Child's Play (2019)
More than a toy... he's your best friend.
I do a lot of remakes. It’s not really a revelation or anything, and I’m sure I do them for similar reasons to a lot of people that go and watch remakes - they are interested in seeing what’s all different. Is it better? Will nostalgia have to carry it? Did they make any sensible changes to update it to the modern time? Is it just an easy cash grab that’s going to be horrible in every way? Sometimes it should be so easy to make a decent modern adaptation that you could consider it Child’s Play.
I’ll be honest, the biggest change to this is something I noticed in the trailer that initially lowered my interest in the first place. See, the original was very supernatural - killers possessing dolls and whatnot. From the trailer though, I gathered that was abandoned and we would be approaching it from a very lukewarm “machines rising” sort of techno-horror that seems to be more in tune with modern people over all that “hocus pocus” nonsense. After watching the movie, I can say that my trailer-based assumption wasn’t wrong. A disgruntled employee whose getting ragged on by his boss decides to turn off the safety limiters and insert some custom code into the Buddi doll he’s working on, before committing suicide by jumping out a window. Don’t worry, this suicide part isn’t relevant to the plot at all, it’s just thrown in there to show how disgruntled he was (and probably try to reference the original supernatural death-soul transfer stuff, despite no souls being transferred here). A mom takes home a returned doll from her work to give it to her son, whose having a hard time adjusting to the move. All is great at first - until things go a bit haywire and the doll start showing a bit of a murderous streak. Will anyone figure it out before best buds forever gets cut a little short?
As indicated before, I’m saddened by the loss of the supernatural element. I get movie-voodoo and serial killing ghosts might not be the most believable or widely accepted thing, but it’s my jam so I feel a bit of a loss because of it. That said, they do use the technology angle to play around a bit - things such as smart homes and wifi connections come into play by the end of it. Really, if it’s something you’d expect to be in a horror movie about the modern age of technology and people being afraid of it, it’s probably in there. A seeming AI that goes out of control and murders people in the name of friendship? Check. Technology abusing the interconnect nature to get a drop on people? Check. Recording everything you say or it’s little camera eyes see? Yep. Are you afraid of your devices getting hacked and being out of your control? Then this movie will probably terrify you! Expect every single thing I said because the techno-angle? I wouldn’t expect to be all that terrified at all.
Actors do a pretty decent job here. I mean, there’s no real out-of-the-park performances, and you’ll most likely find at least one to be a bit awkward, but I’m also not entirely sure how much of that is the character is intended to be that way and how much is acting. If it’s intended to be that way, which I’m sure it is, then they are doing a wonderful job. There’s also a good number of kids in this one, and they do a pretty fine job. There isn’t too many moments where the acting feels a bit overblown, although a few do exist. There's some comedy in there, whether you laugh at it or not is a different story (I wasn’t exactly chuckling my butt off over it). The interactions with the doll all come off as well done. I’ll be honest, it would have been incredibly easy for the movie to come off super-cheesy and budget, but it manages to reign all that in and come off as a legitimate attempt to make a believable movie. A believable movie that has some pretty stupid choices made by some of the humans, but that’s nothing new for horror.
The end of the world comes by the hands of a Ginger doll.
So how are the horror elements? The kills, the chills, the looming doom? Well, it’s alright. There’s a few moments that are pretty brutal - the most flinch worthy probably being some broken legs - and there’s some that could be pretty gross - like a skinless face crime scene - so that much is probably pretty good for those wanting that. The kill count isn’t exactly huge until you get to the final act (and things just go batty) - perhaps three people and a cat. The cat gets it off screen, but the rest they try to add some variety with, and they do draw them out a bit as well so it’s not just a quick setup and a quick cut-away kill. As for the scares, those aren’t as effective. There’s a jump scare or two played for laughs, and the final act tries to add a little tension with a damsel in distress style scenario, but it’s largely less about shown nightmares and more about just making you afraid of technology - which at this point I don’t feel the premise really holds as much fuel for nightmares as it once used to.
Effects wise things are pretty good. Something about the dolls face I don’t like, but I don’t think it’s poor effects as much as the design of the face. Most every shot looks good, even the violent ones. There’s perhaps a shot or two that lacks a bit of niceness in the polish, like the final jump scare, but it’s not really a problem in most places. The dolls eyes have an interesting little digital effect, as though the eyes are actually screens, and overall the movement of the doll - which is by far the biggest part of the effects - comes off quite well done. I want to say there isn’t anything too graphic as far as death scenes go, but that’s really only if it’s compared to something like a zombie flick where people are going around eating animal parts - you get some dismemberment, some aftermath, and some kung-fu movie style arterial sprays.
Audio department is balanced pretty decent, and I didn’t really have any issues hearing things. Music isn’t sticking around with me at all, although I’m sure it does it’s job in adding to the mood. The only real exception to this would be the Buddi theme song, which is about as corny as a kids toy would be. Effects come off sounding good, with various elements ringing quite well with what they should be. Audio is also where you get some reference back to the old stuff - including stuff that’s not particularly it, like a random Robocop audio clip. Most the actor line deliveries are all good as far as audio goes too, and it’s pretty solid on to what you’d expect for most the moments lines are being spoken.
Time to play.
It’s not as bad as it could have been, but it’s also perhaps a very situational horror flick. There’s isn’t much for scares to be had here unless the “evil technology” angle hasn’t been run into the ground and resonates for you specifically. It works fine as a slasher, although the body count is a bit sparse for the slasher-specific audience. It’s put together pretty well and doesn’t feel too much like it drags - it’s more like a drama that turns into a techno-horror movie. If you like the older Child’s Play movies, this one’s certainly a bit different but does hold a few similarities to the original one, so if you really like the original one you could probably enjoy this one despite the loss of the supernatural.