Child's Play
Short description
A serial killer named Charles Lee Ray is fatally wounded by police in a Chicago toy store and, with his last breath, uses a voodoo ritual to place his soul inside a Good Guy doll. The doll ends up in the hands of six-year-old Andy Barclay, whose mother Karen buys it for his birthday. Andy soon insists the doll, which he calls Chucky, is alive, and when a string of murders follows — beginning with the death of his babysitter, who falls from a window — no one believes the boy's claim that the toy is responsible. Detective Mike Norris, investigating the killings, gradually comes to accept that the killer's spirit is real and moving through the city.
The film was directed by Tom Holland, whose previous feature was Fright Night (1985) and who receives screenplay credit alongside Don Mancini and John Lafia. David Kirschner produced. Alex Vincent plays Andy, Catherine Hicks plays Karen, Brad Dourif plays Charles Lee Ray, Chris Sarandon plays Mike Norris, and Dinah Manoff and Tommy Swerdlow appear as Maggie Peterson and Jack Santos.
Released in November 1988, the horror film runs 87 minutes and was made for about 9 million dollars, earning roughly 44 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.8 from 25 votes, while on TMDB it also rates 6.8, from 3,477 votes. A critics' rating of 6.5 from 54 reviews sits close to those audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The building where the Barkley family lives is the “Brewster Apartments” located at 2800 North Pine Grove Avenue. Charlie Chaplin once stayed in its penthouse when he lived in Chicago.
- The name Charles Lee Ray is derived from the infamous killers Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray.
- According to Don Mancini, the original idea was built on a completely different principle. The identity of the killer was not revealed until the final minutes, and before that, the viewer was supposed to have a firm impression that all the murders were committed by Andy Barclay. All that remains of this concept is the final shot.
- Except for scenes with the living Charles Lee Ray, Brad Dourif rarely appeared on set. All of Chucky's voice was recorded in advance, which allowed the mechanical operators to give Chucky a more natural lip and facial mimicry overall. The actor's voice was also used as guidance for Alex Vincent, because the boy behaved more naturally on camera when he thought the voice was coming from the doll, and not from a person hiding nearby.
- The horror film was inspired by real events from the mid-1980s. A man waiting in line for a Cabbage Patch Kid doll for his child was killed by a rampaging hooligan, who was immediately shot by the police.
- Filming process: January 7, 1988 – March 5, 1988
- To voice Chucky, Brad Dourif would pace around the recording studio before each session, trying to get himself into the right psychological state to convincingly portray his madness. This was incredibly exhausting for him, and when recording Chucky's scream for the scene where Andy burns him in the fireplace, Dourif was practically on the verge of fainting.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
