andy in detention while Chucky is in the room and menacing him. Andy escapes and the teacher is murdered by Chucky. You’d think this kind of crime committed in a school would be shocking and newsworthy but no one ever mentions it! But the school did call Andy’s foster parents to let them know he was in trouble! It may not be the worst thing but I found it a bit unbelievable that this would never be mentioned by anyone else. All of this is forgiven though because of the ending, which is amazing.

 

 

(SPOILER ALERT) Continue on to get to conclusion.

 

The ending of Child’s Play 2 is a glorious celebration of excess. Andy and Kyle run from Chucky and wind up hiding from him in the ‘Good Guys’ doll factory. Chucky finally catches Andy, incapacitates him and performs the ritual to transfer his own soul to his body, the clouds gather, thunder strikes, Chucky finishes the spell and…nothing happens. He’s been in the doll body too long. He’s trapped. Chucky proceeds to lose his shit, deciding that if he can’t take Andy’s body he’ll just kill Kyle and mutilate Andy so that he can suffer as much as Chucky has. During this struggle Chucky gets injured and the movie gets into what I can only describe as ‘Doll body horror’, his limbs get torn off, his plastic flesh is burnt and bloody and in his final moments Chucky is finally killed by molten plastic suffocating and torturing him to death.  It is brutal and imaginative and I loved it.

(/SPOILER ALERT)

 

 

 

That’s what I love about this movie, it could have ended the series here and I would be completely fine with it. Conclusions are difficult but Child’s Play 2 knocks it out of the park, making the climax of the film a grand spectacle of fun horror that makes the movie completely worth it just to get to the ending. Sure, it’s not quite as good as the first film, the acting may not be as good and the story not as original but the direction they take with it is sensible and fun and sometimes that is all that a sequel needs to be. This ending was so good that I’m genuinely curious as to where they could even take the sequels, but I guess I’ll find out soon enough! Definitely recommend Child’s Play 2, especially as a double feature with the first movie.