Just How Scary Is the Child's Play Remake? Let's Break It Down

In both films, Chucky is the name of a Buddi Doll that can speak and eventually takes on a life of its own, but in terms of their physical appearances, they do differ. The original, voiced by Dourif, looks more like a small human man, as opposed to an actual doll. And it works! As cheesy as it can be, the OG Chucky's maniacal facial expressions are downright chilling.

As for 2019 Chucky, the production designers clearly wanted him to look more like a toy, making his facial expressions and overall movements more stilted and mechanical. He can still move quickly and stab someone with precision, but it looks more like a robot come to life as opposed to a serial killer taking over the body of a child's toy. For me, this was less chilling than the original, but only by a hair. Watching the new Chucky force his slowly moving facial muscles into a snarl is funny until, suddenly, it's terrifying.

You could say the modern-day Chucky is still possessed, but not by a serial killer. Rather than being controlled by the evil spirit of a murderer, the new doll is WiFi capable, which means he operates using artificial intelligence. His descent into evil is triggered by a Buddi Doll sweatshop worker in Vietnam, who, fed up with the abuse he suffers from his boss, decides to f*ck with the code that powers the doll he's working on.

He removes all of the safety restrictions from the doll — which prevent him from cursing, using violence, and learning to the extent that Chucky eventually does — then climbs up to the warehouse roof and kills himself. That doesn't stop the malfunctioning doll from being packaged and shipped out, however, which is how he ends up at the same Zed Mart where Karen Barclay (Aubrey Plaza) works. She then gifts the doll to her son, Andy (Gabriel Bateman), which begins the movie's bloody saga.

Even though this version of the character isn't possessed by a killer, the new story has some interesting elements that will likely leave modern audiences feeling panicky — who doesn't have some sort of Amazon device in their home? If you have a Google lock, for instance, Chucky can get in. If you have a smart TV, he can spy on you. The film also makes pains to explain that Chucky isn't programmed to be murderous — his behaviour is learned.

Let's just get this out of the way right now: Child's Play only has three major deaths, but two of them are highly disgusting if you're gore-averse. You'll be forced to see someone's skull blended to bits by a lawn mower, some fractured tibia bones shooting out of a person's legs, and another guy's legs getting graphically sawed off. Among other very, very stabby scenes.

The Child's Play remake stars Aubrey Plaza — of course it's funny. The Parks and Recreation actress's one-liners to her onscreen son drip with sarcasm, and overall they have a pretty funny dynamic despite her essentially being the "straight man" in the film. Brian Tyree Henry, who plays a detective whose mother lives down the hall from Andy and Karen, also gets to show off his comedic chops. Trust me when I say you'll need the laughs to balance out seeing a man's face carved off and nailed to a watermelon.

I'll go out on a limb and say: sort of! The film definitely leans more into humour the way recent horror flicks like the Halloween reboot and Mom and Dad do. It's not a straight-up slasher, but it's also not a full-blown horror-comedy; instead, it lands somewhere in between. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Child's Play is a thoroughly campy, entertaining gore-fest that makes enough updates to the original to stand on its own merits despite its tendency to veer into silly, frivolous territory. The film is also buoyed by some strong performances by Plaza, Henry, and Bateman, who do the best they can to ground the truly batsh*t-crazy premise they're working with.