originally posted on tumblr, Mar 4th 2026 

Movie-A-Day-Thon #9: Child’s Play (1988)

I have some really weird hang-ups from my childhood. I remember being rather numb to gore and violence in cinema from a young age (watching so many animal documentaries kind of do that I guess), but I would get spooked out of my mind over some really bizarre stuff. I recall watching a VHS of children’s songs, and being so utterly frightened by a CGI rag doll, that I had nightmares that it was gonna come find me and break my legs (???) if I ever sang the song out loud. I know, don’t ask.

I also recall being on the counter for our local movie rental place one weekend (my dad would pick some movies every weekend and he’d sometimes take me and my sister along to get a movie too), and watching the attempted possession scene from Child’s Play in the sample TV. I got so fucked up from it, I was terrified of storm clouds and thunder for like months.

Anyway, watched Child’s Play properly this time and boy do I feel sheepish xD I’m gonna try and keep to the main three movies of the franchise, but I might dip my toes in Bride and Seed of Chucky later on. For the lols.

I can tell you, seeing the inside of that toy store on the prologue DID give me some wild flashbacks. And I forgot just how creepy the Good Guy dolls are on their own, like holy shit. Somehow scarier than the Chucky dolls from later in the movie?? I think half of it is the frazzled red hair for me, reminds me of Fofão and I was always scard of him as a kid. I’m over it now but yeah… Anyway the funky puppetry and the doll size also really landed itself to the unnerving factor. The adults carrying it around so hazardly really tripped me out.

I’m starting to realize I might just have a fear of ragdolls… or at least I did?

BACK TO THE MOVIE! There were some pretty solid jumpscares, but also enough to bite on that it doesn’t feel overly reliant on them, which is a plus. And while the child acting was wonky at times, Andy felt like a young kid throughout in his agency and naivety. I wanted to reach out and hold him through some of this stuff, which says a lot! Too often horror makes kids into either tiny adults or almost braindead dolls, or they end up missing the mark on why include a child in their movie at all, and it’s always frustrating. I loved Andy so much, and his mom was just trying her best. The detective was annoying, what a useless guy.

And can I just say, bring back serial killer homes with full top-to-bottom creepy ass art murals!! I’m tired of the desperate graffiti and red line conspiracy boards and glued pages of books and stuff. I want to see complete artistic dedication and integrity from my unrepentant villains!! Like that customized dagger, with the snake in the blade and skulls and shit on the handle, that slapped! Why did we go back to boring old kitchen knives TAT

And though the use of African diaspora practices for the paranormal explanation is gauche to say the least, I do appreciate that it’s implied that what Chucky did with what he learned is fucked and not how the spell was intended to be used. A small step but a step nonetheless.

Pretty good movie, a horror staple for a reason but not much in the movie itself that stood out. A popcorn bucket if I’ve ever seen one.