While it may have been dealt a difficult blow of recent, one iconichorrorfranchise is going to be able to get some new life on streaming in the near future. As with any genre, horror has always seen ebbs and flows in what proved successful, with the early days requiring original material, while the ’80s and ’90s became best known for franchises with an abundance of sequels that gradually sapped interest from audiences, the more notable being that of theFriday the 13thandNightmare on Elm Streetfranchises.
When many franchises remained dormant for some time, certain studios sought to revive interest in them with various reboots and remakes,a trend that became more infamous in the 2000s and early 2010s. There were some highs for the genre during this era, includingZack Snyder’sDawn of the Dead, but also certainly many lows, ranging from the critically pannedNightmare on Elm Streetreboot toOne Missed Call, which holds a rare 0% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. There have also been some in which the fanbase was split right down the middle.
The Child’s Play Is Coming To Streaming On The Heels Of The Chucky Show’s Cancellation
Both It & The Original Release On Max Next Month
One such franchise to have gotten the remake treatment after some time away was Don Mancini’sChild’s Play, with the 2019 film centering on a new, and older, Andy Barclay, who is gifted aBuddidoll, a high-tech figure whose software malfunction leads to a brutal killing spree. Led by Gabriel Bateman, Aubrey Plaza and Mark Hamill as the new voice of Chucky, theChild’s Playremake decisively splitboth critics and audiences down the middle, withScreenRant’s own Sandy Schaefer giving it 5/10 stars and writing the following in their review:
Despite its mixed success as a satire of the Digital Age, Child’s Play is an otherwise entertainingly bloodthirsty re-imagining of the slasher brand.
Some five years after the movie first hit theaters,Maxhas announced that 2019’sChild’s Playis coming to the streaming platform. The remake, along with the 1988 original, is scheduled to premiere on the streamer on March 1. The news comes on the heels of the announcement that SYFY and the USA Network had cancelledChucky, the TV expansion of the original franchise, after three successful seasons on the networks.
Why You Should Watch 2019’s Child’s Play
It Does Enough To Stand Apart From The Classic Original
While most horror remakes have found themselves dismissed by critics throughout the years,it should be noted that2019’sChild’s Playis the rare exampleof one to have landed on the Fresh side of the Rotten Tomatoes spectrum. In addition to the aforementionedScreenRantreview, a calculation of 206 reviews put the film at a 64% approval rating, which is technically only just fresh, but actually fares favorably when compared to other installments in the franchise, which can be seen in the chart below:
74%
65%
47%
53%
19%
40%
45%
50%
37%
43%
78%
61%
81%
62%
64%
57%
Despite some of the movie’s larger tonal and predictability issues, it’s hard to deny thatChild’s Playdoes generally stand out from its predecessor, thanks mostly to its darker sense of humor that the sequels of the original franchise would begin to infuse, though in favor of more overt scares, for which the remake tries to go for. In also bringing in a sci-fi twist with its tech-driven Chucky compared to the supernaturally possessed doll of the original, the remake has enough changes to keep things feeling fresh.
What else ScreenRanthas said about the Child’s Play remake:
Of course, this is still Child’s Play, and the movie is ultimately more interested in getting to the moments where Chucky brutally slays people than preaching about kids and their iPhones these days. Downside is, the film’s early attempts to explore the ways that Chucky is corrupted (being mistreated by humans, not understanding their behavior, or consuming violent media without context) ring a bit hollow once the doll starts devising elaborate ways of killing anyone who threatens his “friendship” with Andy.
Child’s Play
Cast
Child’s Play is a 2019 remake of Tom Holland’s 1988 film of the same name. Instead of Chucky being a Good Guy doll, he is now a high-tech Buddi doll that becomes evil after a disgruntled factory worker disables his safety protocols and ends his own life. Child’s Play received mixed to negative reviews, and after Don Mancini released his Chucky TV show, any ideas for a sequel were shelved.
