Child's Play 3

Starring: Justin Whalin, Perrey Reeves, Jeremy Sylvers, Travis Fine, Brad Dourif (voice), Peter Haskell, Dakin Matthews
Directed by: Jack Bender
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Thriller
1991

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Andy (Justin Whalin) goes to a military academy and hopes to put his traumatic past behind him. Unfortunately, Chucky tracks him down.

Review:

Tim: There was a good deal to like about the first two Child's Play movies. Horror movies in this time period were most often hit-or-miss, and the fact that the first film was good and the second was decent is really encouraging. This film, unfortunately, continues the downward trajectory of this franchise. It's an okay film, but things are starting to get stale and repetitive. This ends the trilogy at a low point.

There's actually some decent qualities to this film. I generally like the idea that all three of these movies are about Andy. Here, he's played by Justin Whalin, but it continues his story. I like that this trilogy is all about Chucky terrorizing Andy. These films aren't about random people walking to the slaughter, they all revolve around Andy. It was interesting to see him older than in the first two movies, still suffering from the trauma of nearly being killed twice by this demonic child's toy. Seeing his story continue was a definite strength.

The idea of setting this film in a military academy was a fairly decent idea. The change of scenery helps, introduces us to new characters, and adds new wrinkles to the story. It makes at least some logical sense in the evolution of Andy as a character as well. I thought that was a good move.

The biggest problem with the movie is that while it had decent pieces, the connective tissue doesn't always work. Truly, the movie doesn't always make the most sense. It's too poorly written. Here's one example- early on, Chucky is determined to find Andy. The way he does this is by going on a toy company executive's computer and in moments, somehow bringing up the address of the military academy Andy is attending. This defies all logic and belief. It just felt like such a ridiculous moment on screen. Now, maybe the toy company was tracking Andy's movements (which is still a little ridiculous), but that's never properly set up. So, it just comes across as lazy writing. There are other moments like this- how exactly did Chucky get himself back into packaging and mail himself to the military academy? He could certainly get himself back into a box, but how did he seal it? How did he get the box into the package? How did he find postage to mail it? Again, perhaps there is a logical explanation, but we don't see it and it comes across as illogical. There's a number of these moments throughout the film.

While it was nice to see Andy at a slightly older point in his life, the rest of the characters are a bit thin. This isn't a major issue, as they are more developed than the average horror movie. Still, there's the girl Andy likes, his roommate, a younger kid who Chucky fixates on, a weird barber... none of these characters is especially interesting or memorable. They do just feel like fodder for Chucky's murderous intentions. Many of Chucky's murders are a bit hard to believe, too. He might have the soul of a serial killer, but he's still a doll.

Justin Whalin gives perhaps the best performance of the film as Andy. He's solid in this role. Perrey Reeves was decent, but not especially memorable. Jeremy Sylvers did some good things- he seemed like a talented child actor. Brad Dourif continues solid voice work as Chucky. As a whole, though, the cast definitely screams B (or C) level.

I want to stress that while this film doesn't compare to the first two, it's not a terrible movie. The story is definitely feeling a bit redundant at this point, but the writers did introduce some new elements. There is at least some franchise fatigue that is setting in at this point. There were diminishing box office returns, too. The second film got close to the total box office take, but this film dropped significantly. That's not surprising- this movie feels like a generic retelling, verses really standing on its own. Child's Play 3 might not be a bad movie, but it's absolutely not a good one, either.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Child's Play, Child's Play 2