D V D C R Y P T

CHILD'S PLAY

Directed by Tom Holland
Written by Don Mancini
Cast: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent & Brad Dourif

1988/87 mins/Color/Dolby Digital 5.1
1.85:1 anamorphic/English/US/NTSC Region 1

Review from the MGM DVD

Like every kid of his age, all that young Andy (Alex Vincent) wants is a Good Guy doll. Unfortunately it seem like his mother cannot afford the it. She finally manages to find one cheap from a homeless peddler, but that doll might be more then just simply plastic. Soon the mother's friend who was babysitting Andy is found dead. From there everything goes wrong. Everyone suspects Andy for committing these terrible acts, but according to him it is actually its doll, Chucky.

Twenty years later and after too many sequels, the original CHILD'S PLAY is still a very effective horror film. Directed by Tom Holland, who just made FRIGHT NIGHT and wrote PSYCHO II and CLASS OF 1984 brings us the tale the serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) becoming a plastic doll through a voodoo ritual. Unlike the recent sequels, the original Chucky film is pretty much straight forward horror film and it works. The animatronics FX are pretty convincing and well executed. Chucky is somehow scary! The entire cast gives great performance and it’s always cool to see Chris Sarandon (FRIGHT NIGHT) in a horror film.

MGM released CHILD'S PLAY through 20th Century Fox. After being only available in a terrible Pan & Scan DVD edition, Chucky's first cinematic tale finally gets the proper transfer it deserves. The film is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and it is anamorphic. Even though it’s a little grainy, the image looks surprisingly very good even after all these years. We get a new English Dolby Digital 5.1 track, which is loud, crisp and clear. There are also English, Spanish and French Dolby Surround tracks available along with English and Spanish subtitles.

This 20th Birthday edition features two commentary tracks. The first one features Alex Vincent, Catherine Hicks and Chucky designer Kevin Yagher while the second one is with creator/writer Don Mancini and producer David Kirschner. Both are very interesting and offer lots of interesting bits on the making-of the film. Of course, Mancini and Kirschner recollect the more info about it. One thing that’s for sure, it does sound like everyone had fun making CHILD'S PLAY.

We also get four selected scenes with commentary track with Chucky, which aren't that interesting. 'Evil Comes in Small Package' is an interesting featurette separated in three chapters; The Birth Of Chucky, Creating the Horror and Unleashed. It features interviews from now and then from the cast and crew and reveals some very cool info on where the idea actually came from. The film was originally called BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED but the title was changed due to the fact that a certain Steven Spielberg was working on a film with such title. 'Chucky: Building A Nightmare' is a 10 minutes featurette on the creation of the actual puppet, the difficulties behind it and more. 'A Monster Convention' is a five-minute look at the Monster Maniac 2007 reunion... I wish they’d showed the whole thing. 'Introducing Chucky: The Making of CHILD'S PLAY is a 6 minutes vintage featurette from 1988.

Finally there's theatrical trailer, a photo gallery that mostly consist of stills from the movie, and trailer for MR.BROOKS and PATHLOGY. The film is separated in 36 chapters stop. The disc features nicely designed animated menus with music, comes in a keep case and without a booklet or inlay card.

"This doll is killer."

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