Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical: United Artists / David Kirschner
Blu-ray: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Disc:
Region: All
Runtime: 87 min.
Chapters: 36
Size: 50 GB
Case: Standard Blu-ray Case
Release date: September 15, 2009
Video:
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: AVC @ 36 Mbps
Audio:
English DTS HD-Master Audio 5.1 English
Dolby Surround; Dub: Spanish 5.1 Dolby
Digital, French Dolby Surround
Subtitles:
English & Spanish
Extras:
• The Birth of Chucky – in SD (7:20)
• Creating the Horror – in SD (12:10)
• Unleashed – in SD (5:20)
• Chucky: Building a Nightmare – in SD
(10:05)
• A Monster Convention – in SD (5:26)
• Introducing Chucky: The Making of Child's
Play Vintage Featurette – in SD (6:23)
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Still Photo Gallery
• Disc 2 : Child's Play – Chucky's 20th
Birthday Edition DVD
The Film:
The Movie: 5
So here we are, 21 years and 5 sequels later
(and still counting), the original movie
makes its bow on Blu-ray. We note, with some
satisfaction that, at first there was no
“Chucky” in the title or subtitle. All that
changed with Child’s Play 2: Chucky’s Back
the following year. It was clear who the
star of this story was, and he would soon
lay his claim in no uncertain terms. But let
us return to more halcyon days when the
filmmakers hadn’t yet realized what they had
on their hands:
It all started with mass murderer and voodoo
nut Charles Lee Ray (keeping to the
tradition of notorious tri-named assassins)
who is killed in a toy store over the
opening credits by police detective Mike
Norris (Chris Sarandon). With his dying
breath, and not without accompanying
fireworks, Ray (Brad Dourif) manages to
instill his soul into a “Chucky” doll, who
is later picked up by a vagrant, who in turn
sells it to unsuspecting salesgirl Karen
Barclay (Catherine Hicks) who needs the doll
to satisfy the birthday present requirements
of her six year old son, Andy (Alex
Vincent). That very night, while Karen has
to work a late shift, Chucky springs to life
and murders Karen’s friend Maggie, who had
been wearing a big “Kill Me” sign on her
chest since she first opened her mouth.
Detective Norris is assigned to the case
and, between him and Karen, they don’t seem
to have a clue as to how Maggie could have
fallen to her death through the kitchen
window. (We don't generally see that sort of
behavior in a baby sitter.) Andy figures it
out and, in the familiar tradition where
children should be seen and not heard – and
better not seen either – Andy is sent to his
room along with his input to keep Chucky
company – and vice-versa. Later that night,
when Karen comes into Andy’s room and
demands, “Who are you talking to?” after she
has just bought him the doll and he is found
sitting on the floor right in front of
Chucky and no one else will give him the
time of day or a shoulder to cry on, we have
to throw up our hands, crying “such people
have no right to live” thus siding with
Chucky in his rampage. Karen does make a
feeble attempt at being understanding, but
it takes Andy to bring to her attention that
her scolding him might be related to her
having just lost her friend.
The script has its moments, but too often it
makes its characters stupider than they need
to be – after all, this is not a movie that
needs to be "dumbed down" for young
children, because they aren't allowed in the
theater to see it. Anyhow, don't you think
“Good Guy” is just a little moronic for a
doll series? Karen makes utterly stupid
choices time after time, placing herself in
harm's way with little if any back-up.
Chucky isn’t particularly angry with her,
nor is stupidity a justification for being a
target – though it has become a cliché in
this genre. He’s just infected with a killer
spirit and she's in the way. What Charles
Lee Ray would prefer is to get out of this
doll’s body and into a human. And who best
to serve his needs but Andy himself!
This story has lots of potential but it is
squandered on mindless mayhem and torture –
whose art direction, I have to admit, gets
more tingly as the movie gets into its final
reels. Yagher’s animatronic effects are
surprisingly convincing, and director
Holland made a smart move (following
Spielberg’s lead from Jaws) of not showing
us Chucky in full form until well into the
movie. Child’s Play may not be as much fun
as Bride of Chucky, which has the right
combination of nasty gags and horror, but
it’s a good popcorn show if you put your
brain on hold for an hour and half.
Image:
6/7
NOTE:
The below
Blu-ray
captures were ripped directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.
The first number indicates a relative level
of excellence compared to other Blu-ray
video discs on a ten-point scale. The second
number places this image along the full
range of DVD and Blu-ray discs.
Despite the generally cleaned up picture,
the image quality alternates between
acceptable in terms of contrast and
sharpness – typically outdoors or at the
police station - and soft and flat – mostly
in Andy's apartment. If there are artifacts
- and I was not aware of anything untoward,
they are overshadowed by an overall somewhat
dull and uninvolving, dull image - very
likely not far off from the original
presentation, I imagine. The bit rate is
relatively high, in the mid-30s, blacks are
strong, though there is a tendency to crush,
and noise tends to invade the image in the
shadows.
CLICK EACH
BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio & Music:
6/6
The uncompressed DTS-HD mix tries its best
to hit us with loud, thumping bass, crashing
thunder and car wrecks, but the sound lacks
textural subtlety. Not that the thunder and
lightning isn't loud or the car crashes
crashing, along with some engagement of the
surrounds. But the timbres are simply not
correct, though there are some very nicely
expressed bass plunks at the close of the
toy store explosion sequence as we
transition into Act 1. Dialogue is clear, if
not located with any precision. Music is
nicely reproduced and usually opens up the
soundstage some. The Audio grade is
reflective of relative excellence, but
Child's Play is not a high budget movie, and
I imagine that the result on Blu-ray is
representative of intentions.
Operations:
6
The Extra Features menu comes without clear
instructions as to how to move from one to
the next, making it all too easy to end up
returning to Play Feature mode. Once you
figure it out, it's not a problem.
Extras:
5
All of the Extra Features are presented in
480i/p widescreen and are of
acceptable-to-good quality except The Making
of Child's Play Vintage Featurette, which is
4:3 with a very weak image. The three
Making-of featurettes included in "Evil
Comes in Small Packages" can be watched
separately: "The Birth of Chucky" (7:20)
examines the original script ideas.
"Creating the Horror" (12:10) introduces us
to Chucky's animitronic wizard, Kevin Yagher,
a segment that is extended in the ten minute
piece "Chucky: Building a Nightmare." "The
Monster Convention" is a short and skippable
panel discussion from Monster Mania 2007
featuring Alex Vincent (Andy), Catherine
Hicks (his mom), and Chris Sarandon (the
cop). The image here is a little thin and
dim.
There are three commentaries, one of which
melds separately recorded recollections of
Hicks and Vincent (now some 20 years older).
The scene-specific Chucky commentaries are
few and repetitive in tone and content.
Chortlingly clever at first, but they soon
wear thin.
Bottom line:
6
I realize I am a little hard on a movie that
didn't intend greatness to start with (few
slasher films do.) But I have little
patience for unnecessarily stupid characters
– i.e. characters who are written as stupid
at the writer's convenience to place them
under the knife. The Blu-ray image is not up
to standards for movies of this age or
genre, but may be about as good as we're
going to get for this one. The audio fares
better. Extra features are rudimentary.
Leonard Norwitz
October 6th, 2009