| Child's Play 3: Look Who's Stalking | |
|---|---|
 Child's Play 3 film poster |
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| Directed by | Jack Bender |
| Produced by | Robert Latham Brown |
| Written by | Don Mancini (characters) Don Mancini (screenplay) |
| Starring | Justin Whalin Perrey Reeves Jeremy Sylvers Peter Haskell Dakin Matthews Travis Fine Dean Jacobson Matthew Walker Andrew Robinson and Brad Dourif as the voice of Chucky |
| Music by | Cory Lerios John D'Andrea |
| Cinematography | John R. Leonetti |
| Editing by | Edward A. Warschilka |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
| Release date(s) | August 30, 1991 |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $13,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $20,560,255 |
| Preceded by | Child's Play 2 (1990) |
| Followed by | Bride of Chucky (1998) |
Child's Play 3 (also known as Child's Play 3: Look Who's Stalking) is a 1991 horror film. It is the third installment in the Child's Play series with Brad Dourif returning as the voice of Chucky, who became more comical as the series progresses. The film became notorious in the United Kingdom, when it was suggested that it may have inspired the real-life murder of toddler James Bulger, a suggestion rejected by officers investigating the case.[1]
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Plot summary
Killer doll Chucky, a.k.a. Charles Lee Ray, after his blood from his former doll possession drips into a vat of new plastic during the factory from the previous movie clean-up, is reformed into a new doll and revived, thanks to the Good Guys Doll Company (eight years after the events of Child's Play 2) which thinks the bad publicity has died down and want to remarket the Good Guy dolls. Chucky maliciously toys with the company president, Sullivan (who appeared shortly at the beginning of the previous film), making him trip on the marbles and turning on the various toys in his office. Chucky throws darts in his back (which paralyzes him from the waist down) and hands, and proceeds to strangle him. Chucky mails himself to Kent Military School, and discovers Andy Barclay (Justin Whalin), now sixteen years old, has been enrolled in a military school. After being sent from foster home to foster home, military school was a last resort to Andy. It is never explained what happened to Andy's foster sister, Kyle. At the school, Chucky finds a little boy named Ronald Tyler (played by Jeremy Sylvers) who he realizes, due to his new body, he can transfer his soul into, rather than Andy.
Andy finds out that Chucky has stalked him to the military school, and learns about his plan to possess the body of Tyler, and vows to stop him. Already realizing that no one would believe him if he told anyone at the school, Andy tries to work behind the backs of those in command, especially his brutal commanding officer Cadet Lt. Col. Brett C. Shelton (Travis Fine).
Meanwhile, Chucky goes on a killing spree, crushing a garbage man in the back of his own garbage truck, slashing the barber Sgt. Botnick's (played by Andrew Robinson) throat, and giving Colonel Cochran (Dakin Matthews) a heart-attack (much to Chucky's surprise), before finally making his move on Tyler. During a war games exercise Chucky replaces the red team's paint ball ammunition with live rounds, so that when the two teams of students meet, Shelton is killed with one of the rifles, unknowingly a real bullet. Shelton's assistant, Major Ellis (Matthew Walker), angrily blames Andy for being a sick, murderous prankster who caused his companion's death. Ellis attacks Andy, with his new girlfriend Krista De Silva (Perrey Reeves) telling him Andy is innocent and trying to separate them. After Chucky attempts to kill the distracted groups with a grenade, Andy's friend Whitehurst (Dean Jacobson), sacrifices himself by jumping onto the grenade, saving the students from a grisly death. Tyler, out of panic, flees to the woods and makes for a carnival that is taking place not far from the academy. Andy, with De Silva, confront Chucky (now armed with a security guard's spare handgun) inside a horror themed fun house where he knocks Tyler unconscious to try to steal his soul.
Chucky has half his face sliced off by a scythe swung by a statue of the Grim Reaper in the fun house. Andy retrieves Tyler and attempts to flee, pursued by Chucky up a pile of foam skulls. Chucky's left arm is blown off by Andy's revolver, and is then shot in the chest. The struggle continues before Tyler hands Andy his pocket knife: Andy cuts Chucky's other hand off and causes him to get flipped off the pile of skulls and into a giant fan, which dices him into numerous pieces, killing him. Afterwards, Andy goes with the police to give his story.
Cast
- Justin Whalin as Andy Barclay
- Perrey Reeves as Kristen De Silva
- Jeremy Sylvers as Ronald Tyler
- Travis Fine as Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Brett C. Shelton
- Dean Jacobson as Harold Aubrey Whitehurst
- Brad Dourif as Chucky (voice)
- Peter Haskell as Mr. Sullivan
- Dakin Matthews as Colonel Cochrane
- Andrew Robinson as Sergeant Botnick
- Burke Byrnes as Sergeant Clark
- Matthew Walker as Major Ellis
Catherine Hicks makes a cameo appearance in a picture. Alex Vincent also appears in the picture, as well as in the company's slideshow.
Reception
Released less than a year after Child's Play 2, the film performed poorly at the box office, grossing $20.5 million worldwide. Mainstream critics gave the film mixed to very negative reviews, and horror fans usually regard it as the worst (along with Seed Of Chucky) of the series, a sentiment shared by series creator Don Mancini who said he ran out of ideas after the second film. Critcs referred the film as "the oddest, darkest and saddest of all Child's Play films". However, Brad Dourif was again praised for his voice-acting of Chucky, but it had a lower rating 'Rotten' rating of 30% on Rotten Tomatoes,[2] while its predecessor, Child's Play 2, received a score of 38%.[3]
The film also has become controversial because it has been directly linked to the very brutal murder of James Bulger. The killers, who were 10 years old at the time, were said to have imitated a scene in which one of Chucky's victims is splashed with blue paint. Although these allegations against the film have never been proven, the case has led to some new legislation for video films[4]. Psychologist Guy Cumberbatch has stated, "The link with a video was that the father of one of the boys - Neil Venables - had rented Child’s Play 3 some months earlier. However, the police officer who directed the investigation, Albert Kirby, found that the son, Jon, was not living with his father at the time and was unlikely to have seen the film. Moreover, the boy disliked horror films - a point later confirmed by psychiatric reports. Thus the police investigation, which had specifically looked for a video link, concluded there was none. But, of course, this received very little coverage and the lasting impression most people seem to have is of the newspaper campaigns in November 1993 blaming violent videos for the toddler’s murder. It’s worth adding that most newspapers continually referred to 'little Jamie', when the preferred family name (which his parents asked to be respected) was James. So the press couldn’t even get that right."[5]
Due to all these factors, there would be a waiting time of 7 years before the next, more successful entry Bride of Chucky.
Despite this film's failure, in 2009, a haunted house inspired by the climax of this film ("Chucky's Fun House") will be featured in Halloween Horror Nights.
References
- ^ Moral Panic
- ^ http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/childs_play_3/
- ^ http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/childs_play_2/
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Video Violence: Villain or Victim?", Guy Cumberbatch, London Video Standards Council, 2004
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External links
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