We all come to horror differently. Some of us see them thanks to older siblings or at random sleepovers. Some of us devour franchises from beginning to end, while some of us find them somewhere in the middle. The important thing is that we never lose sight of the importance of finding joy in horror and that we remember our first scares.
With the excellent news that Chucky has gotten renewed for a third season, I thought it would be a good time to reflect back on the first instance that I discovered the murderous Good Guy when I flipped on the TV and discovered the madcap insanity that is Child’s Play 2. It was the mid-90s, and I had the good fortune of having a TV in my bedroom. Flipping through the channels one lazy Saturday afternoon, I came across a sight that I won’t soon forget: a plastic blue eye surrounded by what looked like charred flesh.
I couldn’t look away from the screen despite the fact that I felt a strange sense of fear that something bad was going to happen. My eyes were glued to the screen as the scene continued, and soon the familiar visage of Chucky was reconstituted, and soon the real terror would begin. Like many, I had a passing familiarity with Chucky and the Child’s Play franchise, mostly through many people saying that they weren’t scary because a doll can’t be a threat. I agree that these aren’t necessarily the scariest movies in the world, but, I’ll say that there are some scenes in this film that establish that Chucky is an extremely credible threat and has definitely earned his place in the horror/slasher hall of fame amongst his taller contemporaries.
Child’s Play 2 was a perfect gateway horror movie for me. The Monster Squad was my first tentative step into the horror genre, and Child’s Play 2 was a perfect continuation of that journey before heading into the darker waters of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the really dangerous Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It was fun enough that I was always caught off guard when something terrifying would suddenly happen. When I see Chucky walking out of a closet smacking a yardstick against his hand, I give a little chuckle…that is, until he uses that yardstick to murder a (slightly meanspirited) teacher in a gruesome fashion.
I’ll always remember Child’s Play 2 for opening the door to the entire franchise, which is still going strong through sequels, remakes, a TV series, comic books, and beyond. When other franchises have fallen by the wayside, Chucky is still going strong. Just goes to show, you can’t keep a Good Guy down.
You can check out the trailer to Child’s Play 2 below!
About Child’s Play 2
The year 1990 saw the release of the American slasher film Child’s Play 2. Both Don Mancini and John Lafia, who worked on the original script for Child’s Play in 1978, reprise their roles as writers and directors for this sequel. Taking set two years after the events of the first Child’s Play film, this sequel finds Charles Lee Ray (commonly known as Chucky) still on the hunt for Andy Barclay, a foster child he had previously transferred his soul into. Alex Vincent and Brad Dourif reprised their roles, and the cast expanded to include Christine Elise, Jenny Agutter, Gerrit Graham, and Grace Zabriskie.
The movie had a total gross of $10,718,520 after its first weekend of distribution across 1,996 theaters in the United States, making it the highest-grossing new release of the weekend. The sum of its worldwide earnings, $35.8 million, was comprised of $28,501,605 earned in the United States and another $7.3 million earned in other countries.
After this film came Child’s Play 3, which was released in 1991, Bride of Chucky, which was released in 1998, Seed of Chucky, which was released in 2004, Curse of Chucky, which was released in 2013, Cult of Chucky, which was released in 2017, and Chucky, a television series, which debuted in 2021.
FACT
Don Mancini and the rest of the Child’s Play ensemble have said that they believe Child’s Play 2 is the best installment in the series, and that many fans agree.
A horror fan since birth and proud of it.
