The craziest thing about Child's Play 3 is how quickly the movie came out since the previous entry. There were only 9 months between the release of 2 and 3. Don Mancinin the writer throughout the series has previously stated that this is his least favorite film in the franchise and he say that has to do with he ran out of ideas being asked to write 3 while 2 was in post. A lot of fans despise this film. While 2 and Bride were released on DVD in 1999, 3 did not get a DVD release until 2003. With all of that hatred out of the way, let's take a look at Child's Play 3.
As always we begin with the trailer. In comparison to 2's ingenious although sort of false advertising, the trailer for 3 is in turn extremely disappointing. There is nothing extremely memorable about it except for ending the trailer with "Don't **** with the Chuck!" That's definitely a note that leaves with a punch, but it wasn't enough to get audiences back into theaters so soon after 2. The tagline: There comes a time to put away childhood things. But some things won't stay put! I mean...it sells the movie enough. Again it's not anything memorable after the brilliant tagline for 2. The poster this time round is also disappointing. It's just a one sheet of a painted Chucky face. We can't even see Chucky's red hair.
As far as the film itself...well, let's get the bad out of the way first. Don in a recent interview pointed this out and he is spot on. The film suffers from 2 casting issues. The kid who plays Tyler while a fine enough actor is way way way too old for the part to be believable. The Colonel is also too old and too soft for the part. He's comes across as too nice for the way the dialogue was written.
Most of the death scenes are pretty forgettable too. The death of the tailor is memorable and one other I'll mention a little later, but other than that, it's just kinda blah.
Now, here's the deal, with such forgettable deaths and some casting issues, you probably think I hate this film and will destroy it. You'd be wrong. I actually find that this film plays a lot better than Child's Play 2. Whereas 2 only had one likeable character throughout and even then it was just plain depressing watching him get beat up for 2/3 of the movie, 3 has at least four likeable characters in the movie. I genuinely care more about what happens to other people than Andy this time round and that's a hard feat for a second second sequel. Having Andy be older helped quite a bit. I like Tyler, his innocence is charming and you want to be protective of him. I still think the actor was too old, but the character is at least appealing. Whitehurst is really appealing because I felt the most like him. The nerdy guy who got picked on. I wasn't nearly as picked on as he was in the movie though. He just gets told throughout that he's the sorriest excuse for a soldier, however when danger comes, he's the only one who acts like a real soldier. He died a hero losing his life to people that constantly tore him down and beat him up...sound familiar? Yep, Whitehurst is the Christ figure in this series. Except unlike Jesus, Whitehurst doesn't resurrect, but the self sacrificial nature is there. The love interest De Silva is also likeable considering that she is protective of Whitehurst and in turn of Andy.
Here's the deal. The story in this one is stronger overall because we care about these people and it means something to us when they are in peril. I know I'm in the minority on this one, but I don't care. I genuinely believe that 3 is a better film than 2.
Jack Bender was the director this time around. He did an adequate job, but he did have some odd, questionable choices. He's done well for himself though having directed a ton of LOST episodes including the series finale.
Brad is as always amazing, engaging, etc... Words can't express how immersive his performance is for an audience. The puppetry gets increasingly better each time as well.
Before the final run down, I have to say that having Chucky's face slice off was so shocking to me the first time I saw it. I know Chucky's stitched look more than his solo movie look at that time and I thought there was no way they would explain why he was stitched up, but having a piece of his face slice off and thrown into a giant fan does justify the decision.
Child's Play 3 premiered on August 30, 1991. On a budget of $13 million, the film only grossed $20,560,255 worldwide. Child's Play 3 suffered primarily from too much too soon. I think the idea of a killer doll is too ludicrous to hold a wide audience for multiple entries and that's the problem they ran into. But how would the series continue after the disappointing reception to 3, and how would they address the increasing absurdity of the killer doll concept, well...we'll discuss that next time.
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