Review of Child's Play (1988) by Kilo D — 08 Oct 2013

Everyone knows Chuckie and his one-liners. However, as is the case with the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, the infamous villain isn't inundated with humour on the first going. Rather, "Child's Play" plays fast and aggressive and is smart at generating scares, which is why it's more fun than its preposterous premise promises.

The characters are believable and the story, strung finely so that notes of terror sound off often when least expected, allow for a torrent of horror to confront the mother and son protagonists and, on first viewing, have the viewer shivering in suspense. And while the idea of a play-doll being scary to many of us is laughable, "Child's Play" manages to take that smirk and with clever skill scare that judgement to a stall. So it may be true the ending turns into a mess but it's a good mess, a mess wherein limbs are lost, blood is splattered on every object, and the crimson mayhem turns crispy.

"Child's Play" is an accomplished little horror movie that defies half-baked labelling such being a "mindless slasher", as it were, for Tom Holland's killer doll movie digs in deep early and doesn't let up until we're seeing red - a lot of red.