The upcoming Child’s Play remake may not have received the warmest response from longtime fans so far, but if you ask Aubrey Plaza, Lars Klevberg’s effort has managed to nail the tone of the 1988 original.
The Child’s Play franchise has undergone many changes over the decades, with its later installments taking the series into more overtly comedic territory. With the MGM reboot, however, it seems that the property will be hitting the reset button in more ways than one. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Plaza explained that the movie will mark a return to the more serious tone of the franchise’s early years.
“Buckle up. I love it so much. To me, the original is an iconic movie. I haven’t seen our film, just the trailer, but it’s a real throwback horror movie. It’s almost got a Spielbergian vibe to it. The reason I did it was for how beautiful the script was. It doesn’t feel like a hokey, shticky, campy movie. If you remember the original Child’s Play, it was a drama! It wasn’t that funny. As the franchise went on, it became something else. The remake really captures the original.”
At the same time, it’s already very clear that the next Child’s Play isn’t striving to be a carbon copy of the original. The origins of the Chucky doll, for instance, will be drastically different, switching out the old Chucky’s voodoo backstory with the premise of an AI gone awry. According to Plaza, the change allows for a smart commentary on modern technology.
“I would only do certain remakes. This is smart. The messaging behind the film is different. Technology becomes the villain.”
Despite Chucky being the main villain of the movie, the new version of the killer doll has been kept mostly under wraps. The film’s first trailer, for instance, only showed the character in fleeting glimpses, without ever giving him a line. In fact, we still haven’t even found out who’ll be replacing Brad Dourif on voice duties. Plaza herself was similarly reluctant to offer any further details to THR, though she admitted that her character and Chucky don’t do a whole lot of interacting.
“I play Karen, the mother, and I have less interaction with Chucky than the actor who plays my son does. I can’t reveal too much. We’re not supposed to talk about Chucky. It builds for Karen in a way that I’m interacting with Chucky by the end, but I’m mostly dealing with my son — who I almost believe is behind the mayhem. The horror of it all will be for the audience. For me, it’s more of a psychological thriller.”
We’ll find out if audiences can get on board with this fresh take when the new Child’s Play hits theaters on June 21st, 2019.