Spoiler free (we promise)

The Child’s Play remake had a lot working against it from the get go. One of the premier horror series since it’s inception, it’s still going strong 30+ years with a rabidly loyal fan base. It’s unusual for ANY series of films to carry on in its original continuity for so long, let alone a horror franchise. It’s even rarer for said sequels to be as high quality as they have been. So when a remake was announced to update the original for modern audiences, with no input of the original series creator Don Mancini or the iconic voice of OG Chucky, Brad Dourif, fans were understandably skeptical - myself included.

With each new bit of information released - trailers, promotional images, etc. - the outrage machine seemed to grow exponentially. But I, a lifetime die-hard fan of the series am happy to report that we had nothing to worry about. Of course this movie will not be for everyone, but I walked out of this movie more than satisfied with what I had seen. Hell, I wouldn’t even be upset if we got a sequel to this reboot at sometime, even if that’s unlikely to happen no matter how badly I wish it to be true (I’m looking at you, Evil Dead 2013).

Are we having fun now?

I’ll try to keep this review as spoiler free as I can, as I really do want you all to go see it and be as pleasantly surprised as I was. In the first 5 minutes we are introduced to Kaslan Corp, a giant, Amazon-like corporation that owns practically everything - from self driving cars, to every smart home accessory you could possibly imagine. Enter their new Buddi doll; your family’s new best friend who is capable of not only being a creepy 21st century Teddy Ruxpin, but controlling all of their smart devices much the way Alexa or Google Home’s do in the real world.

That set up leads me to the main difference here between the original movie, and this new reboot. In this new film, we aren’t dealing with voodoo or the souls of serial killers. Child’s Play ‘19 is all about the dangers of artificial intelligence, and what can happen when Good Guys go bad (wink wink). I’ve been hearing a lot of people comparing this movie to Black Mirror due to the story being a cautionary tale about technology, but I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. Mainly because I never at any point felt like recreating that scene from Ace Ventura after watching it…you know the one.

This new Child’s Play really does deliver on some laughs and has an abundance of charm that if watched with an open mind, will win a lot of people over. It did a nice job at blending together the tone of newer, kid-driven horror offerings (IT, Stranger Things) and the original trio of Child’s Play movies. The humor is particularly dark, and tends to avoid the slapstick nature of entries like Bride and Seed, which provides a nice balance of tension and chuckles. This movie also managed to give me the feels at some points too, for Chucky believe it or not. The writers did a great job in making the killer doll innocent at points, where I found myself feeling way more empathetic than I should have. Buddi’s sole job is to make Andy happy, and the little guy is just doing his best to make that happen. When he kills a cat, I actually end up feeling bad for the doll and not the murdered feline…now THAT’S character development.

I think the one big take away I had about this movie though, was really that it stood apart from the original series, as it should have. Unlike so many remakes & reboots that came before it, Child’s Play doesn’t feel like it’s just copy and pasting from the source material. This movie genuinely felt like someone took inspiration from and was a fan of the original series, and then really carefully mapped out how one of these movies would need to play in front of a modern audience. While it would’ve been much easier to go the Xerox route, I appreciate the extra love and care that was put into this film, and genuinely think it’s worth your time.