Child's Play 2 1990

Dir: John Lafia
St: Brad Dourif;  Alex Vincent;  Christine Elise; Jenny Agutter

At the end of the first film Chucky, the evil killer doll, was somewhat...charred. As the sequel opens we see the doll being refurbished.  Apparently the toy company wants to find the cause of the reported 'malfunction'.

The first death happens almost immediately and tells us what sort of film we can expect. It's ridiculous and cartoonish with no sense of horror whatsoever. I doubt anyone over the age of 12 would even blink. But it does signify that Chucky is back.

His little friend Andy Barclay is in foster care after his mum was sectioned for raving about a killer doll. Now Chucky needs to track him down to avoid being trapped in his plastic form forever. He escapes the factory when a toy exec throws him in the boot of his car. He repeatedly slams the door on the doll's head and we think 'uh oh,he's not going to like that!'.

There is no mystery in this film. Chucky is facially and physically mobile from the start and wise cracking all the way. Unfortunately this means the film is less scary than the first and lacks suspense in the beginning but tension is still created by Chucky's relentless stalking.

Andy (still cute) is staying with a sweet little family who have no idea what they are getting into when they take Andy into their home. Chucky quickly manages to infiltrate the house by taking the place of another Good Guy doll (is there a word for doll murder? Plasticide perhaps?).

Of course Andy's foster parents don't heed his warnings about Chucky and they both meet a nasty end. There are a couple of nice hints early in the film to potential grisly murder weapons. One is a brutal looking machine in the toy factory and the other is an old fashioned sewing machine which we fear could be used to horrible effect.

People seem to die in really schlocky ways, with bug eyes and mouths agape - neither scary nor gruesome. In parts the film actually seems more parody than sequel. Still I cannot deny how messed up Chucky can look. His expression is feral, brutal and inhuman.An actors face can only move in certain ways but with a doll the features can be distorted to monstrous proportions.

Andy's foster sister, Kyle, doesn't seem too phased by a knife wielding devil-doll and I had to wonder if she was a sassy precursor to Sydney Prescott five years later?  When Chucky eventually catches up to Andy it's Kyle to the rescue. Very improbably the final players end up at the toy factory. We get another little nod to Kubrick here as Kyle and Andy are pursued through a maze of boxes.

I must admit that the escape scene in the toy factory is fairly nerve jangling,  with Chucky's grotesquely determined face and his hellish screams when he tries to free his trapped hand from a machine.

In fact the closing scenes of this film are amongst my favourite in all horror movies and I'm not going to spoil it by saying more... Ok let me just say that there is gore, tension and some full on scary nastiness. Chucky's curtain call is spectacularly gruesome, almost barf worthy.  Let's face it,  there are things you can do to plastic that you csnnot do ti flesh. And a hybrid of the two is just gross.

As with the first film, suspend disbelief,  munch your popcorn and have a laugh. It's not a masterpiece but its watchable and the ending merits 6/10.

Child's Play 1988

Director: Tom Holland
Starring: Catherine Hicks; Alex Vincent; Brad Dourif

I was so excited to see this film again. I remember it scared the pants off me as a kid. I accidentally saw a snippet of it on satellite TV aged around 10 and Chucky lurked in my subconscious for years.

The story is that a working single mum wants to get her kid the toy he desperately desires for his birthday. A moving, talking doll called a Good Guy. But these dolls are expensive, so when mum finds one for sale from a grubby character for a bargain price, she takes a gamble. Little Andy is thrilled with his new pal Chucky.

When Andy's babysitter, Maggie, orders him to bed it seems that Chucky doesn't like this. We don't actually see him move, but suddenly there he is - in the armchair watching the 9 o'clock news.

This is followed by a scene of classic shock-horror devices. Maggie hears some odd noises and walks slowly around the flat to investigate. She peers into dark corners and we feel the delicious anticipation waiting for a 'Boo!' when the doll attacks. Ultimately Maggie's demise is completely implausible but it does end with a satisfying thuDD.

You see, Chucky is no ordinary doll. He's possesed by the spirit of a serial murderer named Charles Lee Ray and he is looking for some old fashioned revenge. In my opinion the doll is almost creepy enough without the homicidal killer possesion. Seriously who would buy that ugly thing for a child!?

Andy seems to like him though, despite Chucky's habit of whispering nastiness in his ear. Poor little Andy trudging along in his snowsuit carrying this monster with him. We feel on edge as we are aware of the constant peril and we wonder how far the film will go to threaten this cute little kid. Alex Vincent is fantastic by the way. Cute and smart but without the saccharin Disney aftertaste.

When Andy turns up at a second crime scene and starts telling the police that his doll is alive, his mum has to decide whether her son is crazy or Chucky is truly evil. On finding evidence of the latter she threatens Chucky with the fireplace unless he talks.

This is a great scene. Until now we only see people move the doll or him appear somewhere he shouldn't be. When he is confronted he reveals his true nature. The doll's face becomes contorted with rage and he attacks her. It's scary and funny at the same time. The switch from a waxy faced doll to the furious demented killer is frightening and, well, awesome.

From this point the film asks us to accept a lot if implausible actions from the central characters.  Yes, I realise it's an implausible premise to begin with, but aren't all monster movies? The best ones work because the horror is so firmly embedded in a familiar rational world. It's the contrast that makes it convincing and therefore horrifying.

The film gets sillier and less frightening in the last 30 minutes, but just about pulls it together for the ending.  Trapped in the house, the survivors hide from vengeful Chucky who manages a nice little Kubrick homage as he chops through the bedroom door with an axe.

Turns out, it takes an awful lot to stop a voodoo animated hunk of plastic and Chucky gets a glorious, graphic and painful death.

The film is cheesy and you really need to suspend all disbelief before watching. The script isn't great, but the cast do well with it. In my view it's a true horror rather than horror-comedy and it delivers the requisite shocks in it's short run time. Above all the film intoduces us to Chucky who is just horrible and the effects used to animate his facial expressions are really great.

Many may not agree but I really like this film and I have to give it a 7/10. If you haven't seen it - give it go. And let me know what you think.

The Return of the Living Dead 1985

Director: Dan O Bannon
Starring: James Karen; Clu Galager; Don Calfa; Linnea Quigley

Young Freddy has just started working at a medical supplies warehouse which, amongst other things, stocks skeletons, cadavers and 'split dogs'. Uch. Whilst showing Freddy the ropes his new supervisor, Frank, starts bragging about some corpses they have in the basement.

He asks Freddy if he has seen 'Night of the Living Dead' and claims that the film was based on true events. He says after the army had rounded up the re-animated corpses they ended up in the warehouse basement. Sounds unlikely but there they are in airtight zombie pickle jars. Whilst having a sneaky peak the pair damage one of the containers and release a toxic gas into the air.

I was struck in the opening scenes by the vivid colours which really emphasise the lurid cartoon style of the movie.  It also shows off the punk characters in their full glory.

These punks are friends of young Fred and before they pick him up from work they decide to kill time in the nearby cemetery. Why not eh? One of the girls 'Trash' (Linnea Quigley) inexplicably decides to get naked and remains that way for most of the film.

Back in the warehouse Frank and Freddy wake up on the floor only to realise that the gas has awoken the cadaver hanging in the cooler. Freaked out Frank recalls the lesson from NOTLD - destroy the brain.  Unfortunately this film rewrites the accepted rules ("You mean the movie lied?!") and even with a pick axe through its head, this zombie refuses to lay still.

When total body dismemberment fails, they take the still wriggling parts to a friendly mortician to get them cremated. Alas, this releases the zombie virus into the atmosphere and when it rains the local cemetery starts to wake up. Tons of zombies, in various states of decay, burst from their graves and savage poor nekkid Trash.

In the warehouse basement we get to meet Tar Man - one of the pickled zombies who has been in storage for 15 years. The effects here are fantastic.He's so slimy and skeletal it is difficult to tell whether he is a puppet or actor in make-up. His appearance is gruesome but I also found his pop-eyed skull face had lots of character. And I almost clapped my hands with glee when he groaned the immortal line: "Braaiins!"

The survivors gather in the mortuary as events continue to escalate. They have no hope of escape and can only watch as cops and ambulances arrive on the scene to be mobbed by the growing army of undead.  The zombies even figure out how to use the emergency vehicle's radio "send more cops!" It's like ordering a takeaway! As the ferocity builds you genuinely want to know how this is going to end.

The special effects are absolutely spot on - especially the animatronic skeletal half-zombie who takes a chunk out of one mohawked head. She is sensational. All the zombies are delightfully cartoonish with big facial expressions, not to mention convincing decomposition.  And they're green!!

The film contains some blood and gore as you would expect from a zombie flick, but its well balanced without gratuitous lingering shots and it works well in the context of the action.

There is a dark side to the film too. The suffering that Frank and Freddy experience is quite disturbing and the reason given for the zombies' hunger for brains is genuinely horrifying.

The film is not a mindless zombie romp (though it appears to be) it is a black comedy played entirely straight. I didn't find it laugh out loud funny, but it is fun and the darker subtleties will leave you thinking. No doubt the visuals are what impressed me most, both in concept and execution.  The film popularised a cool and distinctive look for zombies in film. I couldn't possibly give it less than 7/10.

NB.
I also wanted to add a note about Linnea Quigley. Though in this film she does little more than writhe around naked, she has become something of an icon in exploitation films. She starred in such epic titles as "Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama" and "Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers" as well as over 60 other horror titles! Nice work lady!!