I've been meaning to write a review of this one for quite a while, I saw it a while ago and just never got around to it because I didn't feel as strong of an urge to write about this one as I did Black Christmas, or the original Child's Play, or Fright Night, or Badlands, or any of the other movies I really loved. This one was ok, better than the average horror movie sequel, but still on par to some of the other movies I've reviewed (or have seen but have yet to write about) is just ok. I liked that they kept the kid and Chucky as the same actors from the first movie. I also liked how this one was more humorous than the first (the sequels seem to get progressively funnier as they go). The plot is that the toy company who made the Good Guy dolls rebuilt the insidious Chucky to try aid their defense in court against the mother the police officers and the child, but they realize the error of their ways too late when Chucky kills some of the workers and escapes to go back to pursuing Andy from the first movie. This one is less believable than the first, and a little less scary than the first, but this one does have its moments.
The highlight of the film for me is no question the last 20 minutes or so when Chucky is chasing the kids through the maze of Good Guy dolls in the toy factory. Nothing is quite as scary as running away from a killer through a maze that has his face all over the walls. I also liked how this movie picked up right after the first Child's Play, just like Halloween 2, so that the sequel isn't a different story with one same character, but a continuation of the first story. Overall I give this a 3.75/5, it's better than most horror sequels, but I wouldn't classify it as one of the better sequels in the horror genre either. The movie is available to be streamed on Netflix, and you can watch the trailer below (You can also listen to the cheesy novelty song they made to promote the series "The Chucky Rap", that I recently discovered, here):
The Beast Within is part latter-day southern gothic, part monster movie, part amateur-detective film, and part coming of age film, The Beast Within is very well written and very well executed by director and cast. The film contains one of the longest and most elaborate transformation sequences of all time, which often gets it confused as a Werewolf film. While I'll say it's not a werewolf movie I won't say outright what the monster is, except that it's based on some form of insect and the writers did a wonderful job tying scientific
knowledge to the monster and the overall story of the film. Here's the plot: 17 years after a woman is raped on her wedding night by something "not human", her 17 year old son starts undergoing strange changes, so the parents go back to the scene of the crime to try to figure out what exactly happened that night, as well as what's happening to their son. This is a weird one, but it's very well acted and put together considering its low budget. This film was also directed by Philippe Mora, the director of another film I reviewed called Communion (1989), and this film was written by Tom holland, the man who wrote and directed the original Fright Night (1985) and Child's Play (1988). Both this film and Communion happen to be in Rue Morgue Magazine's book of 200 Must-See Alternative Horror films. I give it a 4.5/5, view the trailer below:
Believe it or not there were actually a lot of killer doll movies before this one even though this is the most famous, so I had seen a lot of the same scares and "tricks" before, but it was still really good. The scenes that scared me the most were when the doll wasn't doing anything. Another thing that scared me though was when I was watching the movie I noticed that I owned the birthday banner that's in andy's apartment, and that it was hanging in the room next to me as I watched the film. Also It was surprising to see Oscar nominated actor Brad Dourif (Grima Wormtongue from The LOTR Two Towers, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest) as the killer that becomes Chucky, and I guess he voiced Chucky for all the sequels too. This film was written and directed by Tom Holland, the same guy who wrote and directed another cult classic horror film two years before Child's Play: Fright Night. Chris Sarandon (the vampire from Fright Night) is the main cop in this one. I also really loved the aesthetic of the apartment building the kid lives in, it strikes me as a mix between the apartment and building from Ghostbusters II (1989) and the apartment from Look Who's Talking (1989). I give it a 4.75/5, view trailer below:
