Synopsis
Something's moved in with the Barclay family, and so has terror.
A single mother gives her son a beloved doll for his birthday, only to discover that it is possessed by the soul of a serial killer.
1988 Directed by Tom Holland
A single mother gives her son a beloved doll for his birthday, only to discover that it is possessed by the soul of a serial killer.
Catherine Hicks Chris Sarandon Alex Vincent Brad Dourif Dinah Manoff Tommy Swerdlow Jack Colvin Neil Giuntoli Juan Ramírez Alan Wilder Richard Baird Ray Oliver Aaron Osborne Tyler Hard Ted Liss Roslyn Alexander Bo Kane Leila Lee Olsen Lena Sack Tommy Gerard Michael Chavez Jamie Gray Erin Munz Jana Twomey Suaundra Black Edan Gross John Franklin Michael Patrick Carter
Chucky I, Jeu d'enfant, Die Mörder-Puppe, Detská hra, Chucky I : Jeu d'enfant, Chucky 1 - Die Mörderpuppe, Chucky 1, De Pop, Chucky 1 - Jeux D'Enfant, Дитяча гра, Barneleg 1, Muñeco Diabólico
Not a day in my childhood life was I not terrified of this orange haired little bitch.
84
Chucky has long been solidified as the wise-cracking fuck boi of the slasher subgenre, but many forget that in his initial outing, it really wasn't about anything more than the occult and little white lies. Just ingenious conceptual horror. It's not your kid killing people. Nope. The doll is alive, possessed by a 'strangler.' Talk about a sharp, lucid runaway idea. And the entire cast and crew sprint away with it, not to mention the Chicago setting which DP Bill Butler freezes up with frost and winter chill. Note the prominence of the television set, both in the living room and the mom's bedroom. Advertising, volatile and vicious, even before the product springs to life. It has a great kicker, too, in the form of the unused batteries falling out of Chucky's box packaging. That's scary shit, emphasized by the dramatic steadicam rigs and the terrifying puppetry and model work. Overall, a classic slasher.
YOU STUPID BITCH, YOU FILTHY SLUT ARGHHH. I'LL TEACH YOU TO FUCK WITH ME!!
- Chucky, 1988
Apparently in an earlier draft of this it was left ambiguous if Chucky was alive or if it was the kid doing it. Honestly that sounds like a scarier movie but then you don't get Brad Dourif shouting "batter up!" and hitting a child in the back of the head with a wooden baseball bat. So ultimately I think they made the right decision.
as an only child that made my single mom buy me all kinds of dumb shit she couldn't afford this is much scarier to me beyond text. how is children's advertising legal? anyway the POV imagery and physical movements of the doll that yells "slut" and brutally murders people are pretty stellar. what else are you looking for?
its funny how long they try to play the “is chucky alive or is this kid just cuckoo?” game when the first scene of the movie is literally brad dourif doing a voodoo spell to become a toy
This is the film that cemented what my nightmares were like as a child. I can't tell you how many times I caught this on cable (behind my parents' backs) and how much it fucked with me each time I did because of the redheaded doll I'd had when I was younger that had since been stored up in the attic.
When I finally did see the unedited for TV version at ten or eleven (rented from our local mom and pop video store without my parents knowledge, naturally) and heard Chucky utter the line, "YOU STUPID BITCH, YOU FILTHY SLUT ARGHHH!! I'LL TEACH YOU TO FUCK WITH ME!!", my nightmares began to transcend time and space. I went and…