When I originally reviewed the film, I initially gave it a decent review. After my second viewing, my thoughts on the film relatively remain the same. The film might not have the cheesy serial killer storyline of the original, but it still provides social commentary about the use of a tech ecosystem to help with our lives. Sure, that might not be great for fans who just want to simply watch a horror film. Yet Child’s Play at least tries to differentiate itself from the original by modernizing it for a newer audience.
Unfortunately, Child’s Play doesn’t quite hammer this idea home all the time. Tonally, it doesn’t know whether it wants to be a film about the dangers of technology or if it’s about a kid who finds friends through Chucky. At times, it feels like it’s trying to be like “Stranger Things” but at least “Stranger Things” knew what it was. Child’s Play… Not so much.
To its credit, the film does have some fun—especially in the early stages of Andy and Chucky’s relationship. However, this also means that there aren’t enough impactful kills in this film either. The focus on Chucky’s obsession over Andy takes away from the killing spree were used to seeing in a Child’s Play film. As a result, the film just isn’t that scary.
Not to mention, Chucky’s design is absolutely goofy looking and off-putting. Yes, there are times it looks good—such as the last scenes where he tries to kill Andy. But most of the time, Chucky and the other Buddi dolls don’t look like a normal looking toy. As goofy as Chucky looks, the new iteration portrays Chucky as a sympathetic character. You really feel for him as the digresses into a psycho killer doll.
Overall, Child’s Play is a respectable and fun remake that tries to differentiate itself from the original by making it for modern times. However, the film is tonally all over the place. Not to mention, the film isn’t all that scary either. The film has a ton of gore but those are few and far between.
Movie Rating: 3/5 atoms
Video
Child’s Play hits Blu-ray with a 1080p MPEG-AVC with a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Since this is a horror movie, it only makes sense that a majority of the movie takes place at night. That being said, whenever lights and bright areas come into play, the medium contrast and brightness make these areas jump off the screen. Thankfully, the medium contrast helps with the black levels as well. There’s a consistency to the shade of blacks. Also, a lot of details can be seen in the shadow areas too.
The movie also features a wide array of rich and vibrant colors that jump off the screen. This includes all of the blood splatter and neon-colored lights that colorize an entire scene. Also, the details are incredibly clear in this release as well. Yes, that means that every single gory detail in this film can clearly be seen. Overall, this is a pretty impressive video transfer.
Video Rating: 5/5 atoms
Audio
Child’s Play hits Blu-ray with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track. The audio mix isn’t really that dynamic and the mix is usually relegated to the front. However, there are a few instances where the sound does move across the soundstage. Though these moments are limited. This also includes the mix’s atmospherics too.
Despite the lack of dynamic sound, the mix immerses you through the accurate placement of sound effects in a scene. At the same time, the music complete fills up the entire soundstage with Bear McCreary’s score. Unfortunately, there’s an inconsistency to the mix’s layering of instruments. There are times where it’s layered and other times it’s not. Overall, this is a decent audio mix.
Audio Rating: 4/5 atoms
Special Features
Child’s Play has the following special features on the Blu-ray disc:
- Audio Commentary by Lars Klevberg
- The Making of Child’s Play
- Bringing Child’s Play‘s Chucky to Life
- Soundtrack Trailer
- Lee Hardcastle Claymations
- Toy Massacre
- A.I. Mayhem
- Gallery
- Theatrical Trailer
The Lars Klevberg commentary is a great to listen to if you have any remote interest in the making of the film. Klevberg tells so many behind-the-scenes stories, shares his scene inspirations, and gives filmmaking tips during the audio commentary. You’ll definitely learn something by listening to Klevberg talk.
The “Making of” featurette is a bit lackluster. You visually see a lot of the behind-the-scenes work that went into the film. However, you don’t really learn anything by watching the featurette. On the other hand, “Bringing Chucky to Life” is an incredibly interesting featurette. The amount of work that went into Chucky is astounding. From the building of the animatronic Chucky to controlling him, it’s nice to see all the hard work come to the light in this bonus feature.
Although the name “Soundtrack Trailer” sounds like a skippable feature, it isn’t. It’s a music video featuring composer Bear McCreary playing all the instruments that make up the theme song of the film. It’s cool seeing all of the strange instruments that went into the making of the film’a theme song.
“Lee Hardcastle Claymations” are a super violent claymation where Chucky brutally kills a lot of people. We even see Chucky kill a familiar (but not so familiar that it infringes on Pixar’s property) toy cowboy.
Special Features Rating: 3/5 atoms
Overall, Child’s Play a respectable and fun reimagination of the original film. Creating the film as a warning about the danger of technology is the best way to remake Child’s Play today. Unfortunately, the end result is something that doesn’t quite hammer the message home well. The picture looks great but the audio is a bit lacking. There aren’t a lot of special features but the audio commentary is a great listen.
Overall Rating: 4/5 atoms
This Blu-ray was reviewed using a retail/advance copy/unit provided by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
The post Child’s Play (2019) – Blu-ray Review appeared first on Nerd Reactor.
from Nerd Reactor
0 comments: