The Child's Play franchise has been patiently waiting its turn for a reboot over the past five years (or however long it's been since Hollywood's been remaking all the first films in their various horror franchises), and it appears that it's now time for Chucky-- the demonic little doll at the center of the Child's Play films-- to step up to the plate. But will this new Child's Play continue the horror-comedy tone established in Bride and Seed of Chucky, or get back to the franchise's roots? Read on to find out (as if you didn't read the headline), my gentle Examiner readers...
The Child's Play franchise started all the way back in 1988, and in the fifteen years after that debut, it spawned four sequels. The first two-- Child's Play 2 and 3-- arrived right on the heels of the original, and tried to maintain the horrific tone established in the first film. Seven years later, though, Bride of Chucky changed the tone from "horror" to "horror-comedy", and 2004's Seed of Chucky took things even farther in the "comedy" direction. And with that, the Child's Play franchise was just about all played out.
But over the past decade, it's become fashionable for Hollywood to remake the original films that started their biggest horror franchises-- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre led the pack, followed by Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street-- and now it appears that the Child's Play franchise will be the next horror-original to get the remake treatment: MGM is actively working on a new Child's Play flick, and it is-- in fact-- a remake of the original. But will it bring back the tone of the original, as well, or stick with the horror-comedy stylings of the franchise's later films?
According to producer David Kirschner, they're keeping things old-school:
I don’t want to give away too much. I’ve known Don (Mancini, who directed the original Child's Play) for 22 years. We’re dear friends. I know his humor, I know his mind. I was so shocked with where he was taking us with expectations of the first film and pulling the rug out from under us. It was exciting and really frightening and exhilarating to hear, as opposed to just shooting a frame-for-frame, but really subverting audiences expectations.
And what does Don Mancini-- who's spearheading the effort to get Chucky back on screens-- have to say about all this?
That’s really our goal with this next movie, bottom-line, was to make it scary again. After having, I think, rather successfully mined the horror-comedy aspects of this concept over the course of Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky, the fans are really telling us that they want it to be scary again. Doing the remake just provides us with a really good opportunity to bring it home, so to speak.
Well, there you have it, folks: the proposed sixth Child's Play film will be a remake, and it'll be just as terrifying (?) as the original Child's Play. We also learn from the comments above that producer David Kirschner-- and director Don Mancini-- thought that the original Child's Play was "frightening". Did he see a different Child's Play than everyone else? Because we're fairly certain that film was the opposite of frightening.
But what do you think, folks? Good to have the old Chucky back, or are you going to miss the wisecracking, Jennifer Tilly-banging puppet that dominated the fourth and fifth Child's Play films? Sound off in the comments section below with your thoughts on this one: we wanna know what you think!
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