Shout’s Collector’s Edition of Child’s Play might not be a homerun compared with their other CE’s, but it’s still a nice release with an improved video transfer, solid lossless audio and a nice selection of bonus features including a new commentary with Tom Holland and a couple nice featurettes.
Child’s Play
— Collector’s Edition —
(1988)
Genre(s): Horror, Supernatural
Shout Factory | R – 87 min. – $29.99 | October 18, 2016
Date Published: 10/01/2016 | Author: The Movieman & Brad Lowenberg
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THE MOVIE — 3.5/5 |
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Before Chucky was making erection jokes and worrying about having a ‘confused’ son, he was killing people. Child’s Plat is not a good movie per se and yet it’s a lot of fun even all these years later. Note: This portion of the review was written back in 2009 but my thoughts reflect this opinion…
During a brawl with the police, Charles Lee Ray (BRAD DOURIF) is shot and is on his last few breaths of life. He makes a quick decision to spout-off a voodoo curse that will put him in the object he is touching, which just so happens to be a Child’s Play doll. The scene cuts to a young boy (ALEX VINCENT) who begs his mom (CATHERINE HICKS) for one for his birthday. Since they are expensive she passes… but soon finds an opportunity to score one from a peddler for only $30. Little Andy is thrilled to finally have a friend but soon things to start to happen that causes people to think the doll just might be alive. Alright, the plot is thin. A human being trapped in a doll is nothing new but Brad Dourif really brings the character of Chucky to life. His voice fits perfectly and he generally seems like he enjoyed the (mostly) off-screen roll. The same can’t be said for the rest of the cast. Andy, who is in the movie the most, has that annoying young kid sing-songy voice where after a few minutes you just wish Chucky would off him. The special effects are… interesting. A good chunk of the film is shown through Chucky’s point of view, so anytime he has to use his hands it’s pretty clear it’s not a doll. Same goes with anytime Chucky walks. Given the time period the film was made, it’s a given you won’t see a CGI Chucky (thankfully).
It seems like a pretty big part of my generation never even saw the first Child’s Play and only knows Chucky from his newer films like Bride of Chuck, Seed of Chuck or the most recent entry, Curse of Chucky. In those, much like Freddy Krueger from the Nightmare on Elm Street series, he was a bit more comedic and made too many jokes. He was not really a ‘killer’ but more or less just a guy trapped in a doll who make a few wise-ass remarks before slitting your throat. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 4.25/5 |
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This 2-disc set is housed in a standard Blu-ray case and has a matted slip cover. The inner cover is reversible revealing the original poster artwork. Disc 1:
There’s a nice variety here including a new one for this release by Holland moderated by Nathaniel Thompson (from Mondo Digital) while the others offer their own perspective be it the actors or behind the camera. The Chucky one is more of a novelty however and feature too many blank spots. Disc 2: Howard Berger: Your Special Effects Friend ‘Till the End (40:53; 1080p) is a new interview with Berger as he discusses his work on Child’s Play. Life Behind the Mask: Being Chucky (40:02; 1080p) is another new interview, this time with actor and little person Ed Gale. Featurettes: Chucky: Building a Nightmare (10:05; 1080i) takes us behind the scenes on the creation/design of the demonic doll. A Monster Convention (5:26; 1080i) is footage at the 2007 convention attended by the cast including Alex Vincent, Catherine Hicks and Chris Sarandon. Introducing Chucky: The Making of Child’s Play (6:15; 1080i) and Vintage Featurette (4:54; 1080p) are old and basic EPK-like featurettes that offers very little valuable information and served mainly to advertise the film. More Child’s Play contains a TV Spot (0:17; HD), Theatrical Trailer (2:02; HD), Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery and Posters & Lobby Cards Photo Gallery. |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| This release of Child’s Play comes to Blu-ray courtesy of Shout via their Scream Factory line and is presented in its original 1.85 widescreen aspect ratio and given a new 1080p high-definition transfer from a new 2K scan of the interpositive. I quickly brought out the disc from the Chucky collection to compare and I could see an immediate difference. This new transfer is a lot cleaner and smoother with some mild noise which only added to the great detail versus the MGM release which was a tad rougher in spots. Colors in this one looked nice and well balanced and there weren’t any major instances of dust marks or other flaws. |
AUDIO – 4.0/5 |
| The disc comes with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and I assume this was the original one from the MGM release but when I compared it to the MGM version, I found this one to be slightly lacking especially with the depth, notably in the two explosion scenes where the LFE channel was concerned. However, the one included here still sounds good with crisp and clear dialogue levels and no discernible crackles or hisses. |
OVERALL – 3.75/5 |
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Overall, Shout’s Collector’s Edition of Child’s Play might not be a homerun compared with their other CE’s, but it’s still a nice release with an improved video transfer, solid lossless audio and a nice selection of bonus features including a new commentary with Tom Holland and a couple nice featurettes. |
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.
This is a nice review of a fun film. I have just discovered this website but it seems like a charming one to me.