Child’s Play transmogrified onto home video today in 1989, after a November 9th, 1988 theatrical release.
I’m going to admit something middlingly controversial here – well at least in terms of slasher franchises: the Chucky series is my overall favourite.
Not Friday the 13th, not Elm Street (though that might depend on my mood) and not Texas Chainsaw. In terms of pure IP output and the way in which it consistently punches my buttons. I am all about Chucky.
By way of splainin’ myself: I was too young to appreciate the first wave of Slashers, those early Halloween clones where a very human maniac stalked sorority girls with sharp objects until the inevitable whodunnit twist. Sure, I fancy myself a connoisseur of the genre now, but at the time I was a fledgeling monster kid with a love of ghosts and zombies. Guys with knives didn’t grab me. Yet.
But by ‘84 the genre was taking on more wildly imaginative fantasy elements with the likes of Freddy and the Terminator, and I was perfectly groomed for that shift. As a teen, I loved the higher concept twelve-little-Indian killing sprees with higher stakes and supernatural elements. By the time Chucky joined the fray, there was an added element of him skewering my toy-addled childhood innocence which I welcomed with open arms.
To add in salt to injuries, the Chucky franchise as a whole (and this extends to the recent wave of movies and the tv show) meandered along with my ever-changing tastes. From the stabby kindertrauma of the original 3, to the meta-sarcasm of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge nineties, to the more psycho-dramatic and moody world-building entries of late, there’s a Chucky for every season. But not the ‘remake’, I haven’t seen that yet – I’m old and it takes time to prepare for that level of potential heartbreak.
I don’t know what possesses me, but I’m glad Charles Lee Ray still follows me around.