Skip to main content

Child's Play 2 (1990) - John Lafia


Chucky is an amazing horror movie protagonist. He is just so versatile. A character that the audience is both terrified and entertained by. Brad Dourif is unmistakeable as the voice of the psychotic Good Guys doll. It's another movie that I am used to seeing in the horror section at Blockbuster. The tag line, 'Sorry Jack, Chucky's Back' is a daunting line that haunted my dreams for years. 

After the events of the first film, Andy's mother is locked away in an asylum. Andy himself is placed into foster care. Hopefully it's an environment that can help him forget about the horrors that he sustained at the hands of his doll, Chucky. Not helping matters, the Good Guys corporation wants to keep the doll in circulation. They actually recreate the Chucky doll and get some deadly results. Now Chucky is back and needs Andy to play Hide the Soul!

I like that they explore the lore and magic of the series a bit more. We get to see what it's like when Charles Lee Ray stays inside of the Good Guy's doll for so long. We get a good idea of why Chucky is hunting Andy. Chucky starts to bleed and then actually forms, what looks like a complex set of intestines and veins. He is becoming more human. Weird. 

Child's Play 2 was actually a lot better than I expected it to be. This movie is bigger and grander than its predecessor. Chucky is deadlier and more ruthless. He has a good deal of horror mixed in for good measure. Brad Dourif returns as the iconic voice of the killer doll. He does an amazing job as usual. Alex Vincent returns as Andy, and does well. I really like Andy. He isn't nearly as annoying as a lot of younger kids in these movies. I also appreciate that they are using the same cast from the first film. It helps drive the backstory. 


I don't remember being afraid of dolls because of this. As a kid, Chucky didn't really scare me. I never understood why these people just didn't punt him away. That always bothered me. However, this isn't appropriate for children at all. Although he is a doll, Chucky is definitely for elder teens and young adults. Expect some brutal killings, gore and heavy use of offensive language. You know, the best stuff. It's a perfect movie for a group setting but can also be good just to keep you up. I know that after watching this series, you might not be able to trust dolls anymore. 

Director: John Lafia
Producer: David Kirschner
Writer: Don Mancini
Starring: Alex Vincent, Jenny Agutter, Gerrit Graham, Christine Elise and Grace Zabriskie
Studio: Universal Studios
Realease Date: November 9, 1990
Country: United States
Did ya know: Chris Sarandon was originally going to reprise his role as Det. Mike Norris from the first film, but his scenes were cut from the film due to budgetary issues. In the later seasons of Seinfeld (1989) (in which Grace Zabriskie plays "Mrs. Ross," after playing "Grace Poole" in this film), a copy of Child's Play 2 can be spotted on the shelf in Jerry's apartment where he keeps his VHS tapes.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Human Monster (1939) - Walter Summers

Bela Lugosi turns in a fantastic performance. It is right on par with the exact same films that had made him famous like Dracula . My personal favorite being The Black Cat . Like the latter, this film suffered from poor circulation and lack of advertisement. Either that or the public wasn't interested in seeing Lugosi in anything else other than his famous bloodsucker. This film has a broad and well acted plot that was rich with detail.  Lugosi has two sides in this picture. His well loved and compassionate side. The other is a strict, brutal lone shark that acts as a sinister villain to blind and handicapped people. He really brutalizes his victims. It's a macabre message to pay your bills.  The film is slow moving and plagued by the usual setbacks from its time. Most of the nation wasn't really that concerned with horror at the time. But studios knew that they would always have an audience. This film is a prime example of that. It's sad because it's 

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t

Inseminoid (1981) - Norman J. Warren

What can be said for mindless schlock pictures like this one. They were pumped out in droves during the eighties. Inseminoid !? give me a break! It sounds like some pre-pubescent teenage boys came up with the title. On the plus side the movie isn't horrible to look at and it has a decent amount of gore. If you can separate yourself from the political incorrectness, then you might have a perfectly decent Sci-Fi Monster Feature.  A research team exploring caves on Jupiter accidentally awakens an ancient alien that rapes and impregnates one of the team members. She suffers from terrible shock and trauma, leading to a complete mental breakdown as her pregnancy accelerates faster and faster. Feeling threatened she decides to kill anyone she deems a threat. Can the rest of the research team survive or will they all become victims of INSEMINOID! Apparently this movie had a million dollar budget. That's really shocking considering the outcome of the picture. The acting