DVD Review: Child’s Play (20th Anniversary Special Edition)
Child’s Play: Special Edition (1988)
Studio: MGM
DVD Release Date: September 9, 2008
Directed By: Tom Holland
Cast: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif, Dinah Manoff
Brutal As Hell Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Review By: George Newton
According to my research, more clowns have been in horror movies than ever entertained children. There is often a very thin line between what we find cute and what we find creepy. Dolls are a close second to clowns in this department. One of the most effective child’s toy comes to life movies is the original Child’s Play. Despite a few hokey moments, it is still highly effective twenty years later. It has just been re-released on DVD with a great selection of extras that offer many interesting insights.
Many DVDs come with extras that seem quickly slapped together. This is not true for this DVD release. The insights start with the multiple commentaries. The first commentary is with stars Alex Vincent, Catherine Hicks, and chucky designer Kevin Yagher. This is an interesting commentary with few gaps. Alex is the most interesting talking. He is no longer the young child the movie shows, but a twenty year old who looks back fondly on the film. Hicks and Yagher also talk about the technical challenges of making the killer doll realistic and keeping the film as realistic as possible.
Few jobs have no conflict. Movie making is no different though you’d never know it listening to many DVD extras. The second commentary with Producer David Kirschner and original screenwriter David Mancini recounts some of the battles that mostly made the movie better. They and the director had three separate visions of what the movie needed to be. Some of these differences are small and others are quite large. Both these men are proud of what ended up on screen. A third screen specific commentary comes from Chucky himself and offers a few laughs even if he seems more like the joking Chucky of the sequels than the angry killer of the first.
As interesting as the commentaries are, the featurettes are even better. Some of the stories are repeated by with added visuals. We also get insights from Chris Sarandon, and Brad Dourif, key players who were not included in the commentaries. We get to see how both the film and Chucky himself evolved. As disturbing as the doll looks, it looks even creepier without skin.
These films don’t answer all questions. We only hear from Tom Holland, the director in an old interview. Others recount the conflict he had, but it would have been nice to hear from him. It also would have been interesting to hear why the other Chucky films are very different from this one. The stories that are shared are interesting and this is a worthwhile purchase for horror fans looking for insights into this beloved film.
