United Artists was bought by a new company that only wanted to do family friendly films and let's face it, as much of a friend as Chucky is to us, he's not family friendly. Therefore Universal bought the rights to the franchise and Child's Play 2 was born.
As always we begin with the trailer. I think the trailer is stunning. It's just a truly amazing ad campaign for the film. The poster is breathtaking too with Chucky holding a pair of scissors about to cut off the head of Jack in the Jack in the Box. The tagline is one for the ages: Sorry Jack...Chucky's back! As great of an ad campaign as it is unfortunately I don't think it resembles the film well at all. The sequel is much darker tonally. There are less characters you like and root for. Chucky's motive behind killing is a little more blurred in the sequel. It's not nearly as fun of a ride as the ad campaigns claim it to be. It's much more grim than fun to watch.
The first question of any horror sequel is how do they bring the monster back to life? The toy company who got a bad rep after the rumors of Chucky surfaced got their hands on the burned to a crisp remains of Chucky and in the process of rebuilding the doll when the eyes are placed it, it comes back to life rejuvenating Chucky. It's clever but a little bit confusing.
Really the only sequence that I absolutely love in this film is from the moment that Kyle recognizes the buried Tommy doll to the end. By that point in time it keeps moving as fast as a freight train and never lets up. The ending set piece in the toy factory is a stunning sequence for the film and has one of the more brutal Chucky death scenes. A guy gets stuck in the conveyor belt and has doll eyes pluck out his own eyes killing him...ouch!
Kevin's animatronics are even sharper giving Chucky more impressive facial movements.
Brad Dourif again knocks it out of the park with his powerful voice. Chucky gets a few more one liners this time around, but overall the tone is much darker.
Besides that there's really not much else to praise in this movie. Alex is ok, but you can sorta tell he's over Chucky by now. His performance just isn't as fresh or as exciting as it was in the first movie. My biggest complaint is that apart from Andy in the first 2/3 of the movie there's nobody to connect with, nobody to root for and this is a major problem. It's just not fun to watch as people consistently beat up on Andy. As an audience member I felt very protective of Andy and powerless and uncomfortable while throughout the majority of this film he's all alone. It would be different if he was no longer a child, but that's what the first film got right: have your protagonist who's constantly in peril be an adult. It's uncomfortable when it's a child.
The death scenes this time round in some ways are a lot harsher but lack the charm and staying power of the originals. Both John Lafia and the wonderful Don Mancini returned as well as the ever present David Kershner, but I think the sequel proves that the true mastermind behind the original film was Tom Holland. It does get fun by the end, but it takes a while to get out of the stage of uncomfort and I know it's a horror film and it should make you uncomfortable, but the advertising said it was supposed to be fun and it just wasn't.
Child's Play 2 premiered on November 9, 1990. On a budget of $13 million, the movie grossed $35,763,605 worldwide, a hefty profit for a sequel especially at a time when the genre was considered dead. I don't think the film is as strong as people claim it to be, but without the success of this film, we wouldn't have the franchise and for that I tip my hat off to it in gratitude. How soon would Chucky return and would the success keep up...well, we'll discuss that next time...
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