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Child's Play (2019 film)

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Child’s Play
Theatrical Release Poster
Directed byLars Klevberg
Screenplay byTyler Burton Smith
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyBrendan Uegama
Edited byTom Elkins
Music byBear McCreary
Production
companies
Distributed byUnited Artists Releasing
Release date
  • June 21, 2019 (2019-06-21) (United States)
Running time
90 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10 million[1]
Box office$27.1 million[1][2]

Child's Play is a 2019 American slasher film directed by Lars Klevberg and written by Tyler Burton Smith, serving as a reboot of the 1988 film of the same title. The film stars Gabriel Bateman, Aubrey Plaza and Brian Tyree Henry, with Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky, following a family that is terrorized by a high-tech doll that rejects its programming, becoming self-aware and murderous.

The film was officially announced in July 2018, and is the first film featuring Chucky produced without the involvement of creator Don Mancini or actor Brad Dourif. Klevberg and Smith signed on as director and screenwriter, respectively, alongside It producers Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg.

The film was theatrically released in the United States on June 21, 2019, by Orion Pictures through the United Artists Releasing joint-venture, marking the first Child's Play film since Seed of Chucky not to be produced nor distributed by Universal Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the cast performance, clever kills, and dark humor, but criticized the inconsistent tone, Chucky's design and the puppet effects.[3]

Plot

Multinational Kaslan Corporation has just launched Buddi, a revolutionary line of high-tech dolls. Primarily designed to be life-long companions to their owners by learning from their surroundings and acting accordingly, Buddi dolls can also connect to and operate other Kaslan products, and have quickly become a success for children worldwide. At a Buddi assembly factory in Vietnam, an employee is fired by his supervisor for insufficient work. In retaliation, the employee manipulates the doll that he is assembling by disabling all of its safety protocols, before committing suicide. The doll is packed alongside others in preparation for international delivery.

In Chicago, retail clerk Karen Barclay and her 13-year-old hearing-impaired son Andy have moved into their new apartment, where Karen encourages her son to make new friends while she works to prepare for his upcoming birthday. In an attempt to cheer Andy up and make up for the unease caused by the relocation, as well as the presence of her new boyfriend Shane, Karen blackmails her boss in order to procure a Buddi doll and introduces it to Andy as an early birthday gift. Once Andy activates the doll, it names itself Chucky and becomes attached to Andy. Over time, Chucky helps Andy befriend two other children in the building - Falyn and Pugg - but also begins to display violent tendencies. He strangles the Barclays' hostile pet cat after it scratches Andy, and one night, while Andy and his friends gleefully watch a horror film, Chucky starts mimicking the violence on the screen and approaches the trio with a kitchen knife before Andy disarms him.

Andy arrives home the next day to find that his cat is dead; Chucky admits to murdering it so that it would not hurt him anymore. Karen locks the doll in a closet, but he escapes and terrorizes Shane, which leads Shane to confront Andy. After overhearing Andy's pleas for Shane to disappear, Chucky follows him home, where it is revealed that Shane has a family and has been having an affair with Karen behind his wife's back. While Shane is outside taking down Christmas lights, Chucky frightens him into falling from the ladder and breaking both of his legs, before activating a tiller which scalps and kills him. The following day, Chucky delivers Shane's skinned face as a gift to a horrified Andy.

While police detective Mike Norris begins an investigation, Andy, Falyn and Pugg decide to disable Chucky and dispose of him in the garbage. Building voyeur and electrician Gabe finds the doll and takes him to the building's basement to prepare him for online sale. Now fully repaired, Chucky tortures and murders Gabe with a table saw. After making his way back to ground level, Chucky lands in the possession of another kid in the building named Omar, and proceeds to kill Mike's mother Doreen in a self-controlled car accident. Meanwhile, Andy fails to convince Karen that Chucky has become murderous, and she takes Andy along to her next shift at her shopping mall workplace in order to keep him nearby.

Suspecting that Andy is the killer, Mike travels to the mall and apprehends him just as Chucky takes full control of the building. Chaos is unleashed as several employees and customers are brutally killed by self-controlled Buddi dolls and other hacked toys, while Chucky triggers the mall's lockdown sequence. Mike is wounded amid the massacre, and Andy and his friends manage to reach the exit, only for Andy to be forced to return when Chucky reveals that he is holding Karen hostage with intent to kill her. Andy manages to free his mother while being attacked by Chucky, before overpowering and defeating the doll with help from Karen and Mike. While paramedics tend Karen, Mike and other survivors, Andy and the rest of his friends destroy Chucky's lifeless body in a nearby alleyway.

In the aftermath of Chucky's killing spree, Kaslan Corporation CEO Henry Kaslan issues a statement regarding Chucky's programming. As more Buddi dolls are shown being recalled and placed into storage, one starts malfunctioning inside its box.

Cast

  • Gabriel Bateman as Andy Barclay, Karen's 13-year-old deaf son with a hearing aid who comes into the possession of Chucky, a murderous Buddi doll.
  • Mark Hamill as the voice of Chucky, a once-harmless Buddi doll transformed into a bloodthirsty killing machine after suffering a system failure.
    • Hamill also voices other Buddi dolls seen in the film, and previously voiced the Charles Lee Ray incarnation of Chucky on an episode of Robot Chicken.
  • Aubrey Plaza as Karen Barclay, Andy’s widowed single mother who hardly believes her son that Chucky is responsible for the murders.
  • Brian Tyree Henry as Detective Mike Norris, a detective investigating a mysterious string of murders.
  • Tim Matheson as Henry Kaslan, founder and CEO of Kaslan Corp, the company that manufactures the Buddi dolls.[4]
  • Marlon Kazadi as Omar, a neighbor of Andy and one of his new friends.
  • Beatrice Kitsos as Falyn, one of Andy's new friends
  • Ty Consiglio as Pugg, one of Andy's new friends.
  • David Lewis as Shane, Karen's married boyfriend who is mean and abusive towards Andy because of his deafness.
  • Trent Redekop as Gabe, the voyeurist electrician of the building.
  • Nicole Anthony as Detective Willis, Norris' partner.
  • Carlease Burke as Doreen Norris, Norris' mother and neighbor of the Barclays.

Production

In 2008, Don Mancini and David Kirschner spoke of a reboot, which was originally going to be a "straightforward horror" written and directed by Mancini. Brad Dourif was expected return as the voice of Chucky.[5] In a subsequent interview, Mancini described the remake as a darker and scarier retelling of the original film, but one that, while having new twists and turns, would not stray too far from the original concept.[6] At a 2009 horror convention, Dourif confirmed his role in the remake.[7] The film was canceled after the negative reception of similar remakes such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th.[8]

On July 3, 2018, it was announced that a modern-day version of Child's Play, a reboot, was in development at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with a different creative team than the original film series. Lars Klevberg signed on as director, with a script by Tyler Burton Smith (of Polaroid and Quantum Break fame, respectively). It and It Chapter Two collaborative team Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg will serve as producers.[9][10]

In December 2018, in a guest appearance on the Post Mortem with Mick Garris Podcast, series creator/writer/director Mancini criticized the remake, remarking that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, as rights holder for the original film, can do what they please with the property. When asked if he and fellow producer Kirschner would have any involvement, he said:

We said no thank you, because we have our ongoing thriving business with Chucky. Obviously my feelings were hurt... And I did create the character and nurture the franchise for three [...] decades. So when someone says, Oh yeah, we would love to have your name on the film... it was hard not to feel like I was being patronized. They just wanted our approval. Which I strenuously denied them.[11]

Casting

The same month that the project was announced, Liv Tyler was revealed as having been considered for a role in the film.[12] In September 2018, Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry and Gabriel Bateman joined the cast.[13][14] In November 2018, Ty Consiglio and Beatrice Kitsos joined the cast.[15]

In March 2019, actor Mark Hamill announced that he joined the cast to voice Chucky in the film. Grahame-Smith elaborated on Hamill's casting in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, saying:

We asked, thinking there was no way it would ever happen, and he said, 'Yes.' He was the first choice, a big swing, and it just happened. [...] I mean, first of all, to have an icon reimagining an iconic character is an incredible gift, and to have an actor and a voice performer who is as celebrated as Mark Hamill, and as gifted as he is, I mean it's incredible. He's taking on this challenge with a huge amount of energy and really come at it in a very serious way. And it's really something to watch him create a character, and sort of embody it, and I get to sit there and watch Mark Hamill record. It's just incredible.[16]

Filming

Principal photography began on September 17, and wrapped on November 8, 2018, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[17] Reshoots occurred on December 15-16 and in April 2019.[18][19]

Visual effects

MastersFX, a visual effects company, took six weeks to prepare and assemble seven practical animatronic puppets, each with interchangeable arms and heads that performed a variety of required actions on set.[20] With some help from Pixomondo, who will be providing the CGI for the film.[21]

Music

On April 10, 2019, it was announced that Bear McCreary would be composing the score.[22][23] In a statement, McCreary revealed that he was partially creating the film's music through a "toy orchestra" inspired by "Chucky's toy-store origins" with toy pianos, hurdy-gurdies, accordions, plastic guitars and Otamatones.[24]

Marketing

The first official image of Chucky was released on September 21, 2018.[25] The teaser poster was released on November 12, 2018, revealing that for the film's adaptation the Good Guys dolls will be called Buddi, referencing the My Buddy doll that influenced the character's original design.[26] A WiFi symbol over the "i" in "Buddi" teases the character's hi-tech functions in the film, being similar to robot toys, such as Furby and RoboSapien.[27] Orion Pictures launched a marketing website, for the fictional Kaslan Corp, ahead of the film's release.[28] The first trailer was released on February 8, 2019 to coincide with the release of The Prodigy.[4]

The film's theatrical poster was released on April 17, 2019 and the second trailer on April 18, 2019.[29] On May 16, 2019, a behind-the-scenes video was uploaded to Orion Pictures' YouTube channel, which shows how Chucky was brought to life for the film.[30][31] Since April 2019, several posters parodying the teaser posters for Toy Story 4 were released, featuring Chucky brutally *censored* the characters of the animated franchise. Both films were slated for release on June 21, 2019.[32][33][34][35] On June 24, a new film poster was unveiled to coincide with the release of Annabelle Comes Home.[36]

Release

The film was released in the United States on June 21, 2019.[37][26] It is the first film from Orion Pictures to be released through United Artists Releasing.[38]

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Child's Play was released alongside Toy Story 4 and Anna, and was expected to gross $16–18 million from 3,007 theaters in its opening weekend.[39] It made $6.1 million on its first day, including $1.65 million from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $14.1 million, marking the best start of the franchise and finishing second behind Toy Story 4.[40]

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 60% based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 5.74/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Child's Play updates an '80s horror icon for the Internet of Things era, with predictably gruesome – and generally entertaining – results."[41] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[42] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, the lowest score of the series.[40]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, writing: "MIA is the original’s perverse originality. Instead, in a misguided satire of the digital era and millennial consumerism..."[43] Variety's Peter Debruge wrote that "This is the new normal for horror movies: The screenplays have to seem hipper than the premise they represent, which puts Child's Play in the weird position of pointing out and poking fun at all the ways it fails to make sense."[44]

Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com gave the film three out of four stars, calling it "nastier, more playful, and just as good if not better than the original film."[45]

Future

At WonderCon, Grahame-Smith said that if the film was successful, he'd be open to making a sequel.[46]

References

  1. ^ a b "Child's Play (2019)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved June 29, 2019.
  2. ^ "Child's Play (2019)". The Numbers. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  3. ^ Fujitani, Ryan (June 20, 2019). "Toy Story 4 is Certified Fresh". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  4. ^ a b "New Child's Play Clip Promises that Buddi is 'More Than a Toy... He's Your Best Friend'". Syfy. Retrieved February 4, 2019.
  5. ^ "Quint chats up Don Mancini, David Kirschner and Michelle Gold about the CHILD'S PLAY REMAKE and the new DVD!!!". Ain't It Cool News. August 19, 2008. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
  6. ^ "Child's PlayMancini&Kirschner". ShockTillYouDrop.com. CraveOnline Media. September 8, 2008. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved October 11, 2009. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |dead-url= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "MGM Gets Rolling On A 'Child's Play' Remake". 25 March 2011. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  8. ^ "Chucky Creator Explains Why Universal Cancelled Their Child's Play Remake". 16 October 2018. Retrieved 16 October 2018.
  9. ^ Kit, Borys (July 3, 2018). "'Child's Play' Remake in the Works With 'Polaroid' Director". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  10. ^ Sneider, Jeff (July 3, 2018). "'Child's Play' Reboot In the Works at MGM From 'It' Producers". collider.com. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  11. ^ http://podbay.fm/show/1204949508/e/1543996800?autostart=1
  12. ^ Burks, Robin (July 26, 2018). "Child's Play Remake Reportedly Eyeing Liv Tyler For Lead Role". screenrant.com. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  13. ^ Sneider, Jeff (September 19, 2018). "Exclusive: Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry in Talks to Star in 'Child's Play' Reboot". collider.com. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  14. ^ N'Duka, Amanda (September 20, 2018). "Gabriel Bateman To Star As Andy In MGM's 'Child's Play' Remake, Joining Aubrey Plaza & Brian Tyree Henry". deadline.com. Retrieved October 4, 2018.
  15. ^ "Beatrice Kitsos & Ty Consiglio Join MGM's Child's Play Reboot". ComingSoon.net. 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2018-11-13.
  16. ^ Collins, Clark (March 31, 2019). "Mark Hamill was 'first choice' to voice Chucky in Child's Play remake". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  17. ^ Gittins, Susan (November 9, 2018). "BIG MOVIE: Lars Klevberg's CHILD'S PLAY Reboot Wraps Filming in Vancouver". hollywoodnorth.buzz. Retrieved April 14, 2019.[permanent dead link‍]
  18. ^ Gittins, Susan (December 13, 2018). "RESHOOTS: Lars Klevberg's CHILD'S PLAY Back For Reshoots in Vancouver on December 15th & 16th". hollywoodnorth.buzz. Retrieved April 14, 2019.[permanent dead link‍]
  19. ^ "Gabriel Michael Bateman on Instagram: "It's been a solid week.💚 #childsplay"". Instagram.
  20. ^ Collis, 2018, Clark (December 19, 2018). "'Child's Play' remake teased with behind-the-scenes photo of new Chucky". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved February 14, 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^ "CHILD'S PLAY - The Art of VFX". www.artofvfx.com. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  22. ^ Bear McCreary [@bearmccreary] (10 April 2019). "A sneak peek inside the lab, where I'm creating my latest musical monstrosity. Coming to theaters this June. #YourBestFriend" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  23. ^ Child's Play Movie [@ChildsPlayMovie] (10 April 2019). "Chucky has a new best friend. The award-winning composer of #TheWalkingDead and #GodofWar, @BearMcCreary is the official composer of Child's Play! Catch this sneak peek of the terrifying score, and don't miss #ChildsPlayMovie in theaters June 21st. 🔪" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  24. ^ Evangelista, Chris (April 10, 2019). "'Child's Play' Remake Score Will Be Composed by Bear McCreary Using a 'Toy Orchestra'". /Film. Retrieved April 1, 2019.
  25. ^ Collis, Clark (September 21, 2018). "See the first look photo of new Chucky in Child's Play remake". ew.com. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  26. ^ a b "Child's Play Reboot Gets Summer 2019 Release Date & Poster". Screenrant.com. 2018-11-12. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
  27. ^ Santangelo, Nick (2018-11-12). "Child's Play: New Poster, Release Date Revealed for Chucky Reboot". IGN. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
  28. ^ "Child's Play Reboot Website Gives Chucky Some Modern Upgrades". Cbr.com. 2018-11-26. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
  29. ^ Movie, Child's Play (April 16, 2019). "Meet the new CHUCKY. Full trailer coming Thursday. #ChildsPlayMovie pic.twitter.com/m2Jivm3FxW".
  30. ^ "CHILD'S PLAY - Behind the Scenes: "Bringing Chucky to Life"". YouTube. Orion Pictures. May 16, 2019. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  31. ^ Christopher Fiduccia (May 18, 2019). "Child's Play BTS Video Shows How the New Chucky Was Created". ScreenRant. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  32. ^ John Squires (April 30, 2019). "New 'Child's Play' Poster Has a Little Fun With the Shared 'Toy Story 4' Release Date". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  33. ^ Kathleen Joyce (May 1, 2019). "New 'Child's Play' poster trolls upcoming 'Toy Story 4' movie". Fox News. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  34. ^ Ale Russian (May 1, 2019). "Child's Play Trolls Toy Story 4 with Bloody New Poster". People. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  35. ^ Clark Collis (May 21, 2019). "Chucky barbecues a beloved Toy Story character in new Child's Play image". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  36. ^ Squires, John (June 24, 2019). "Doll Wars: New 'Child's Play' Poster Takes a Stab at 'Annabelle Comes Home'". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  37. ^ "Child's Play teaser: 'I think Chucky did something...'". FULLINFORMATION. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
  38. ^ Ellingson, Annlee (February 5, 2019). "MGM, Annapurna revive United Artists for joint distribution venture". L.A. Biz. American City Business Journals. Retrieved February 14, 2019.
  39. ^ Anthony D'Alessandro; Nancy Tartaglione (June 18, 2019). "'Toy Story 4' Will Cure Summer Sequelitis With $260M Global Infinity-And-Beyond Bow". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  40. ^ a b Anthony D'Alessandro (June 23, 2019). "'Toy Story 4' Eyeing 3rd Best Animated Pic Opening Of All-Time With $123M+, But Did Disney Leave Money On The Table?". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  41. ^ "Child's Play (2019)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved June 25, 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  42. ^ "Child's Play (2019) Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 25, 2019.
  43. ^ Travers, Peter (June 21, 2019). "'Child's Play': Even Aubrey Plaza Can't Save This Botched Reboot". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  44. ^ Debruge, Peter (June 20, 2019). "Film Review: 'Child's Play'". Variety. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  45. ^ Allen, Nick (June 20, 2019). "Child's Play Movie Review & Film Summary (2019)". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  46. ^ Konopka, Matt (April 1, 2019). "[WonderCon 2019] 'Child's Play' Panel Opens the Toy Chest with Big Reveals and Some Intriguing New Questions".
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