Of all the movie maniacs that have graced the golden screens of horror, Jason Vorhees, Michael Myers, Freddy Kruger etc perhaps the most notorious screen killer of all has to be the infamous devil-doll "Chucky" from the Childs Play series.

Serial killer Charles "Chucky" Lee Ray, otherwise known as the Lakeshore Strangler (Brad Douriff), is on the run from the police when he is gunned down inside a toy shop. But Chucky hasn't finished his reign of terror yet and so after a few voodoo chants and following a handy bolt of lightning striking the shop, he manages to transfer himself into a new body before he dies.

A few days later, and 12 year old Andrew Barclay (Alex Vincent) receives a new toy for his birthday. It's a "Good Guys" doll, just like the ones advertised on the TV, but this so called Good guy is anything but good (you guessed it).

It starts off when the baby sitter mysteriously falls out of their apartment window. Soonafter, two members of Chucky's old gang are horrifically murdered and after each incident Andy is spotted at the murder scene. When asked what he was doing there he just replies "because Chucky wanted me to take him there". It soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems, particularly after Andy's mother Karen (Catherine Hicks) discovers that Chucky has been talking without any batteries!

Karen calls in detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon), who's been investigating the murders. But of course, he doesn't believe her that Chucky is still alive inside the body of the doll, that is until Chucky try's to kill him as well. To make matters worse, they find that Chucky is now going after Andy to try and take over his body, and so the race is on to try and stop him. But how do you kill a doll?

The ending is kind of predictable, but it's still a hugely enjoyable movie. Even if only for watching a cute little kids doll spouting off obscenities in every other scene. I wonder if Cabbage Patch kids would have been so popular back in the early 80's if this movie had come out sooner.

Overall Marks : 6/10

Other Information.

• No tag lines where used for the films UK release, but miscellaneous lines used for the US release where, "You'll wish it was only make-believe". "Andy Barclay has a new playmate who's in no mood to play". "This doll is killer". "Chucky is one mean S.O.B.".

• The films budget was $19,000,000

• Chucky's full name, Charles Lee Ray, is derived from the names of notorious killers Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray.

• Director Tom Holland had previously worked on the films "Fright Night" and "Psycho 2".

• Chucky's voice was provided by Brad Douriff, who also played the part of the Charles Lee Ray. Following the success of Childs Play, he has gone onto become something of a horror icon, appearing in both mainstream and B-grade horror film's. These include "Grim Prairie Tales", "Graveyard Shift", "Exorcist 3", "Death Machine", "Urban Legend" and many more, too numerous to mention. He has also starred as a psychotic crewman in "Star Trek-Voyager" and as a psychic killer in "The X-files". Although ultimately, it will be his role as Chucky's voice that he will best be known for, which is kind of ironic as it's the one role that he doesn't actually appear in.

• Katherine Hicks who played Karen Barclay had previously played Alice the whale attendant in the film "Star Trek 4 - The Voyage Home". Chris Sarandon, who played detective Mike Norris, more recently provided the voice for the character Jack Skellington in the Tim Burton movie "Nightmare before Christmas".

• Approximately 15s of material was cut from the original UK release in order to get a 15 certificate. The 2005 DVD is however fully uncut.

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