Child's Play - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Child's Play



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
The 1980s were a glorious time for horror films. ESPECIALLY the all powerful slasher flicks. Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween sequels, Friday the 13th and many more were gods of the genre. However, there was a lone little franchise started in the late 80s that caught the tail end of that particular horror craze in the form of Child’s Play. It wasn’t top tier horror that everyone loved ala Michael Meyers or Jason Vorhees, but Brad Dourif left his indellible mark as the psychotic doll that just wantned to a kill a little boy and sacrifice him in order to resurrect as a human once more. Then of course there were the countless sequels that sort of went off the rails (most of the big franchises did that sooner or later), but 1988’s Child’s Play stands the test of time as being a cheesy good time.

Back YEARS ago MGM had a fairly mediocre Blu-ray relealse of Child’s Play that was sort of disappointing. Then 6 years ago in 2016 Scream Factory did a nice new release on Blu-ray that cleaned up the aging transfer pretty well and formed one of their beefy Collector’s Edition. HOWEVER, Scream has once more gone back and done a new 4K scan ala Candyman and not only released a 4K UHD disc, but remastered the Blu-ray as well from the same scan and included them in the set as a really nice combo pack. Add in a few new extras and this is easily the best the seminal film has every looked or been on home media.

Well, it’s not hard to figure out that Child’s Play follows the standard horror trope of being fairly simple of a setup. The film opens up with Brad Dourif playing Charles Lee Ray, a psychotic serial killer who finds himself at the wrong end of a shootout with Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon, best known as Prince Humperdink), only to transfer his dying spirit into the body of the Good Guys Doll that he lands near.

Fast forward just a bit and we are introduced to Karen Barclay (Catherine Hicks) and her song Andy (Alex Vincent). Andy desperately wants a Good Guys doll for himself, but they’re a bit expensive. Unbeknownst to him his mother picks one up for the lad and soon the two are fast friends. But you guessed it, This particular doll turns out to be the same doll that Charles Lee Ray transferred his soul into a few short months back. Not only does Charles “Chucky” want out of the doll body, but he figures out that he needs to kill Andy in order to take over his body as well. What happens next is a bloody rampage of terror as Chucky tries to fake being “normal” for the sake of Karen and detective Norris, while Andy pleads for ANYONE to take him seriously that his doll is on a murdering rampage.

Child’s Play is ridiculous on the surface (and even under the surface), but it’s a clever little film that plays heavily on the strengths of Andy being a normal boy (great child actor), and Brad Dourif just hamming it up to level 11 as Chucky. He’s always been fantastic at playing creepy killers (his stint on Voyager as a Betazoid with a murderous penchant was fantastic), but he out does himself here. It’s pure maniacal glee with the animated doll hacking and slashing his way through just about every one he meets. It’s not high art, but by golly it is a blast to watch.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

According to Scream Factory’s press release, they went back to the original elements with a new 4K UHD scan, and the results are rather impressive. The original MGM Blu-ray was taken from an aging master and wasn’t that much better than the DVD. Then we got the cleaned up new master in 2016 that Scream did, and comparing the special edition against the 4K UHD shows marked improvement (the Blu-ray included is taken from the same new 4K master as the UHD disc, and while it’s good, isn’t light years better than Scream’s older 2016 disc). Colors are brighter and more vivid with the use of HDR (the red on Chucky’s clothing, or the neon colors of the Playland Toy Store sign). The image itself hovers around the 80-91 mbps range, and doesn’t show any major artifacting that I can see either. The film IS heavily grainy (the grainiest of the bunch by far), but it’s never obtrusive or annoying, just nice clean grain structure. I did notice some softer wide angle shots throughout the film, mainly in the apartment, but overall this is a very nice disc that is upgraded rather nicely from the Blu-ray.







Audio:

Just like Candyman, Scream Factory has remixed the 5.1 mix into a new Atmos track (which is included on both the new Blu-ray and the 4K UHD) that sounds rather nice. Now, It’s not going to be a MASSIVE improvement over the 5.1 DTS-HD MA track that they used for the 2016 disc (which is actually included as well), but there are some nice minor improvements throughout the disc. The opening gunbattle between Charles and Detective Norris sports some weighty bass, and the sounds of Chucky skittering around the house makes use of the surounds pretty well done. You can hear footsteps behind and around the listening position, and the creepy score pretty much flows among all channels. I didn’t hear a massive amount of overhead usage, but I really wasn’t expecting much either. At the end of the day the Atmos is a little bit overkill, but still appreciated










Extras:

4K UHD Disc 1
• Audio commentary with director Tom Holland
• Audio Commentary: Actors Alex Vincent and Catherine Hicks along with Chucky Designer Kevin Yagher.
• Audio Commentary with producer David Kirschner and Screenwriter Don Mancini.
• Audio Commentary with Chucky.

Blu-ray Disc 1
• Audio commentary with director Tom Holland
• Audio Commentary: Actors Alex Vincent and Catherine Hicks along with Chucky Designer Kevin Yagher.
• Audio Commentary with producer David Kirschner and Screenwriter Don Mancini.
• Audio Commentary with Chucky.
• NEW! Birth of the Good Guy -- An Interview with Writer Don Mancini
• NEW! Friends Till the End -- An Interview with Actor Alex Vincent
• NEW! Believe Me Now? -- An Interview with Actor Chris Sarandon
• NEW! Chucky the Great and Terrible -- An Interview with Producer David Kirschner
• NEW! Windy City Chills -- An Interview with Production Manager Robert Latham Brown

Blu-ray Special Features Disc 2

• Making Chucky: Behind the Scenes Special Effects Footage
• Making Chucky: Howard Berger: Your Special Effects Friend 'Til the End
• Making Chucky: Life Behind the Mask: Being Chucky
• Featurette: Evil Comes in Small Packages
• Featurette: Chucky: Building a Nightmare
• Featurette: A Monster Convention
• Featurette: Introducing Chucky: The Making of Child's Play
• Featurette: Vintage Featurette
• More Child's Play: TV Spot
• More Child's Play: Theatrical Trailer
• More Child's Play: Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery
• More Child's Play: Posters and Lobby Cards Photo Gallery

Final Score: ​

Child’s Play is probably the best of the entire franchise by a decent margin, and outside of the fact that the 2019 reboot of the film was a horrific mess, it still stands the test of time as being a very good 80s slasher film. Scream Factory does a great job with the new 4K scan, and the choice to not just toss in the 2016 Blu-ray set but instead strike new Blu-rays from the 4K master is just icing on the cake. This is easily the most feature rich set the movie has ever had, so I say this with great confidnence. If you’re a fan of the movie, this is the one to get.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif, Tommy Swerdlow
Directed By: Tom Holland
Written By: Don Mancini, John Lafia, Tom Holland
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 87 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 16th, 2022

Recommendation: Great Watch

 

[Michael Scott]

excuse the editing goof where Child's Play 2 informaton showed up right after the review was published. the two have been separated and the review corrected.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I have seen all of the various slasher movies.. I enjoyed this one and happy to hear this version is very good.