Recap: Directed by Lars Klevberg from a screenplay by Tyler Burton Smith, Child’s Play is a remake of the 1988 film of the same name.
Orion Pictures has delivered a second trailer for the horror remake.
Toruk's TakeI believe it was at this point in the trailer…
where my confidence in the films ability to stick the landing waned.
In the era of Stranger Things and the remake of Stephen King’s IT bands of children taking on the big bad are a familiar trope. But one must take caution not to break the tenants of Hero Theory lest you render your ‘horror’ as toothless as Granny before bedtime.
A group of teenagers whaling on a 2 foot doll with bats and sledgehammers is just the kind of visual to do just that. Unless, you plan on offsetting this disparity by having Chucky retaliate with swirling knives in a display of Yoda-like athleticism…which leads you down a different alley of absurdity.
Perhaps I’m being too harsh. Even the original realized that sustaining pure horror with this premise would be an almost insurmountable objective and decided to tap in early to the jocular nature (and predicament) of the antagonist. It worked for the sequels, it worked for the Nightmare on Elm Street films.
In the end, I suppose we just have to accept that some horror concepts simply can’t survive as horror concepts for very long.
Child’s Play starring Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, Brian Tyree Henry and Tim Matheson slashes into theaters June 21, 2019.
