Child's Play

Child's Play (1988) is about a doll inhabited by the soul of a serial killer. Shot while running from the police, Charles Lee Ray takes refuge in a toy shop and recites an incantation before dying. His soul goes into a Good Guy doll. The doll is bought second hand for a six year old named Andy. Andy says the doll talks. Nobody believes him. As people start dying, suspicion piles onto the child and his mother is left alone defending him. The first half never shows the doll moving. The camera mostly travels at the doll's eye level, and for a while the audience cannot be sure whether the boy is inventing it. In the first version of the script that ambiguity was permanent: the doll never actually moved and everything came out of the child's own state of mind. That layer was removed during production and the doll was plainly animated. The Good Guy doll is a direct reference to the toy market of the period; its advertising, its cartoon and its sales pitch are all parodied. Brad Dourif voiced it and stayed with the series throughout. A puppet, animatronics and a short actor were used together for the doll. The series now runs past eight films. It runs 87 minutes. Good for: eighties horror, killer toys, and cult film. Less good for: there is violence, the effects have dated, and a child is in danger throughout.