Possibly the least Chicago movie ever set in Chicago (other than a shot of a Windy City train track, the entire movie was filmed in southern California and mostly looks it), Child's Play 2 is otherwise a pretty solid sequel with a delightfully grisly final sequence and a character actor smorgasbord of a cast. Yeah, it's a little thin storywise compared to its predecessor, and the animatronic effects are cranked up to such an extent that Chucky gives off serious uncanny valley vibes, but Child's Play 2 retains the first film's sense of humor, unflagging pace, and fun.
Didn't Chucky get burned to a crisp at the end of the first movie, you ask (or were asking in 1990)? Why, yes, he did, but the charred corpse of the possessed Chucky doll is back in the hands of the Play Pals corporation, who decide to scrape all the burned gunk off and reassemble the doll by hand to show the nervous stockholders that it's just a freakin' doll and not some kind of supernatural killing machine, which, of course, unintentionally brings Chucky back to life since his soul is still trapped in the doll. Believe science, people. The Chicago Police Department has decided to stick with the regular doll story, too. The coverup makes Karen Barclay look crazy, so she's been institutionalized, and her son, Andy (Alex Vincent, reprising his role from the first movie), has been placed in foster care. Catherine Hicks, who played Karen, does not appear in this movie. We only learn about her fate through exposition delivered by the other characters. She was on set for most of the shoot, however. She fell in love with special effects man Kevin Yagher on the set of the first movie and was between projects while this one was being filmed, so she decided to hang out with her new husband and his effects crew while they worked. Hicks and Yagher are still married and have a daughter.
Going back to the coverup angle, I appreciate the movie beginning right from the jump with the idea that corporations and police departments are always going to cover their own asses instead of doing the right thing. Too many movies put forth the idea that once the truth comes out, people and institutions will respect that truth. Yeah, right.
Back to Andy. He's in a foster home run by Grace Poole (Grace Zabriskie) and is about to be fostered by a couple named Joanne and Phil Simpson, played by Jenny Agutter and Gerrit Graham. Damn, that is a lot of cult movie star power in one room. These might be the most square characters Zabriskie, Agutter, and Graham have ever played, but they do get to insert a few quirks, and I always enjoy watching all three of them. The Simpsons have taken in a lot of foster kids over the years, but Phil is hesitant about Andy's mental state, though Joanne immediately takes to him. The only other foster child currently staying at the Simpsons' comfortable but frighteningly pink and antique-filled home is tough teenage girl Kyle (Christine Elise), who is a bit standoffish at first but quickly bonds with Andy.
Meanwhile, the newly refurbished Chucky finds out where Andy's staying and tracks him down. He needs to get his soul in the kid's body so he's not trapped in a doll for the rest of whatever the natural lifespan of a deceased killer brought back to life through voodoo and stuck in a doll is (56 years? 20? 300?). I actually felt a little pity for Chucky this time (the voice of Brad Dourif). He's a terrible guy, but imagine being stuck in a doll's body. The franchise would use the human-soul-inside-a-doll story origins to explore gender fluidity and trans issues in later installments, but the queer text of Child's Play is still pretty hidden in the subtext in these first few movies.
Once Chucky makes it to Andy's foster parents' home, the movie turns into a cat-and-mouse chase for most of the second half, moving from the Simpson household back to Grace Poole's foster home to the streets of Chi-california-cago to the Play Pals factory assembly line as Andy and Kyle pummel and get pummeled by Chucky. Cat-and-mouse can be horrendously dull if done poorly, but things are kept brisk and wild and entertaining here. Our boy Chucky really goes through it in the finale, inspiring even more pity despite his murderous behavior. The practical effects work of Yagher and his team gets a nice showcase in this factory scene.
Vincent and Elise have good chemistry as foster kids, and, as an audience member, I really bought into their camaraderie and Kyle's growing affection and big-sister/mentor role toward Andy. I also thought the movie did a good job depicting Andy trying to adjust to a home environment he didn't grow up in and never getting the understanding he needed from Phil until it was too late. It never gets too heavy-handed, and there's a nicely understated naturalism to the performances that you may not expect from a killer doll movie.
Don Mancini, creator of the franchise, is back as screenwriter in part two. As I mentioned when reviewing Child's Play, Mancini has written or co-written every installment in the series and directed three of them, and he's the showrunner for the recent TV series. The only Child's Play release he wasn't involved with was the mediocre 2019 remake. John Lafia, co-writer of the first movie, takes over for Tom Holland as director. He's not quite as visually skilled as Holland, but he acquits himself nicely. Lafia is the guy who came up with the name Chucky when he and Holland revised Mancini's original script. Sadly, Lafia, who lived with depression for most of his life, committed suicide last year at the age of 63. A fascinating guy, Lafia was a part of the Los Angeles underground rock scene in the early and mid-'80s, releasing several albums on small indie labels, before his film career took off. In addition to his music and film work, Lafia was a poet, a director of live action video games, a proponent and creator of interactive VR technology, and a television director, and he'd returned to making music full-time in the last several years before his death.
Child's Play 3 followed just ten months later (it was rushed into production after this movie was a big hit) but is set eight years after Child's Play 2. Since 2 was set in the present, does this make Child's Play 3 a science fiction movie?
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