Child's Play (1988)
Directed by Tom Holland
After being shot in a toy store, a serial killer transfers his soul into a Good Guy doll. A mother then gifts it to her six-year-old son Andy, which unleashes terror upon the city.
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What critics compared Child's Play to
This sequel feels light-years away from what horror films like Child’s Play or Dolls achieved—stories where the danger felt personal, small-scale, and genuinely creepy.
Unlike Child’s Play’s Chucky, who had no loyalties and therefore could continue to travel and maim and murder in numerous sequels and spin-offs…
And like her spiritual forebear Chucky, she’s got the range.
The titular android is now the hero of the story, and like Chucky, has begun morphing into a comedian.
…even though the similar idea of Chucky from the CHILD’S PLAY franchise proved it could be done with six films and even a spin-off TV series…
Think less “Child’s Play,” more “Terminator 2.”
It’s evident that director Gerard Johnstone was heavily influenced by James Cameron’s “The Terminator” and Tom Holland’s “Child’s Play” as he borrows elements from both movies and utilizes them to good effect.
“M3GAN” (pronounced “megan”) can now join the 1988 “Child’s Play” movie (which introduced the murderous Chucky toy doll) as one of the all-time most memorable “killer doll” movies, gaining legions of fans and inspiring countless horror costumes.
Directed and co-written by Mike Flanagan (“Oculus,” “Ouija: Origin of Evil”), along with his frequent collaborator Jeff Howard, “Gerald’s Game” is a study of repressed memories, childhood traumas, and just how far a person will go to survive.
Flanagan has made a habit of directing female protagonists in small spaces (Oculus and Hush both feature female protagonists confined to a single location, for example), and the parameters of Gerald’s Game allow him to do what he does best — explore his female characters while ratcheting up tension.
It’s hard to overlook some of the recurring themes in his work, beginning with 2011’s Absentia and all the way through the wildly imaginative Oculus, Hush (also on Netflix ) and Ouija: Origin of Evil.
Fortunately, director Mike Flanagan has had ample practice in the art of the mindf**k with Oculus , and he manages to turn the necessarily more literal film adaptation into a waking nightmare.
Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, Child’s Play, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre all have numerous sequels that vary in quality.
There's no invulnerability like Friday The 13th's Jason Voorhees, no mystical voodoo magic like Child Play's Chucky, no eldritchian horror of It's Pennywise.
Alex Vincent (Andy Barclay in the Child’s Play / Chucky franchise)…