Review of Child's Play 2 (1990) by Tim B — 13 Feb 2013

The late 80s were exploding with quick, gory slasher sequels. So it didn't take Universal very long to throw a sequel out and make Chucky the main star. I'll start off with the bad: the suspense is pretty much gone already.

There's no story progression here; Chucky still wants Andy and kills off a bunch of people to get to him. That's the movie. Many of the side characters were either jerks or hardly developed and I didn't give a f*ck about any of them.

Chucky is also given way more screen time and the fear factor is almost entirely gone in the sequel. There are also many stalk scenes that didn't go anywhere and were a little annoying after a while.

So did I hate this one. Not at all. It's pretty damn entertaining, to be honest. The effects were a big improvement on the original's and I fully believed there was a living, breathing killer doll here.

They still hold up very well today, wow. Chucky is actually the character I latched on to the most here (is that wrong?). He had awesome lines and the kills were very creative. Wait until you see the "classroom" scene and tell me you didn't want to cheer in that moment! John Lafia went the "dazzler" way.

The opening and final scenes are angle-crazy and he does well with the slo-mo. He needed better handling on his suspense and I will admit, certain scenes dragged a bit too much. Not sure if it's his fault or not but I had to say it.

Still, he did good. Alex Vincent isn't given much to do, but he does okay. Wasn't as hard hitting as he was in the first, though. Christine Elise also isn't given much, I never got the impression she was scared once! Cute, though.

.. Jenny Agutter shows up and just made me think of "American Werewolf in London". She's alright. Gerrit Graham played his despicable character well. Not sure if that was the intention or not but I hated him.

Brad Dourif is all voice this time around and evokes a bit of tension through his powerful voice. Grace Zabriskie stood out here because I got to see her play a sweet, normal lady. She was great at it! Topping it all off was a great "doll factory" scene that was actually intense in parts and had me watching the most.

What a great part! Yes, the series dumbs down quickly, but it's pretty entertaining and watching Chucky off people in creative ways is reason enough, for me, to see it. If you're just in a dumb mood and want to see people get it in bloody, original ways, this is a perfect choice.

Fun.