For purely Screen Room Movie Podcast reasons I watched a film I had no intention of ever watching recently. I did it just so I could use it for this week’s Original vs Remake post.
Yep, I watched the 2019 remake of Child’s Play.
It had been years since I’d seen the original film so to do a fair comparison I rewatched the 1988 version a couple of days later.
Here are my thoughts...
The remake is terrible!
I could just leave it there and save you from reading another long post but I’m known for talking a lot so I’ll continue.
Something I hate is when a film insults the intelligence of the viewer, and this film pretty much does that from the get go.
For anyone who somehow hasn’t seen the original, the general idea is that a serial killer who’s being chased by a detective is shot and mortally wounded. He breaks into a toy shop and using a voodoo spell, transfers his soul into a doll before he dies. The doll later ends up being given to a 6 year old boy on his birthday and a sinister murderous rampage ensues.
In the 2019 remake they went with a similar idea, except this time around there’s no serial killer or voodoo, it’s just an A.I. doll with all of it’s safety protocols removed. Similarly, the doll is given to, this time, a 13 year old boy.
I have two questions:
1. Why would the doll’s chip even have a “violence inhibitor” to disable?
2. Why is a 13 year old boy playing with a doll?
The film has everything I hate about horror films these days. It has forced comedy, annoying kids, overly dislikable characters that you know are going to get killed at some point because the movie has tried so hard to make you dislike them, and totally predictable, unscary death scenarios.
Not even Mark Hamill who provides the voice for the murderous doll (this time Buddy, not Chucky) could redeem this film for me. I honestly would’ve turned it off after half an hour if I hadn’t wanted to use it for this post.
Overall verdict: To be fair, the original is good but it’s never been one of my favourite horror films. In comparison though it’s way better than the remake which in my opinion is just another sad and failed attempt at recreating something that should’ve been left alone.
I will just say this, I probably sound like I’m being overly critical as it is just a movie. There are hundreds of films that I love that aren’t oscar-worthy or 10/10 ratings but I’ve enjoyed them because they’re good films.
Believe it or not, I’m pretty easily pleased. I just hate feeling like I’ve wasted two hours of my life after watching a film (and thankfully that doesn’t happen all that often).
Have you seen Child’s Play (2019)? What do you think? Am I being too harsh?
Let me know in the comments.