Child's Play

Chicago police detective Mike Norris chases the serial killer Charles Lee Ray, known as the Lakeshore Strangler, through the city streets and into a toy store. Ray's getaway partner Eddie Caputo drives off and leaves him behind. Norris shoots Ray. As he lies dying among the shelves, Ray calls on the voodoo god Damballa and chants a spell that moves his soul into a nearby Good Guy talking doll. Lightning strikes and the store blows up.

Karen Barclay is a widow who works at a department store and raises her six-year-old son Andy alone. Andy wants a Good Guy doll for his birthday, but Karen can't afford one. Her friend and coworker Maggie Peterson hears that a street peddler has one, and Karen buys it from him. Andy loves the doll, which tells him its name is Chucky.

That night Karen works late and Maggie babysits. Chucky comes to life, hits Maggie in the head with a hammer, and she falls out of the window to her death. Norris is on the case and has his doubts about Andy, who says Chucky did it. Andy also says Chucky told him his real name is Charles Lee Ray.

The next day Chucky talks Andy into skipping school and riding the train into a rough part of town. Chucky tracks down Eddie Caputo at his hideout, a condemned house, and kills him in a gas explosion as revenge for leaving him behind. The police find Andy near the scene, and Andy is sent to a psychiatric hospital for observation.

Back at the apartment, Karen finds out the batteries were still in the box. The doll has been talking and moving with no power at all. When she threatens to throw it into the fireplace, Chucky attacks her and gets away. Karen goes to Norris, who doesn't believe her. She tracks down the peddler, who tells her he found the doll in the burned-out toy store. Chucky then attacks Norris, and Norris shoots the doll. It bleeds and cries out, and now Norris believes her.

Chucky goes to John Bishop, the voodoo teacher who taught Ray the spell. John tells him that the longer he stays in the doll, the more human the body becomes. When John won't help, Chucky tortures him with a voodoo doll until he gives up the answer. To get out of the doll, Chucky has to put his soul into the first person he told his secret to, and that is Andy. When Karen and Norris find John, he is bleeding to death. Before he dies, John tells them the way to destroy Chucky is to destroy his heart.

Chucky gets into the psychiatric hospital and kills Andy's doctor, Dr. Ardmore, with an electroshock machine. Andy escapes and runs home, where Chucky knocks him out and starts the chant. Karen and Norris get there in time. They throw Chucky into the fireplace and burn him, and Karen shoots off his head and limbs. The burned, broken doll keeps coming out of the heating vent until Norris shoots him through the heart and kills him.

Story notes

• Single mother Karen Barclay buys her son Andy a Good Guy doll, unaware that serial killer Charles Lee Ray has transferred his soul into it.
• Chucky begins killing while trying to move his soul into Andy's body.

Release facts

• Studio: United Artists Pictures; David Kirschner Productions

MGM/UA skipped Halloween to stay out of the way of Halloween 4 and opened the film on Wednesday, November 9, 1988, the week of Veterans Day. The TV campaign ran three weeks, aimed at viewers 12 to 20, with 15-second spots built around audience reactions and Chucky pitched as a new horror icon.

It opened at number one with $6,583,963 for the weekend and $8,002,841 over five days. Wikipedia puts it in 1,377 theaters. The Hollywood Reporter reported a first day of $600,689 from 1,320 theaters. It finished with $33,244,684 in the US and Canada and $10,952,000 overseas, for $44,196,684 worldwide. That made it United Artists' second-biggest release of 1988 after Rain Man.

Reviews were better than slasher films usually got. Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four, and Leonard Maltin also gave it three. Caryn James of The New York Times called it clever and playful. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times praised its speed and style. Variety called it a near-miss, with fine technique but a thin story. Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune gave it one star. Richard Harrington of The Washington Post thought the finale was a rehash and objected to how realistically a six-year-old was terrorized.

Rotten Tomatoes lists 64 percent positive from 95 reviews with an average of 6.3 out of 10. Metacritic gives it 58 from 18 critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a B.

At the Saturn Awards Catherine Hicks won Best Actress. The film was nominated for Best Horror Film, Alex Vincent for Best Performance by a Younger Actor, and Holland, Lafia and Mancini for Best Writing.

Protesters gathered at MGM's main gate calling for the film to be banned, and local news covered it live. Jeffrey Hilton from Kirschner's office went out, talked with the group's leader and shook his hand, and the crowd broke up. Holland later said he got boxes of letters from British schoolchildren after the film came out there.

In March 1989 a 30-second commercial for the video release showed Chucky coming to life and chasing someone. ABC and CBS pulled it from prime time after complaints from parents and ran it only late at night. NBC kept airing it.

Press and marketing

• Theatrical key-art / poster campaign reference: IMP Awards — Child's Play (1988) poster archive.

Cast

Crew

Production

Don Mancini came up with the idea while studying literature at UCLA in 1985 and wrote the first draft at Columbia University's film school in 1986. He was reacting to 1980s toy marketing, his father's work in advertising, and the Cabbage Patch Kids riots of 1983. Other touchstones were Trilogy of Terror, Magic, Poltergeist, the Twilight Zone episode Living Doll, and Freddy Krueger's wisecracks.

Mancini's script was first called Batteries Not Included. He renamed it Blood Buddy when another film took his title. In that version there was no killer's soul. The doll was a blood-filled toy that acted out Andy's buried anger over his parents' divorce, and the story kept the audience guessing whether Andy or the doll was the killer. Charles Band of Empire Pictures was interested but passed because of the cost.

Producer David Kirschner, fresh off An American Tail, picked up the script. He worried a bleeding doll and a boy's subconscious rage would put people off. He also drew detailed sketches of the doll, and his rewrite and drawings started a bidding war. United Artists won after UA president Tony Thomopoulos and MGM/UA chairman Lee Rich saw a possible franchise. Kirschner told The Hollywood Reporter he thought of the film as the dark side of Pinocchio.

Tom Holland was brought in on Steven Spielberg's recommendation and came up with the idea of a killer possessing the doll. Kirschner named the killer Charles Lee Ray after Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray. Holland couldn't crack how the possession worked and left to direct Fatal Beauty. John Lafia took over the script, wrote the name Chucky, and at one point had Ray's soul moving into the doll during an electric chair execution. The doll had been called Buddy, but that was changed to avoid trouble with Hasbro, which sold the My Buddy doll.

While Holland was away the studio talked to other directors, including William Friedkin, Irvin Kershner, Robert Wise, Joseph Ruben and Howard Franklin. Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel were attached as co-directors for a while. Holland came back after Fatal Beauty and did a heavy final rewrite. He moved the story from the suburbs to the city, made Karen a department store clerk instead of an advertising executive, and brought in voodoo as the way Ray gets into the doll. Holland asked for sole writing credit. Writers Guild arbitration gave screenplay credit to Mancini, Lafia and Holland, with story credit to Mancini.

Auditions started in November 1987 at Hollywood United Methodist Church. Holland cast Chris Sarandon right away after working with him on Fright Night. Catherine Hicks came recommended by Leonard Nimoy, who had directed her in Star Trek IV. Holland saw hundreds of boys for Andy. Alex Vincent had less experience than the other finalists but won the part on his second audition. John Lithgow was considered for Charles Lee Ray before Holland cast Brad Dourif, whom he had just worked with on Fatal Beauty.

Chucky's voice took three tries. The first plan was an electronic voice. John Franklin recorded the lines while Dourif was busy on Mississippi Burning. Test audiences found Franklin too funny, and Dourif was still tied up, this time on Spontaneous Combustion, so Jessica Walter was hired, following the example of Mercedes McCambridge voicing the demon in The Exorcist. In the end Dourif came back and redubbed every line. Franklin can still be seen on screen as the human host of the Good Guy TV show, which was shot after he lost the voice role.

AFI's catalog dates principal photography from January 7, 1988, in Chicago. Wikipedia gives December 31, 1987, to March 5, 1988. MGM/UA wanted the film shot in California to save money, but Kirschner didn't like what he saw on scouting trips to Oakland and San Francisco. The winter shoot was brutal, with wind chills down to 50 below zero. The crew rented rooms and kept station wagons running near the sets as warming spots. After about four weeks in Chicago the production moved to Los Angeles. The end credits thank Chicago Studio City and Culver Studios.

Holland and Kirschner didn't agree on how much of the doll to show. Holland wanted Chucky on screen as much as possible. Kirschner wanted to hold back the way Jaws did. For Andy's crying scene in the hospital, Holland told Vincent his parents were divorcing because of him.

The first rough cut ran close to two hours and tested badly. Kirschner and Mancini cut about 25 minutes, mostly Chucky's screen time. Mental Floss's oral history puts the trim at about 30 minutes. Holland objected and left, and Mancini and Lafia were brought back to help re-edit. MGM/UA nearly shelved the picture during Kirk Kerkorian's reshuffling of the studio, but the new cut tested well in Southern California and the release went ahead.

Don Mancini first circulated the screenplay as Batteries Not Included, then changed its title to Blood Buddy after learning of another film using the original title.

Mancini’s early version made the doll an expression of Andy’s suppressed anger. A blood-sharing ritual animated a toy designed to bleed when damaged.

David Kirschner wanted a more sympathetic child protagonist. John Lafia’s revisions introduced Charles Lee Ray and the name Chucky, before Tom Holland’s further rewriting.

Mancini identified Freddy Krueger’s verbal taunting as an influence on Chucky’s abrasive personality.

Principal photography began in Chicago on January 7, 1988. After four weeks, filming moved to Los Angeles.

During the winter location shoot, nearby rented rooms and heated station wagons provided warm spaces for the cast and crew.

Filming locations

• Brewster Apartments, 2800 N. Pine Grove Avenue at Diversey Parkway, Lake View, Chicago: Karen and Andy Barclay's apartment building; also seen in the poster art
• Playland Toys shop, 418 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago: Toy store where Charles Lee Ray dies
• Carson Pirie Scott and Company Building, 1 South State Street, Chicago: Department store scenes
• Condemned house in North Chicago: Eddie Caputo's hideout
• Municipal Contagious Disease Hospital, South Lawndale, Chicago: Psychiatric hospital
• Illinois Eastern Hospital for the Insane, Kankakee, Illinois: Psychiatric hospital
• Chicago Studio City: Stage work, thanked in the end credits
• Culver Studios, Culver City, California: Stage work after the production left Chicago
• The Brewster Building Apartments at 2800 N. Pine Grove Avenue in Chicago doubled as Karen and Andy Barclay's apartment building and appears in the film's poster imagery.
• Chicago location work included Lake View and downtown locations; studio work was also completed at Culver Studios in California.
• The Carson Pirie Scott department store at 1 South State Street was among the Chicago filming locations.

Effects and makeup

Kirschner first hired Chris Walas of Gremlins to build the doll, but Walas left to direct The Fly II. Rick Baker turned the job down. Kevin Yagher took over and designed and built Chucky from Kirschner's graphite drawings. Howard Berger ran the Chucky construction shop.

The team built several animatronic Chuckys, each for a different job. There was one for walking, one for flailing tantrums, and one for sitting still in close-ups. The doll changes over the film. His hairline slowly recedes so he looks more like Brad Dourif as Charles Lee Ray.

Running the doll took a whole crew. Wikipedia counts nine puppeteers. In the Mental Floss oral history, crew members recall around 11 people on some shots. The mechanism made a loud squeaking noise, simply pressing a button took 27 takes, and the doll's fingers had to be replaced three times a day.

For wide shots of Chucky running and fighting, Ed Gale, who is 3 foot 6, wore a Chucky suit. Holland also used forced-perspective sets with short actors and children as doubles, including Alex Vincent's sister Ashley.

For the fireplace scene Gale was set on fire a piece at a time: one arm, then his chest, then both arms, each burn lasting about 45 seconds. On one take the crew dropped him six to eight feet into the fireplace. He hurt his back and burned his wrists.

Richard Helmer supervised the physical effects, Peter Donen the visual effects, and Apogee did visual effects work. The Good Guy TV cartoon was animated by Ruby-Spears Enterprises. Michael A. Hancock was the makeup artist.

Production used radio-controlled animatronics, puppets and human performers to portray Chucky.

Kevin Yagher led the Chucky effects work after earlier effects-team changes.

Multiple purpose-built Chucky rigs were created for walking, tantrum/flailing and stationary performance, with the doll's appearance gradually becoming more human.

Props and costumes

AFI credits David Kirschner with creating the Chucky doll, Kevin Yagher with designing and executing it, and Beverly Lazor-Bahr with the Good Guy illustrations used on the packaging and props.

April Ferry designed the costumes, with Mort Schwartz as costume supervisor. The Chucky construction unit had its own hair people (Zandra Platzek and Ron Pipes II) and lab technicians (Jim Kagel, Rick La Londe, Carl Sorensen and Chris Swift).

Arthur B. Shippee Jr. was property master in Los Angeles and William Dambra ran props for the Chicago crew.

A production-used A-camera clapperboard from the shoot, later signed by Tom Holland, was sold through Propstore with a Propstore certificate of authenticity.

AFI credits Beverly Lazor-Bahr with the Good Guy illustrations, April Ferry as costume designer, and Kevin Yagher with designing and executing the Chucky doll; the production maintained separate prop/costume and Chucky-construction crews for the toy-world material.

The Chucky construction unit included dedicated hair, lab and mechanical technicians, underscoring that the Good Guy doll was treated as a purpose-built effects character rather than a single static prop.

Design

Production artifacts

Scripts and documents

The killers

Deaths

Charles Lee Ray (human body)

Played by

Brad Dourif

How

Shot by Norris; dies after casting the voodoo spell that moves his soul into a Good Guy doll, just before the store explodes

Where

Toy store, Chicago

By

Detective Mike Norris

Maggie Peterson

Played by

Dinah Manoff

How

Hit in the head with a hammer and falls out a window

Where

Barclay apartment

By

Chucky

Eddie Caputo

Played by

Neil Giuntoli

How

Killed when Chucky sets off a gas explosion in his hideout

Where

Condemned house

By

Chucky

John 'Dr. Death' Bishop

Played by

Raymond Oliver

How

Tortured with a voodoo doll; bleeds to death after Karen and Norris find him

Where

John's apartment

By

Chucky

Dr. Ardmore

Played by

Jack Colvin

How

Electrocuted with an electroshock therapy machine

Where

Psychiatric hospital

By

Chucky

Chucky

Played by

Brad Dourif (voice)

How

Burned, shot to pieces, then shot through the heart

Where

Barclay apartment

By

Karen Barclay and Mike Norris

Joe Renzetti wrote the score. United Artists and Holland had planned a full orchestral score, but Renzetti pushed for electronic music. He and Craig Harris composed most of it on a Synclavier and turned the MIDI data into sheet music so an orchestra could play parts of it. Arlon Ober did orchestration. Music supervisor David Chackler said Renzetti wrote the score in three weeks.

Part of the score came out on vinyl in 1989.

Waxwork Records later put out the complete score on a 2xLP set from the original 1988 master tapes, remastered for vinyl. The 180-gram records came in fire orange with blood splatter and red, white and blue with a blood swirl, in a tip-on gatefold jacket with art by Phantom City Creative.

Soundtrack releases

Home Media

• 1989 VHS, MGM/UA Home Video, released April 25, 1989.
• 1999 DVD, MGM Home Entertainment, released September 28, 1999. Open-matte full-screen transfer, theatrical trailer and a making-of booklet. The Australian DVD had a non-anamorphic widescreen transfer.
• 2007 DVD reissue with a lenticular cover.
• 2008 20th Anniversary DVD, MGM and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, released September 9, 2008. First US release in the original 1.85:1 widescreen, 16x9 enhanced, with English 5.1 and 2.0 plus French and Spanish tracks. Extras: commentary with Alex Vincent, Catherine Hicks and Kevin Yagher; commentary with David Kirschner and Don Mancini; select-scene commentary by Chucky; the Evil Comes in Small Packages featurettes; the vintage 1988 featurette Introducing Chucky: The Making of Child's Play; Chucky: Building a Nightmare; theatrical trailer; photo gallery. Tom Holland wasn't involved and later recorded a free downloadable commentary for the Icons of Fright website.
• 2009 Blu-ray, released September 15, 2009.
• 2013 Chucky: The Complete Collection, DVD and Blu-ray, released October 8, 2013, with all six films through Curse of Chucky.
• 2016 Scream Factory Collector's Edition Blu-ray, released October 18, 2016.
• 2017 Chucky: Complete 7-Movie Collection, Universal, DVD and Blu-ray, released October 3, 2017.
• 2022 Scream Factory Collector's Edition 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray, released August 16, 2022. New 4K scan of the original camera negative with Dolby Vision and HDR10 and a Dolby Atmos track. Commentaries by Tom Holland; Alex Vincent, Catherine Hicks and Kevin Yagher; David Kirschner and Don Mancini; plus the select-scene Chucky commentary. The Blu-ray discs carry new and older extras and the 2016 remaster.
• 2023 Arrow Video The Chucky Collection, limited edition 8-disc set, released December 18, 2023. Child's Play is on 1080p Blu-ray from MGM's 2012 master, with stereo 2.0 and DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio. Extras: both group commentaries, the scene-specific Chucky commentary, Evil Comes in Small Packages, Chucky: Building a Nightmare, A Monster Convention, Introducing Chucky and an image gallery. The set comes with new artwork, an illustrated booklet and three double-sided posters.

• SuperCute Plush Child's Play 12-inch Chucky, Funko.
• MDS Mega Scale Child's Play: Talking Good Guys Chucky, Mezco Toyz.
• Child's Play: Talking Sneering Chucky, Mezco Toyz mega scale figure.
• Good Guys T-shirt, Fright-Rags, art by Nik Holmes, showing Chucky and Andy with a Friends til the End slogan.
• Child's Play original motion picture music, Waxwork Records 2xLP.
• Child's Play studio press kit, 1988, with three photographs, held in the University of Illinois Rare Book and Manuscript Library's Leskosky press-kit collection.
• Funko SuperCute Plush Child's Play 12-inch Chucky.

The catalog

Official trailer

Gallery

Posters & Key Art

Film Stills

Behind the Scenes

Press & Promo

Effects

Props

Home Media

Merchandise