Movies

'Child's Play' Clip: Robo-Chucky Goes Haywire

child's play clip new
By Chris Evangelista

The biggest story change in the upcoming Child's Play remake involves technology. While the original Chucky was simply a doll, the new Chucky is more akin to a robot – he has built-in A.I., and he can use that to manipulate other electronic devices around him. In a sense, the film is asking: "What if the Amazon Echo got a body, and started stabbing people?" In a new Child's Play clip, the evils of technology are explored as Chucky goes haywire.

Child's Play Clip

"Chucky evolves more and more...but not in a good way." So says Gabriel Bateman, the actor who plays Andy in the new Child's Play. We'll find out next week if the Child's Play remake proves its worth, but for now, all we have to go on are clips like this. The footage here is all about highlighting the high-tech angle of the new Chucky, a Buddi doll with built-in A.I. The doll not only connects to WiFi, it also is able to connect, and control, other tech. In the right hands, this could be beneficial. But in the hands of an evil, killer robot-doll, it's bad news.

I actually like this idea overall – it reminds me of the mostly forgotten 1993 horror film Ghost in the Machine, in which the soul of a recently executed serial killer finds its way into a computer. The killer is then able to travel around via power lines and control various electronics. At one point, he murders someone with a microwave (I'm not kidding).

But here's the thing: while this is all well and good for a film like Ghost in the Machine, it doesn't really feel like Child's Play to me. I've always felt it's unfair to judge a remake entirely based on its original – you should be focusing on the film at hand. With that in mind, I'm still willing to give Child's Play a fair shake, and try not to spend the entire movie thinking, "Well, that's not like the original at all." Yet I can't shake this feeling that something here is off. But hey, any movie that requires Aubrey Plaza to give interviews where she uses her monotone voice to talk about evil technology can't be all bad.

Child's Play opens June 21, 2019.

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