1 of 6 | Chucky turns 35 on Nov. 9. Photo courtesy of MGM
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 6 (UPI) — This week, Chucky fans will celebrate the 35th anniversary of the killer doll’s debut in theaters in the 1988 horror film Child’s Play. What Chucky fans may not know is that Steven Spielberg was one of them.
Though MGM/United Artists produced the first Child’s Play, Spielberg stepped in to bring the sequels to Universal Studios. Chucky franchise producer David Kirschner, who made An American Tail with Spielberg, said it was still rare to get a phone call.
“Steven Spielberg called and said, ‘You made your first film, An American Tail, with these guys. I think you should give them first shot. They really want to make this movie.'” Kirschner told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
MGM wanted out of the horror business
The reason for the switch was a management change at MGM/UA. Now, Amazon owns MGM/UA and it is celebrating Child’s Play, which opened Nov. 9, 1988.
Kirschner said that when Qintex bought MGM/UA in 1989, Qintex owner Christopher Skase did not want to produce horror movies. Child’s Play director Tom Holland remembered facing controversy upon the film’s release.
Holland said that controversy contributed to scaring off Qintex from producing more Chucky movies.
“I got boxes of letters from schoolchildren in Great Britain,” Holland said. “There was an outcry against the movie where I was criticized for making children afraid of their playthings, especially the dolls, and how horrible I was.”
Kirschner said the success of Child’s Play led him into pre-production on a sequel. So Child’s Play 2 was already in development when Universal stepped in.
From Buddy to Chucky
Chucky had already evolved quite a bit by the time they produced the original movie, Kirschner said. The killer doll was originally called Buddy in Don Mancini’s script, Blood Buddy.
Kirschner said Mancini imagined a doll with artificial blood so kids could prick both the doll and their own fingers and play “blood buddies.” In Mancini’s script, young Andy Barclay’s (Alex Vincent) blood brought the doll to life.
“I did not believe for a second that a toy company would ever sell, as part of their package, a needle that you could prick your skin with,” Kirschner said.
So Kirschner thought of the idea that a serial killer could possess the doll. Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) became Chucky.
It was Holland’s idea for Ray to use voodoo to possess the doll. In six sequels and a TV series, Chucky still recites his “Ade Due Damballa” voodoo chant.
In the Blood Buddy version, the killer doll acted on Andy’s behalf. Holland said it was important that Andy remain innocent in the Chucky killings.
“The little boy was using the doll to kill everybody that he didn’t like like the dentist and the teacher,” Holland said of the original script.
Andy returned in the sequel, and became a teenager in Child’s Play 3. Original actor Vincent returned for the films Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky and the current Chucky TV series.
But, Chucky wasn’t not the only evil in Child’s Play. The premise of the Good Guy doll line is that the toy company can sell lonely kids a best friend. Kirschner credited Mancini with that insightful perspective.
“It’s basically so wrong for Madison Avenue to create your child’s best friend,” Kirschner said.
Pioneering Chucky effects
Chucky came to life with the help of Kevin Yagher’s animatronic puppeteering, which advanced in each sequel. Tony Gardner took over the puppet team in the fifth film.
Holland recalled the stress of cutting holes in the floor of the sets to hide Yagher’s puppeteers and cables. The film includes the most convincing Chucky effects, but Holland said the doll did not work as planned in every take.
“I ended up shooting 10 minutes of film, a canister of film every time to see if I could get enough of a moment with the doll looking in the right direction to do the dialogue scenes,” Holland said. “At the same time, I could tell that it was working on a dramatic level just by watching the reactions of the crew around me.”
Other tricks to make the doll work were simpler. When Chucky first attacks Andy’s mom, Karen (Catherine Hicks), Hicks found herself holding a wildly vibrating Chucky.
“We took a Makita electric drill, we took the motor out of that and put it inside Chucky,” Holland said. “That made his arms flail and the feet kick.”
Still, Child’s Play fans never saw all the Chucky footage Holland shot. In the first movie, Kirschner initially felt Holland showed Chucky too much and re-edited the film to leave more of Chucky to the imagination, also inspired by Spielberg.
“We had seen what Spielberg had done with Jaws waiting and waiting to finally see Bruce the shark,” Kirschner said. “We cut 27 minutes out of the film, lots of Chucky stuff that was unnecessary.”
Holland agreed that some of his Chucky effects did not look convincing. Holland filmed a longer conversation between Chucky and his voodoo mentor (Raymond Oliver) using actor Ed Gale in oversized sets to make him appear doll-sized.
After reviewing the full scene, Holland realized the shots of Gale revealed it was a little person, not a doll. A shorter version of the scene appears in the film.
“I couldn’t sustain it,” Holland said. “I could use him in bits and pieces but I couldn’t sustain it for an entire scene.”
Child’s Play 2 ended up benefiting from scenes Holland could not film for Child’s Play. Delays with the animatronic techniques did cause Holland to fall behind schedule, so he could not film the script’s original ending, taking place at the toy factory.
The toy factory climax ultimately appeared in Child’s Play 2. Holland had another idea for the ending of Child’s Play that proved unfeasible.
“My plan was for little Andy to fight Chucky using his toys, using his remote-controlled car and tractor and things like that,” Holland said. “I had to cut that because that was too difficult to pull off.”
In the end, Andy and Karen battle Chucky in their living room. They fail to permanently vanquish Chucky as he is still terrorizing people on TV.
More Chucky is coming
Chucky aired for four episodes of its third season in October. Producers will add four more once the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists strike resolves.
Kirschner said Universal is still interested in more Chucky movies and signed him to produce another one. Kirschner said it will be up to NBCUniversal to decide when it wants another movie during or after the series concludes.
“I signed a deal for a movie when they’re ready,” Kirschner said. “They asked me to. The series is incredibly successful.”
Child’s Play is available to stream on Max and available for rent or purchase on video-on-demand platforms like Amazon, Vudu and Apple.
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