(Reviewed by Snake-666) - Fun, but often dull, horror movie.  A mother (Catherine Hicks) gives her young son Andy (Alex Vincent) a ‘Good Guy' doll that he desperately wanted for his birthday. Unknown to, this doll contains the spirit of Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif), the notorious Lakeshore strangler, who after being mortally wounded in a shoot out with police office Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) passed his soul into the doll so that he could continue living. However Charles (nicknamed Chucky) does not want to be a doll forever which is very bad news for Andy.

The movie is a little slow but, considering the rather daft subject and plotline, manages to be rather tense in places and delivers a couple of shocks. Created by Tom Holland, who previously brought us ‘Fright Night' and wrote ‘Psycho II', ‘Child's Play' is the film that started the rather brief influx of killer toy movies (‘Puppet Master' being the only other that was really any good) and through it's rather poor sequels helped to end the same fad. This original isn't all bad but becomes rather tedious after numerous watches. There are only so many times you can watch the same movie about the same killer doll without the absurdity of the situation beginning to bother you. However, for horror fans that have not already seen this movie, it is worth checking out. The acting is quite accomplished for an Eighties horror movie, and the story itself is not actually that bad. Questions are left, but the idea is simple though tries to be too complex in parts and that subtracts from the enjoyment of the movie.

It's astonishing that Chucky has become such a cult icon since the making of this film and it is worth watching this movie just to see if you can guess why? The foul-mouthed little murderer is in some ways kind of loveable and his occasional one-line jokes in this film do offer an enjoyable source of comic relief. Unlike it's sequels, especially ‘Bride of Chucky' (1998), ‘Child's Play' is generally a more `serious' horror film, lacking much gore despite a few grisly scenes, the movie tries to rely more on suspense and tension but it's attempts often lead to rather dull and uneventful moments. Tom Holland did direct this movie well, a number of scenes stay in the mind after viewing including the final moments which are some of the more exciting scenes in horror for films of the late Eighties, but occasionally Holland's judgement seemed to slip and the viewer is left with overly repetitive and eventually dull moments.

Not to everyone's liking but probably for fans of 1980's horror cheese, even if the movie does try to be too serious in places, I enjoy this movie though it does not stand up to repeated viewing. If not for the dull moments I probably would hold the movie in higher regard. My rating for ‘Child's Play' – 6.5/10