Child's Play

I'll be honest, the "Child's Play" franchise created by Don Mancini has never been a favorite of mine. The original starring Catherine Hicks was an amusing silly concept made sillier by Brad Dourif's serial killer Chucky voice. The sequels became goofier as they went on because the filmmakers knew the concept was ridiculous and, to be honest, not frightening in the least.

So when a reboot was announced (not sanctioned by Mancini), I didn't have any sour feelings about them ruining a classic franchise. Really, nothing could make it any – let's just say it – dumber than it already was. And while the reboot offers a fresh and more logical take on the killer doll's creation, it still doesn't do much to make it any more interesting.

This time around, instead of a voodoo possession angle, the doll in question – called Buddi – is an A.I. doll that controls all of the products by an Apple-style outfit called Kaslan. Not only can it turn on your TV or stereo, but it also imprints on its "owner" and starts to learn about them and adjust its behavior accordingly. So when the supervisor of an offshore manufacturing company in Thailand abuses one of its workers, that worker decides to manipulate the microchip of one of the dolls to allow it to pretty much do anything it wants, including commit violence. (Because, for reasons unknown, Kaslan has to deactivate a violence option before the dolls are released to the public?)

That doll ends up in the hands of department store worker Karen Barclay (Aubrey Plaza) and her loner son Andy (Gabriel Bateman). It quickly proves defective, but for some reason, Andy takes a shine to the ugly thing and it begins to learn all about Andy. The problem is that if anyone gets on Andy's bad side or "hurts" him, the Buddi doll – who names itself Chucky – will take revenge for his "best buddy."

That's the story in a nutshell. How this little doll is able to strongarm anyone is a mystery, as is it its ability to show up anywhere that is convenient. "Logical" isn't the most accurate word to use to describe the script by Tyler Burton Smith, whose previous work includes the stories for a few video games. Director Lars Klevberg (the still-unreleased "Polaroid") doesn't add much visual flair or suspense to the proceedings, making "Child's Play" suffer the worst horror movie fate imaginable: It's boring.

Never scary, not funny, and hardly clever, this reboot feels a lot like the remake of "Poltergeist" in which there is not only a point to remaking it, but it feels rushed and cheap. Utilizing the always-funny and dry Aubrey Plaza could have given this remake the added boost of sarcasm and sass it needed. While she injects a bit of her comedic personality into the proceedings, she is never allowed to go full out – something the film desperately needs.

The setting itself takes place mostly in Andy and Karen's apartment building and in the department store Karen works at, which is so bland and nondescript it looks like a second-hand Salvation Army. Buddi is so high-tech and expensive, you can't imagine it would sell at such an understocked and under-marked store such as "Zed's." It's like the production designer never set foot inside a Target before.

The look of the Buddi doll is a little odd because it's so ugly I can't imagine anyone wanting to buy the thing. I applaud the filmmaker's avoidance of CGI, which gives the doll a creepier quality as things get violent, but still... I can't imagine anyone wanting to purchase it, nor what the company was thinking when it designed the doll. Later when a Buddi2 is released, there are other options, including a bear Buddi which seems far more creepy and sinister than a little boy doll with a pedophilic voice (courtesy of Mark Hamill). Sure, Hamill does a good job here, but again... who would buy this creepy thing?

All in all the violence is over-the-top (but hard to see) and the movie itself is a 90-minute slog. Had this been on Netflix I would have turned it off halfway through. It's just not interesting enough, clever enough, or scary – at all – to warrant spending your time playing with Chucky.