Child's Play 2

Two years after Chucky was destroyed, the Play Pals toy company is still fighting bad press over the Good Guy doll. To prove nothing was wrong with it, the company gets hold of the burned remains and rebuilds the doll at its factory. During the rebuild a power surge electrocutes one of the workers, and Chucky comes back to life. Company boss Sullivan orders his assistant Mattson to get rid of the doll.

Karen Barclay has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for saying the doll was alive, and eight-year-old Andy is in foster care. Chucky rides along in Mattson's car, uses the car phone to trick Grace Poole at the foster center into giving out Andy's new address, and makes Mattson drive him there. Then he suffocates Mattson with a plastic bag.

Andy has been placed with Phil and Joanne Simpson, a couple who take in foster kids. Their other foster child is Kyle, a tough teenage girl. Chucky swaps himself for Tommy, the Good Guy doll the Simpsons bought, and buries Tommy in the yard. He also smashes a family heirloom, and Andy and Kyle get blamed. Chucky then shows Andy he's alive and starts the chant to move his soul into him, but Kyle walks in and the ritual stops. She doesn't realize the doll is alive. Phil throws the doll in the basement, and there Chucky figures out his body is turning human.

Chucky sneaks along to Andy's school and ruins his homework, which gets Andy in trouble with his teacher, Miss Kettlewell. Chucky kills her, stabbing her with an air pump and beating her with a yardstick, and Andy gets away. Andy tells Phil, who won't listen.

That night Andy goes down to the basement with an electric carving knife to kill Chucky, and the two fight. Phil comes down the stairs to see what's going on, and Chucky trips him. Phil falls, breaks his neck and dies. Joanne blames Andy and sends him back to the foster center. Kyle finds the buried Tommy doll and realizes Andy was telling the truth. She rushes home to warn Joanne and finds Chucky has already killed her.

Chucky ambushes Kyle and forces her to drive him to the foster center. He stabs Grace Poole to death and grabs Andy. Chucky makes Andy take him to the Play Pals factory and tries the chant again, but it fails. He has been in the doll too long, and now he's stuck in plastic for good. Furious, he decides to kill Andy.

Kyle follows them into the factory. On the assembly line Chucky's hand gets crushed in a gate, so he cuts it off and jams a knife into the stump. He kills a factory technician, and Kyle and Andy hurt Chucky badly with the machines. He comes back and knocks Kyle down using the dead technician's body. Andy pours hot melted plastic over Chucky, which seems to finish him. Chucky climbs out one last time, and Kyle shoves a high-pressure air hose into his mouth. His head swells up and blows apart. Andy and Kyle walk out of the factory together, not sure where they'll go next.

Story notes

• Two years after the first film, the Play Pals company rebuilds the damaged Good Guy doll.
• Chucky returns and tracks Andy Barclay to foster care, where Andy and foster sister Kyle fight to stop him.

Release facts

• Studio: Living Doll Productions; A David Kirschner Production

Universal opened the film November 9, 1990. It debuted at number one with $10,718,520 from 1,996 screens. AFI notes it had dropped to $23.1 million by the end of the month. Box Office Mojo lists a final take of $28,501,605 in the US and Canada and $7,262,000 overseas, for $35,763,605 worldwide.

To promote the film, Universal ran a 900 phone number where fans could hear Chucky's voice. Daily Variety reported 40,000 calls in the first month.

Critics were harder on this one. Rotten Tomatoes lists 53 percent positive from 17 reviews, and Metacritic gives it 37 from 16 critics. Variety said it rehashed the original's few new ideas until they went numb. Gene Siskel gave it zero stars. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it handsome but morbid. Richard Harrington of The Washington Post said it wasn't as good as the first but beat most sequels. Years later Evan Dickson of Bloody Disgusting praised it as a stripped-down, effective slasher.

The strong opening got Child's Play 3 greenlit right away, with a release date only nine months off.

Press and marketing

• Theatrical key-art / poster campaign reference: IMP Awards — Child's Play 2 poster archive.

Cast

Crew

Production

The first film did well enough for United Artists to order a sequel. Tom Holland was asked back but said no because of his fights with Kirschner and the studio. John Lafia had been turned down as a director before for lack of experience, but after he directed The Blue Iguana he got the job. Don Mancini wrote the script. The foster home setting came from Lafia's own background.

MGM/UA also paid Mark Patrick Carducci to write a backup script, which put Andy in a mental hospital. It was never used. Then the Australian company Qintex moved to buy United Artists, and UA president Richard Berger told Kirschner the film was on hold. AFI notes that child advocacy groups cheered the cancellation.

Kirschner took the film to other studios. Disney, which was already working with him on Hocus Pocus, wanted it for its Touchstone label and hoped to build a horror attraction around Chucky at the Disney-MGM Studios theme park. Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy helped Universal's Sid Sheinberg talk Kirschner into going with Universal. AFI reports Universal took distribution rights in March 1990.

An early draft opened with a courtroom scene explaining how Karen ended up committed, with Catherine Hicks and Chris Sarandon coming back. Sarandon told People in 2023 that he turned it down because Holland wasn't directing. Another draft had Chucky's remains in a police evidence locker next to Jason and Michael Myers masks.

Veronica Cartwright was considered for Joanne before Jenny Agutter got the part. Gerrit Graham beat out Jeffrey Jones, Tim Matheson and Charles Grodin for Phil. Shannen Doherty, Kristy Swanson and Holly Marie Combs all read for Kyle. Christine Elise almost missed her final audition because she was shooting an episode of Baywatch.

Principal photography began November 6, 1989, on a $12 million budget, according to AFI. Robert Latham Brown ran the production day to day while Kirschner handled his new job at Hanna-Barbera. Almost everything was shot on the Universal Studios lot, unlike the Chicago location work on the first film.

On December 1, 1989, IATSE began picketing the set to demand union representation. The crew voted to sign a union contract, which took effect January 8, 1990, with eleven days left on a 55-day schedule.

Filming locations

• Universal Studios lot, Universal City, California: Most of the film, including the Simpson house, school and foster center scenes
• Abandoned warehouse, Valencia, California: Play Pals factory climax
• Principal photography began November 6, 1989 at Universal Studios; AFI records a fifty-five-day shooting schedule for the sequel.

Effects and makeup

Kevin Yagher came back to design and engineer Chucky, and he directed the second unit.

Brad Dourif recorded all his lines before filming, so the puppeteers could match Chucky's mouth to his voice. The lip sync is tighter than in the first film.

The credited Chucky puppeteers were N. Brock Winkless IV, David Nelson, Sandey Grinn, F. Charles Lutkus III, Shannon Shea, Kevin Carlson, Anton P. Rupprecht, Michael A. Trcic, Mecki Heussen, Van Snowden and Ron Pipes. Mark C. Yagher managed the Chucky effects studio.

Ed Gale was hired again as Chucky's body, but far fewer of his shots made the final cut than in the first film.

Peter M. Chesney coordinated the mechanical effects. Deborah Larsen was key makeup artist and Scott Williams key hair stylist.

Studio production notes describe three distinct Chucky systems: a full-body cable-controlled standing doll operated by nine puppeteers, a servo-motor remote-control doll, and a third upper-body unit.

Dialogue close-ups were photographed at 18 frames per second to give Kevin Yagher's team more time to synchronize the animatronic face to Brad Dourif's prerecorded lines.

Props and costumes

Pamela Skaist designed the costumes. Marilyn Dozer handled Chucky's wardrobe inside Kevin Yagher's effects shop. Kirk Corwin was property master.

Tommy, the Good Guy doll Chucky replaces, was voiced by Edan Gross, the same actor who voiced the friendly Good Guy doll in the first film.

A Good Guys factory doll dressed in screen-matched Chucky dungarees went up at Propstore auction with a $40,000 to $80,000 estimate and did not sell. The lot included the head skin, hands and body from the factory scenes, production shoes, a striped shirt believed original, and replacement eyes. It matched to the factory rebuild and the Mattson car scene.

A screen-matched melted Chucky from the conveyor belt scene sold through Propstore London in 2022 with an estimate of 4,000 to 6,000 pounds. It is built from fused doll limbs, foam latex shoes, distressed costume fabric and internal wiring for smoke effects, mounted on a green wooden base, and measures 19 by 21.75 by 14.25 inches.

AFI credits Marilyn Dozer as Chucky costumer within Kevin Yagher Productions; Pamela Skaist designed the film's costumes, while Kirk Corwin served as prop master.

Design

Production artifacts

Art and design

• The IMP Awards one-sheet credits poster design to Tom Martin.

Scripts and documents

The killers

Deaths

Play Pals assembly line worker

Played by

Not confirmed

How

Electrocuted by the power surge that brings Chucky back

Where

Play Pals factory lab

By

Power surge during Chucky's rebuild

Mattson

Played by

Greg Germann

How

Suffocated with a plastic bag

Where

Mattson's car outside the Simpson house

By

Chucky

Miss Kettlewell

Played by

Beth Grant

How

Stabbed with an air pump and beaten to death with a yardstick

Where

Andy's school classroom

By

Chucky

Phil Simpson

Played by

Gerrit Graham

How

Tripped on the basement stairs; breaks his neck in the fall

Where

Simpson house basement

By

Chucky

Joanne Simpson

Played by

Jenny Agutter

How

Murdered by Chucky while Andy is gone; Kyle comes home and finds her body

Where

Simpson house

By

Chucky

Grace Poole

Played by

Grace Zabriskie

How

Stabbed to death

Where

Foster center

By

Chucky

Factory technician

Played by

Not confirmed

How

Killed during the chase; Chucky then uses the body to knock Kyle down

Where

Play Pals factory floor

By

Chucky

Graeme Revell wrote the score. His only feature before this was the Australian thriller Dead Calm (1989), and Wikipedia says he got the job by telling the studio he had already written an orchestral piece, which wasn't true.

Unlike Joe Renzetti's electronic score for the first film, this one is fully orchestral with some electronics. Shirley Walker conducted and orchestrated it, with additional orchestration by Bruce Fowler, and the Hollywood Studio Symphony played it. Bruce Botnick mixed the recording sessions.

Waxwork Records and Enjoy The Ride Records released the score as a 2xLP, its first time on vinyl. It has 26 tracks over three sides, including Main Title, Electrocution, The Chant and End Credits. The fourth side is screen-printed with Chucky's bloody footprints, and the gatefold jacket includes a double-sided insert that recreates the homework from the film.

Soundtrack releases

Home Media

• 1991 VHS, MCA/Universal Home Video, North America, released April 11, 1991.
• 1999 DVD, released in a two-pack with Bride of Chucky.
• 2003 The Chucky Collection DVD set with Child's Play 3 and Bride of Chucky, released October 7, 2003.
• 2006 Chucky: The Killer DVD Collection with Child's Play 3, Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky, released September 19, 2006.
• 2013 Chucky: The Complete Collection, DVD and Blu-ray, released October 8, 2013.
• 2017 Chucky: Complete 7-Movie Collection, DVD and Blu-ray, released October 3, 2017.
• 2022 Scream Factory Collector's Edition 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray, released August 16, 2022. First 4K release in North America, from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative, with Dolby Vision, HDR10 and a new Dolby Atmos track. Includes interviews with Don Mancini, Alex Vincent, David Kirschner, Christine Elise, Beth Grant and Robert Latham Brown.
• 2023 Arrow Video The Chucky Collection, released December 18, 2023. Child's Play 2 is on 4K UHD in 2160p with Dolby Vision, HDR10, DTS-HD MA 2.0 and Dolby Atmos. Extras: John Lafia commentary; interviews with Don Mancini, Alex Vincent, David Kirschner, Christine Elise, Beth Grant and Robert Latham Brown; extra scenes from the broadcast TV version; promotional featurettes; theatrical trailer; TV spot; image gallery.

• Child's Play 2 novelization by Matthew J. Costello. It gives Chucky a backstory the film doesn't, including strangling his mother at 13 and burying her in a local park.
• Ultimate Chucky 7-inch scale action figure, NECA, with five heads, extra hands, a ruler, air pump, knife, Good Guy shovel, jack-in-the-box, scissors and a Good Guy box.
• NECA's Child's Play 2 / Chucky TV Good Guy Blind Box Series 2 includes Poster Chucky, Thanksgiving Chucky, Good Guy Tommy and Busted-Up Tommy variants.
• Homicidal Chucky (Blood Splatter), Good Guys Chucky and Evil Chucky ReAction figures, Super7.
• MDS Mega Scale Child's Play 2: Talking Menacing Chucky, Mezco Toyz.
• Very Naughty T-shirt, Hide the Soul T-shirt and Very Naughty blue overalls tie-dye shirt, Cavity Colors.
• Fright Facts Series 8 trading cards, Fright-Rags, with a Child's Play II card in the ten-card set.
• Child's Play 2 original motion picture soundtrack, Waxwork Records and Enjoy The Ride Records 2xLP.
• Child's Play 2 studio press kit, 1990, with three photographs, held in the University of Illinois Rare Book and Manuscript Library's Leskosky press-kit collection.
• NECA Child's Play 2 Ultimate Chucky 7-inch-scale figure with five interchangeable heads, multiple hands, alternate forearm, ruler, air pump, knife, Good Guy shovel, jack-in-the-box, scissors and Good Guy box.

Books and publishing

Trading cards

The catalog

Official trailer

Gallery

Posters & Key Art

Film Stills

Press & Promo

Effects

Props

Costumes