Since we’re all quarantined in our homes for the foreseeable future with daylight but a distant memory, we have to make our own entertainment with what’s available. As well as an interminable litany of TikTok videos and the casts of concluded TV shows reuniting over Zoom, watch parties are becoming one of the most popular choices to alleviate boredom and pretend we’re around other people. The creatives responsible for the work being viewed are often behind official events, and the latest of these is from Child’s Play creator Don Mancini, who will be hosting a rewatch of the original movie with Syfy Wire.
Directed by Tom Holland (no, not that one, obviously) in 1988, the movie begins when serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif, in one of only two physical appearances in the series) is cornered by police, and after being fatally shot breaks into a toy store and uses a Voodoo ritual to transfer his soul into a doll named Chucky. The doll ends up in the hands of six-year-old Andy, after which people begin dying around him, leading police to suspect him in the fatalities while he claims that Chucky is responsible.
I’m hosting a Watch Party for the OG #ChildsPlay with @SYFYWIRE this Thursday at 8/7c! Join me using #SYFYWIRErewind if you want to stay on Chucky’s good side. pic.twitter.com/eaAkalyvOi
— Don Mancini (@RealDonMancini) May 18, 2020
For anyone not specifically familiar with Child’s Play but vaguely aware of the series as a whole, it might be surprising to see it not presented as immediately obvious that the murders are being committed by a killer doll. Instead, there’s an uncertainty over whether or not the deaths are the work of a mentally disturbed child declaring their doll to be alive (an idea also utilized in dire ‘90s slasher Pinocchio’s Revenge), or if a deceased murderer truly is possessing the toy. After three decades, six sequels of varying quality and a middling remake, everyone knows the truth going in, but it’s surprising how well the ambiguity holds up even with advanced knowledge.
Child’s Play and Chucky might have long since descended into comedy horror and camp absurdity, with inventive deaths and Chucky’s witticisms at the forefront, but you might find it an intriguing experience to revisit where it all started along with other like-minded fans, and in the process, you just might make some new friends to the end.
