Unlike franchises like Halloween, there has always been a mentor behind the Child's Play movies: screenwriter Don Mancini, who created and scripted every movie in the series. Even though he hasn't written anything that didn't involve the demonic doll Chucky (with the exception of one episode of Tales from the Crypt), Mancini is a smart screenwriter, who came up with a lot of well-drawn-out situations in every production.
Released just two years after the original, this is a sequel that really takes the film's mythology further, explaining the events after the end of the previous film. It starts with a well-crafted scene at the Play Pal toy factory, where a Good Guy doll is being renovated after being set on fire. Guess which doll this is! So it is. After Chucky was destroyed in the previous film, the factory owners think it's a good idea to renovate the doll to combat the bad publicity generated by the murders committed by the toy. Of course, no one believes Chucky will get up and keep killing again. And of course that's exactly what he does. In an inexplicable but even interesting scene, Chucky electrocutes (who knows how and who knows why) one of the employees who were rebuilding him. Meanwhile, the boy Andy (played again by Alex Vincent), a survivor from the previous film, is sent to a foster family after his mother was sent to a clinic for psychological treatment.
The problem with the sequel to Toy Assassin is born from the basis on which the film bases its argument. The first film makes it quite clear that, having spent a lot of time in the doll's body, Charles Lee Ray would have no choice but to accept the Good Guy's body as his own, since then the doll would be completely human inside. The second film chooses to ignore this fact, as well as ignore that the doll had already died, rather than continuing a completed story. Once the damage is done, the time has come to move forward and look at the result of all this.
Although Alex Vincent remains the interpreter of Andy Barclay, the new cast of actors is not as expressive as that of the original film. With the exception of some good action scenes, Child's Play2 doesn't show anything new compared to the first feature. The sequel just confirms the pattern that would follow in films starring Chucky: it doesn't matter how many times you kill the doll. He comes back. It will always come back. And he will go out and kill everyone he comes across. Director John Lafia, one of the screenwriters of the original, manages to maintain important features of the original, such as the first-person camera in some scenes. The good soundtrack again helps build the suspense, this time performed by Graeme Revell. The big problem is that some good murder scenes are diluted over the course of the projection, which has many more scenes that take place during the day. Chucky's appearances are much more predictable and the suspense doesn't work so well anymore, especially since we no longer have that expectation generated by seeing the doll for the first time.
Child's Play2 misses the opportunity to use this to create a different clash between Andy and Chucky. With this, the logic is practically the same as in the first movie, where the boy simply tries to convince the others that the doll is alive while trying to survive him. At the end of the first one, he was already facing Chucky. It's bizarre to believe that Andy was really convinced that Chucky was just a brainchild, which also resets the entire evolution of the character, who, like Chuck, returns to his original state. And so the story goes on, piling up scenes that are sometimes absurd, sometimes tense, sometimes comical, in the right measure. The screenwriter Don Mancini and the director fail to bring little news to the film. In addition to the obvious changes in the boy's life, what we see once again is the boy's pursuit and many innocent deaths that cross Chucky's path, but in different settings. Chucky this time kills in a school, in a house, in a car in a parking lot, etc. There are also some scenes that are quite funny, like the one where he finds the other Good Guy doll, attacking him and burying him in the family's backyard, as well as other phrases that further emphasize the sarcasm so typical of Chucky.
One of the interesting relationships is the pair Andy and Kyle. In the final stretch, the girl's fight to save the boy from the villain's clutches, with car chase rights, a race in a maze made by boxes of Good Guys dolls in a factory that produced them and the constant tension of not knowing where the doll is. The idea of the third act being in the factory was brilliant, well at least it was creative. Set the climax right at the Good Guy doll factory, where Chucky is fought off by Kyle and Andy. The setting is well used, and it's just a shame that there isn't a scene where Chucky gets mixed up with hundreds of dolls, confusing the heroes. But despite that, we have a long chase scene, plus one of the most bizarre deaths in the series.
Chucky is more prominent in this movie. Early on he starts going after Andy, his appearances full of sarcasm and with excellent effects guarantee the fun. Another curiosity of this film in relation to the first one is that Chucky, as a doll, has changed. Less detailed people won't notice. Chucky's physiognomy as both Good Guy and the doll moving and making their bizarre expressions is more serious and realistic.
The only thing that hasn't changed is the doll's internal transformation, organs and blood become part of his system over time, we can see this in parts like Chucky starts bleeding through his nose or when he cuts off his hand. Remember that the situations in the first movie take two days. In "The Child's Play2", the plot takes place over a period of three days, so there is a consistency of Chucky not being able to pass his soul on to Andy as he took longer than the first movie to try to do it.
This sequel no longer has the freshness of novelty and does not maintain the same tension as the first one, but it undoubtedly also marked and was present in the nightmares of many in the 1990s. Child's Play2 is a really fun movie, which fortunately doesn't try to create a new masterpiece of horror, and cares only about having fun. The story doesn't stop, and there is always action going on. The doll's charisma carries the film, a credit to the doll team (at a time when CGI was not available) and, especially, to Brad Dourif, who was the sarcastic voice of the villain in all the films in the series.
2 out of 2 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
