Child's Play 2 (USA, 1990) - Color, Director(s): John Lafia
MPAA Rating: R
[UK: 15]
Approx. 84 min.
Z-rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Cheese Factor: 3 stars out of 5
A couple years later, Chucky is back with a new director and new distribution deal. Universal picked up distribution for this franchise and John Lafia, one of the writers for the original, is at the helm. Picking up right where the first one left off, we see a couple of factory workers cleaning off and putting together the charred remains of Chucky. Looks like the guys at Play Pals Toys want to relaunch their Good Guys line following what had to have been a PR nightmare when a 6-year-old child claimed the soul of Voodoo serial killer possessed his doll. They're putting the finishes touches on the doll when Chucky's evil powers causes the machine to explode, tossing one of the factory workers through a window and killing him. What a way to kick off the sequel!
Andy's mother is now undergoing psychiatric evaluation after backing up his story of a killer doll in court and Andy is on his way to a new home his foster parents. There he meets Kyle (Christine Elise), their teenage foster daughter, and the two quickly bond. Chucky, rebuilt good as new, is able to get Andy's new address with a quick call from a carphone and follows him there. Much like the first one, nobody believes Andy about the doll being alive while Chucky stalks him, desperately trying to transfer his soul into Andy's body. A few more of the cast is knocked off before we get to the climax at the doll factory.
I must not have seen this movie in its entirety as a child because the factory is the only part I really remember. Chucky finally gets Andy alone long enough to attempt the soul transference ritual, only it doesn't work. He's spent too much time inside the doll and now he's trapped in it. Kyle shows up to help Andy and they spend the last 20 minutes or so of the movie's runtime trying to get away from Chucky. At one point, Chucky's hand is torn off and he replaces it with the blade of a knife. Doesn't that kinda remind you of anyone?
There is one other thing I wonder about, when Andy clumsily bumps into a red button on the machine it causes an alarm to sound and reverses the production line. The machine then spits out this monstrosity...
My question is, what the HELL was that button for?! I've never worked in a factory that massed produced anything before but are there really buttons that you can push to fuck everything up like this?? What would be the point of such a button? To test how much you could possibly ruin a product?
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| Is it weird that I find this totally hot? |
Nudity: None, unless you count a factory full of naked Chucky dolls!
Gore: With the heightened body count, we see the franchise shifting towards becoming slasher films with more brutal death scenes. Chucky himself suffers one of the most gruesome deaths I've ever seen. Body parts are cut off, he's covered in molten hot plastic that makes him look like an oozing puddle of melted flesh, and he's pumped full of air until his head explodes! (Whatever happened to just destroying his heart?) Even though he's just a doll, hearing him scream and seeing all the blood gush out of his plastic body is a truly horrifying sight when you're a kid.
Awesome: VERY! Like I said, Chucky's death at the end is amongst the most memorable of any movie. They intentionally went for a little more humor this time around and I think they found the missing ingredient to Chucky's personality. The slow motion scenes of a doll being tossed around are always hilarious but watching a pint-sized doll beat a teacher to death with a yardstick just made me chuckle. I think my favorite parts of the first and second film have to be when Andy loses his temper and punches Chucky. In the first film, he's down at the police station trying to prove his doll is real, but when Chucky doesn't respond, he beats up the lifeless doll in frustration. In this sequel, Andy wakes up and realizes that he's been tied up by Chucky who attempts his ritual, only to be interrupted by Kyle who's sneaking back into the house. The moment she unties his right hand, he punches Chucky right in the face and says, "Quick! Kill him!" The dark humor really compliments Chucky's foul-mouth and both become staples in this franchise.