After the cultural success of ‘Childs Play’ a sequel starring the pint sized plastic killer was all but inevitable, but the journey the film went on in order to make it back onto the big screen is ultimately the reason why ‘Childs Play 2’ is firmly cemented in my mind as one of the best slasher movies i’ve ever seen.

The original ‘Childs Play’ was produced by MGM, but the company who was hired WITHIN MGM to produce the sequel had their production halted midway through preproduction as another studio was set to acquire them in a merger and was going to move strongly in a different direction away from Horror. A bidding war ensued in which Touchstone Pictures were VERY keen to get their grubby little meathooks on this IP…only for them to lose out at the last moment to ‘Universal’ a move that I think saved both the franchise AND this sequel.

Because this film has the spirit of the old Universal monster movies running through its core like a lovable form of tar you just cant shake. Elements of ‘Frankenstein’, ‘The Invisible Man’, ‘The Mummy’ (both universal and Hammer) and many more are present here and I found it utterly refereshing to see a film embrace elements of the studios foundations and almost ‘refresh’ them into something MUCH more modern, appealing and relevent.

The transition also allowed for a slight tonal shift on the scripting, whereas the original was a largely serious horror thriller with some light comedy sprinkled in, ‘Childs Play 2’ is allowed to lean into comedy much more, which it takes on with relish. Its keen to REALLY get into dark humour and comedy, but not to the point that it becomes annoying or grating. this slight pivot really helps give the franchise a life of its own.

You’ve got to imagine this is 6 years before ‘Freddys Dead’. We’re still *technically* in the era of horror comedies being things like ‘Return of the living dead’ and ‘Transylvania 6-5000’. and I adored that it strived to put horror front and center, never bending to comedic peer pressure.

The basic plot picks up a few weeks/months after the events of the first film (Wikipedia says it takes place 2 years after…Im calling bull on that though because the film LITERALLY opens with them saying the mothers JUST been put unders psyciatric evaluation, and the police have largely clammed up about the events of the first movie meaning no trials could run…If the first childs play took place around Autumn/Winter time, this films taking place in spring/summer the following year at the latest)

Andy has now been placed in foster care and is settled in with a new family. He’s still deeply traumatized by the events of the first film, but is open to beginning to move past it. Meanwhile ‘Play Pals Corporation’ the company that made the ‘Good Guy’ dolls is DESPERATELY trying to assure shareholders that the ‘Killer doll’ stories in the press are an overreaction and to PROVE it, they SOMEHOW manage to find and recover the remaining burned out carcuss of the ‘Chucky’ doll. they full refurbish the doll and it almost immediately springs back to life, takes out two technicians in the process and once again, Charles Lee Ray walks the earth.

Only, now he’s on borrowed time, because he only has a finite amount of time to re-locate Andy and swap his soul into Andys body, otherwise his doll body will turn fully human and he’ll be trapped in the shell forever.

Across the board theres significant improvements over the first film. The script feels tighter, punchier faster paced, it feels like it gets to the point faster, we dont need to spend a HUGE chunk of the runtime wondering if it REALLY IS the doll thats the killer, the film gets that out of the way in the first 10-15 minutes or so, and the rest of the film is just a solid cat and mouse runaround featuring some decently gory kill scenes, some genuinely nice character pieces and a finale that, as mentioned has ‘Universal Monster movies’ written ALL over it.

I will say though, that while I do feel like almost every aspect of this script is an improvement and enhancement over the original, it isnt ‘perfect’ I do think things slow down a little in the 2nd act, and because this film picks up shortly after the first film and is really more a continuation of that movie, it does mean that it doesnt quite feel like a ‘whole’ product. It feels like someones just stopped the movie for a bathroom break, and hit play mid flow…Its fantastic if your doing a ‘Childs Play’ marathon because it really does flow nicely between the pictures…but because it feels so much like an addition rather than its own work, it does make it difficult to just ‘jump in’ to this one randomly.

The tonal shift between the two films also cant go unnoticed, the softening of the serious tone between the first film and this is noticable, and while pretty much all the films after this one will continue to develop and grow that new tone. it doesnt feel smooth to jump from the first film to this.

That being said, the characters are all really well developed, Andy as a character gets a bit of growth and development which is nice. The new characters are well developed and feel just complex enough to feel well rounded, but not enough to really fully flesh them out. The dialogue here is inspired with Chucky getting the lions share of the quotable moments (‘Eat Dirt Tommy’ will always be a personal favourite.)

Direction wise, its superb, from the homage to ‘Psycho’ in the opening moments of the film, it sets a tone that this is going to be a sleek and carefully crafted production, and honestly? it really doesnt dissapoint. its a GORGEOUS film to relax into for the most part with some really interesting choices and I think this is probably one of the few films in the franchise where they both consistently manage to get the look of Chucky down pat without it looking like they’re clearly chopping and changing between anamatronics, people in costumes and puppets. But also this is one of the few films that BOTHERS to make the logistics of Chucky play out on screen, you see him digging shallow graves, full bodied walking, diving out of harms way wrestling people. later entries cut away or dont rise to the challenge…but THIS film…this one REALLY decided to go for it. and I love love LOVED it for that.

The cine too is just GORGEOUS a rich and deep range of interesting shots, sequences are carefully crafted with keen attention to shot height, depth of field, the amount of B-roll required to help the sequences flow. I own the bluray release for this and the colours are rich and pop wonderfully, its a film that isnt afraid to experiment and they end up not only nailing the assignment, but sailing clean past it. No notes, this thing looks great to me.

Performance wise its pretty solid too Alex Vincent returns as ‘Andy’ and again, I dont really talk about child actors where I can (as a rule) but he gets to develop his character from the first movie nicely and I think he absolutely nailed the brief. OBVIOUSLY Brad Dourif is phenominal as Chucky, and again, i’d say this is probably one of his all time best performances in the role, he just…he just gets it, he knows how this character works…I rarely like to gatekeep on actors playing roles, but anyone else playing ‘Chucky’ other than Dourif is just NOT gonna sail in my book. Chucky is Dourif, Dourif is Chucky…Nuff Said.

The newcomers are fab too, Christine Elise is standout as troubled teen and fellow adoptee ‘Kyle’ the script to begin with is kind of working against her, but the character is slowly allowed to open up to the point that Elise REALLY gets some decent meaty moments to make her character shine, and she absolutely grabs the opportunity here.

Only enhancing things further, the score is delightful a kind of demented childish carnival organ mixed in with some wonderfully moody synth and orchestral arrangements really helps give this thing a BIG boost, its utilised really well across the runtime and really is the secret sauce that makes all the resst of this production go off with a bang.

I first caught ‘Childs Play 2’ probably about 15-20 years ago and I loved it as much on the first run through as I did today on the umpteenth rewatch. Chucky and Universal at this moment in time were a match made in heaven and across the board this film tries not only to build on what was established in the first entry, but to then try and trump the first entry on a technical and artistic level…and I think it largely succeeds at that. ABSOLUTELY reccommended. its fun, its well made. I love ‘Childs Play 2’

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/childs-play-2/