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Child's Play [VHS]

Child's Play [VHS]
Directed by Tom Holland

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The "chills come thick and fast" (Los Angeles Times) as voodoo and terror meet within an innocent-looking doll inhabited by the soul of a serial killer who isn't ready to die. From the Director of Fright Night comes a "clever, playful" (The New York Times) and stylish thriller with "excellent special effects" (Leonard Maltin) and heart-pounding suspense guaranteed to scare! After 6-year-old Andy Barclay's (Alex Vincent) babysitter is violently pushed out of a window to her death, nobody believes him when he says that "Chucky," his new birthday doll, did it! Untilthings start going terribly wrong dead wrong. And when an ensuing rampage of gruesome murders lead a detective (Chris Sarandon) back to the same toy, he discovers that the real terror has just begun'the deranged doll has plans to transfer his evil spirit into a living human beingyoung Andy!

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Horror maestro Tom Holland (Fright Night) brought wit and devilish energy to this 1988 scarefest about a murderer (Brad Dourif) who wills his soul into an innocuous doll named Chucky, and reveals himself only to the toy's owner, a frightened little boy. Catherine Hicks plays the child's mother, and Chris Sarandon a detective; neither of them knows what to make of the kid's story. Monster-doll stories are always wonderfully surreal, and Child's Play is no exception. Holland oversees some finely tuned special effects that allow Chucky to express himself and do some damage--it is truly unnerving but somehow good, subversive fun. --Tom Keogh



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - The definitive killer toy film.
This film is a classic. While not the first to explore the "toys come to life and are evil" idea, this film still stands up today. Dispite it's more comedic sequals and countless imitators, the original Child's Play is suspenseful even though you know the doll's alive, because you're waiting for the moment when it reveals itself to be.

The story focuses on a boy named Andy Barkley, and his mother buys him a 'Good Guy' doll off a street peddler. Andy seems convinced the doll is talking to him, and after a series of murders his mother also becomes suspicious. It's only a matter of time before the Doll reveals it's true nature, and proceeds to stalk the family.

This Blu-Ray package also includes the 20th Anniversary DVD, so if you don't have a Blu-Ray player but are thinking about getting one, get this anyway so you don't end up buying the same film twice. Both the DVD and Blu-Ray include the same special features, with the only difference being the Blu-Rays fancier menus.

The Blu-Ray's video quality is naturally better, with images appearing sharper with more detail, and less grain than on the DVD version. The audio is also improved, with both discs including various commentaries.

There are some making-of documentaries and some small clips of a CGI Chucky saying various things. Although I really hope that this CGI Chucky has nothing to do with an apparent re-make, it doesn't look very good!

Even without the extras, the film is amazing and a classic. It has earnt its place in movie history as one of those films that changed the way we think, the same way Jaws made us scared of the water. This Blu-Ray release does a great job in keeping a whole new generation of film viewers scared of their toys, and that's just perfect!


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Fun movie
when i first watched this movie I had nightmares of my stuffed animals coming to life lol (I was young) but its a fun movie, its more suspense than horror. I dont like many "horror" movies but Child's play is entertaining, chucky's laugh, the way he runs, is hilarious For an old movie this is pretty dran good :)


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Andy!!!
Un de mes films préférés, vive Brad Dourif, franchement même si le film est plutôt effrayant on se surprend surtout à rire devant les remarques acerbes de la poupée de l'enfer...
Un excellent moment de cinéma.



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - But were friends till the end. This is the end, friend.
I loved it but not as much as the 2'nd.But when Chucky kills people in this one he has a motive.REVENGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!In the other one he just killed people.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - We're friends 'til the end, remember?
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3QTQ8CGSY28TG



Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Ok
I have been a fan of Child's Play since i was 5
this is my favorite horror series other than Halloween
but i was disappointed with this Blu-Ray
it was really grainy i know it is a older film but they could have
done better they may have put a week's worth into this Blu-Ray at the most
it's not the worst Blu-Ray but i would only buy this if i was a die
hard Child's Play fan


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - A horror classic of the 80's that soars on Blu-Ray.


A voodoo obsessed serial murderer named Charles Lee Ray (Brad Douriff) who is known as the notorious Lakeshore Strangler is one of the city's most infamous killers. He was chased then gunned down by a police dective named Detective Norris (Chris Sarandon) to death. The next day, a 6 year old boy named Andy Barclay (Alex Vincient) just had a birthday and his mother Karen (Catherine Hicks) buys him a Good-Guy doll named Chucky for him and the boy loves it. Andy has gotten more then he gets as murders and accidents start happening as the boy believes his doll is responsible as no one believes him not even his mother, it turns out the doll is possessed by Ray as it's purpose is to use the boy for his evil and wants his soul.

Stylish and masterful horror thriller from director Tom Holland ("Fright Night") and writer Don Mancini who gave birth to a horror legend named Chucky. The film started out as an idea by Don Mancini and producer David Kirschner based off the whole Cabbage Patch Kids and Teddy Ruxpin craze with voodoo themes to it. Mancini was influenced by films like the Anthony Hopkins horror thriller "Magic", the Twilight Zone TV show and 1975's "Trilogy of Terror". The performances are quite well done even by The Incredible Hulk's Jack Colvin, Kevin Yagher's special effects even on Chucky are just outstanding even in today's CGI realm. This movie has stood quite well terrifying generations of children on their fear of dolls as it spawned 4 sequels, wannabes and of course a reboot/remake in the works from the same creator.

This Blu-Ray has incredible picture and sound with a suprisingly good High Def transfer with extras like featurettes, trailer, audio commentaries and widescreen standard def DVD included.



Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Will only scare a few, but for them this is horrific
Some horror films have the bad luck of being stuck using a trick that only affects a select group within a society by playing on their specific phobias. Granted, the horror genre as a whole has a knack for that, but there are some concepts that are funny no matter the situation. For example, a man in a mask with a huge sharp knife lunging from the shadows = scary. It plays to the fear of, well, just not wanting to die. That seems normal enough. But then you have an entirely separate niche of the horror world that has something like spiders (Arachnophobia), sharks (Jaws) and dolls (Child's Play). Now, Pediophobia, the fear of dolls, is somewhat ridiculous. I apologize if you suffer from if legitimately or just in a film setting, but it has a severe limit on its appeal. With that said. Child's Play hasn't aged well and has little lasting impact for new audiences.

When a mother (Catherine Hicks) needs the perfect gift for her son Andy (Alex Vincent) and clothing and small toys just aren't fitting the bill, she goes out in search of the hottest item out there: an interactive doll. She finally finds one courtesy of a dumpster diving hobo who happens to have rescued one thrown out from the scene of a massive explosion after a police shootout left a local serial strangler dead - or mostly dead. You see, some people have multiple skills. Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif), for example, strangled people really well, but he also had a cursory knowledge of voodoo which allowed him to instill his soul into the body of a popular doll. As is to be expected, the doll Charles Lee Ray's soul inhabited happens to be the one our adoring mother has purchased as a birthday gift.

At first everything seems normal. The doll is fairly interactive so Andy's tales of the doll's autonomy come as little more than the cute fibs of an attention-hungry child. Within a night of letting the doll, Chucky, out of his box the family friend and babysitter is pushed out of a window bringing city homicide officer Mike Norris to the scene. Norris begins his investigation as Chucky becomes restless in his "Made in China" body causing him to seek out a voodoo method to transfer to a new vessel - Andy.

How to measure the merit of a clearly aged horror film? The easiest way to grade Child's Play is to size it up against the sequels - all of which were even worse. Weighed against other films of little evil things, who can safely argue that Child's Play even comes close to something like Gremlins? It can't be done. Within its own subsection of the horror genre, Child's Play can only be looked at favorably from a nostalgic point of view. The performances have that classic horror film feel. There's no hint of awareness that pollutes many of the slasher films today. It's not about cheap kill thrills, the film genuinely wants to scare you with a little sadistic doll that jumps out of dark corners. It rarely succeeds, but I guess we'll give it some credit for purity.

The picture and sound don't get too much help from the Blu-ray boost, though the picture is sharp and the film still retains its visual charm. If you don't own it already (which is either because you don't typically buy horror films) then it might be a consideration if you're going for a Halloween horrorfest night. But if you have owned it before, you've owned it on VHS and DVD and chances are a slight upscaling in resolution is all you need to buy Chucky's newest hi-def incarnation.

Blu-ray Extra Features:

Like the past releases of the film, the Blu-ray version comes strapped with a healthy load of extras and even a DVD copy...for all you who have been wearing out your VHS player. Starting off the nice feature package is a fun title screen menu which has a first-person view with a knife stalking through a house (which is already inaccurate since the film takes place almost entirely in apartments) - but it's still a really fun way to get viewers in the mood. You can watch the film with two different audio commentaries: the first includes star Catherine Hicks and the designer of the infamous Chucky doll Kevin Yagher or another with Producer David Kirschner and screenwriter Don Mancini. Hearing the interactions between Hicks and Yagher proves to be the more entertaining of the two, so if you have to choose, that's your best bet. After that you have a whole gamut of featurettes with a retrospective taste looking at the film's production, direction, the design of Chucky (Yagher returns!), the devoted horror convention following Chucky has amassed and, as always, the good old-fashioned "making of" featurette. For the Chucky fan it amounts to a solid package (even if it was offered previously). For others, a few of the featurettes prove to be quite interesting, but overall you might not want to bother as it's typically 2 minutes of interesting sandwiched between 4 minutes of things only a diehard fan could love.

I am now officially tempted to watch the first season of 7th Heaven - bear with me - to see if they made any Chucky cracks for Catherine Hicks.


Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Classic 80's horror gets the royal treatment it deserves.
CHILD'S PLAY is simply one of the most effective horror films released in the 80's.
It benefits from a solid screenplay, a great cast, a great director and special effects that are a wow! Before CHILD'S PLAY, director Tom Holland gave us another 80's classic FRIGHT NIGHT and I must say this was a director in the top of his game.

Little Vincent (Andy Barclay) lives with his single mom (Catherine Hicks) who works hard to make ends meet. He is sad because he wants for his birthday a Good Guy doll (a doll after a popular TV show). The dolls are great: they talk, each one has its own name... and they are very expensive. But mom (knowing her son is sad) finds a street seller who happens to have a Good Guy doll for sale - a doll he stole from a toy store where something horrible happened...

...And this is just the beginning because inside the doll is the spirit of a murderer (Brad Dourif) who managed to transfer his soul to the doll before getting shot by Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon). So the doll will kill his way to Norris in search of revenge.

This is an amazing film in every way. So good it turned out becoming a franchise. But in my opinion, none of the sequels matched this first film for all its qualities.

Plus: finally we get all the extras we deserve.

Recommended.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Scurry Dollies
We've been here and we've done this, Child's Play is a minor horror classic so there's really nothing more I can add to this but to say that, in my opinion, time has treated Child's Play far too well and fans been completely dishonest with themselves about its importance. While I certainly enjoy the film for what it is, "just okay," it's far from a masterpiece of terror. Chucky looks fantastic, he's a genre icon and I can respect that but if a film like this were to be released today its faults could hardly be ignored, cool bad guy or not. That's not to say it should be judged by today's standards, just that a film with this kind of barely visible plot and so-so dialogue would receive far less respect.

Child's Play is, at the heart of it all, entertaining and that's the bottom line. I'm not entirely convinced Chucky deserves the canonization he's received but you cannot deny the appeal of a foul-mouthed, knife-wielding doll!

Chances are most of you already own this so I'm sure the question that's on everybody's mind is, "Why should I purchase this edition?" and the answer is simple...this edition has a buttload of special features. If you're a special feature junkie, this is a nice little release overflowing with cool featurettes and new audio commentaries.




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