Child's Play (franchise)

Child's Play
File:Childsplayboxset.jpg Chucky: The Complete Collection Blu-Ray box set
Directed by	Tom Holland (1) John Lafia (2) Jack Bender (3) Ronny Yu (4) Don Mancini (5) (6)
Written by	Don Mancini (2-6)
Screenplay by	Don Mancini Tom Holland John Lafia (1)
Story by	Don Mancini (1)
Produced by	David Kirschner Don Mancini Robert Lathan Brown Grace Gilroy Corey Sienega
Starring	Brad Dourif Jennifer Tilly Alex Vincent Catherine Hicks Chris Sarandon Jenny Agutter Gerrit Graham Christine Elise Justin Whalin Perrey Reeves Jeremy Sylvers Tommy Smerdlow Travis Fine Dean Jacobson Katherine Heigl John Ritter Nick Stabile Redman Billy Boyd
Distributed by	United Artists (1988) Universal Pictures (1990–present) Rogue Pictures (through Universal Pictures) (2004–present)
Release date	1988–Present
Running time	437 min. (total)
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$72 million (combined total 1–5)
Box office	$126,194,464 (United States) $182,042,376 (Worldwide)

Child's Play (also known as Chucky) is a horror film franchise created by Don Mancini that consists of six slasher films, with its first installment, Child's Play, being released on November 9, 1988. The film has spawned five sequels and has gone into other media, such as comic books. The films all feature Chucky, a killer Good Guys doll with the soul of the "Lakeshore Strangler" Charles Lee Ray. The first, second, and fourth films were box office successes with all of the films earning $182,042,376 worldwide.

The series originally started out as straight horror with Child's Play, Child's Play 2 and Child's Play 3. The first installment appears to have more psychological horror elements while its successors are straightforward slasher films. As the films progressed, they became satirical and campy, until series became a horror comedy, beginning with 1998's Bride of Chucky and more so with 2004's Seed of Chucky (although these films are arguably canon). On June 23, 2012, it was confirmed that a new sequel to Child's Play will be made under the title Curse of Chucky and be released direct-to-video. Curse of Chucky appears to be returning to the franchise's source material and bringing Chucky back to his horror roots.

Chucky's laugh, cursing, knife, and flipping the bird gave Chucky his signature attitude. The Chucky Doll was inspired by the My Buddy dolls and the Cabbage Patch Kids.

Films

Film	Year	Cast	Director	Writer(s)	Producer(s)
Child's Play	1988	Catherine Hicks Chris Sarandon Brad Dourif Alex Vincent	Tom Holland	Story: Don Mancini Screenplay: Don Mancini John Lafia Tom Holland	David Kirschner
Child's Play 2	1990	Alex Vincent Jenny Agutter Gerrit Graham Christine Elise Brad Dourif	John Lafia	Don Mancini
Child's Play 3	1991	Justin Whalin Perrey Reeves Jeremy Sylvers Travis Fine Dean Jacobson Brad Dourif	Jack Bender		David Kirschner Robert Latham Brown
Bride of Chucky	1998	Jennifer Tilly Brad Dourif Katherine Heigl Nick Stabile John Ritter Gordon Michael Woolvett Alexis Arquette	Ronny Yu		David Kirschner Grace Gilroy
Seed of Chucky	2004	Jennifer Tilly Redman Hannah Spearritt Billy Boyd Brad Dourif	Don Mancini		David Kirschner Corey Sienega
Curse of Chucky	2013	Brad Dourif Fiona Dourif Danielle Bisutti Brennan Elliott			David Kirschner Don Mancini

Overview

In Child's Play, released in 1988, serial killer and voodoo practictioner Charles Lee "Chucky" Ray is mortally wounded and transfers his soul via a voodoo ritual into a child-sized "Good Guy" doll. The doll is found by a homeless peddler, and sold to Karen Barclay, who gives it to her son Andy as a birthday gift. Chucky has to get his soul out of the doll before it turns human and the transfer becomes permanent, and thus attacks Andy and his family. Destroying the doll does not stop him, but a bullet through Chucky's heart does.

Two years later in Child's Play 2 (1990), Andy is living in foster care; the doll's manufacturer has taken Chucky's remains and remade it to prove there is nothing wrong with the doll. In his new body, Chucky hunts down Andy, but wastes too much time and fails to transfer his soul to Andy. Andy and his foster sister destroy this doll as well, this time by dousing Chucky in hot, molten plastic followed by an air hose in the mouth to blow up his head.

Child's Play 3 picks up eight years after the second film. The Good Guy factory has re-opened after the events of the previous film. As Chucky's remains are removed, some blood from the body drips into a vat of melted plastic and so Chucky returns in a new doll body and proceeds to hunt the now 16-year-old Andy at a military academy. Andy has the doll chopped to bits this time.

Bride of Chucky is set six months after Child's Play 3, when one of Chucky Ray's former girlfriends, Tiffany, acquires the doll, stitches it back together, and revives the killer. They argue, and Chucky kills Tiffany, transferring her soul into a bride doll. The two living dolls force a young couple to bring them to Ray's grave, where Chucky plans to use an amulet to finally get a new body. The couple ultimately destroy the dolls, but the Tiffany doll gives birth before its demise.

In Seed of Chucky, Chucky and Tiffany's child Glen finds his parents six years later and brings them back to life, but is horrified by their murders. Chucky and Tiffany force a pregnancy on actress Jennifer Tilly, which is accelerated by voodoo magic. Glen suffers a split personality, having both a male and female soul in his body, and dismembers his father. Tiffany uses the ritual to take over Tilly's body and as Tilly bears twins, Glen's dual personality now has a body each of its own. Chucky survives, however, and mails one of his severed arms to the home of his family to strangle them.

Major characters

• Chucky/Charles Lee Ray (played by Brad Dourif) - The central character and antagonist of the series. A merciless murderer whose soul gets stuck in a doll. He usually kills 'anyone' who gets in his way with a knife and frames the person of each film for them. Aside from being a deranged killer, he often spouts humorous yet profane insults. He is the only character to appear in all of the films in the franchise.
• Andy Barclay (played by Alex Vincent and Justin Whalin) - The original protagonist who is pursued by Chucky so Chucky would transfer his soul into the boy's body, as well as successfully framing him for the murders. He appears in the first three films.
• Karen Barclay (played by Catherine Hicks) - Andy's mother. She buys him a Good Guy doll for his birthday unaware that the one she picked was possessed by a serial killer. Initially, she refuses to believe that Chucky was alive, but she soon finds out when he comes alive and tries to kill her. In Child's Play 2, she is written out of the story when she was taken away to an insane asylum when no one believes her about the murderous doll. She appears only in the first film and is mentioned in the second and third films.
• Detective Mike Norris (played by Chris Sarandon) - A detective investigating the murder of Andy's babysitter. He is also responsible for Chucky's death prompting him to transfer his soul into a Good Guy doll. He initially refuses to believe the Barclays, but when Chucky tries to kill him, he becomes an ally to the family. In Child's Play 2, however, it is mildly implied that both Mike and Mario denied the ordeal to protect the Chicago police department. Appears only in the first film, and is indirectly mentioned in the second and fourth films.
• Kyle (played by Christine Elise) - Andy's teenage foster sister whom he ends up staying with. At first she finds Andy to be a pain on her side, but starts to back up his story about Chucky when she witnesses him trying to take his soul and later finds their foster mother murdered by Chucky. She then goes to find Andy (under Chucky's command) and ends up saving his life in the Play Pals factory, as well as helping him destroy Chucky after he tries to kill him after the voodoo soul transfer spell goes awry. She appears in the second film and was written out of the series and was never seen again but was briefly mentioned in the third film when Andy re-encounters Chucky again.
• Mr. Sullivan (played by Peter Haskell) - The greedy and arrogant CEO of Good Guy Toys Inc., First appears in Child's Play 2 upon learning of Andy's Good Guy Doll supposedly becoming possessed by the soul of Charles Lee Ray, and tries to protect the company's reputation from angry stockholders. He also appears in Child's Play 3 when he moves Good Guys Toys forward with producing more dolls, however he is killed by Chucky when he accesses Sullivan's office computer to find Andy in Military School.
• Ronald Tyler (played by Jeremy Sylvers) - A young private boy who befriends Andy at the military school he is sent to after failing to cope with living at several foster homes. When he finds Chucky (who mailed himself to the same military school to go after Andy again), he decides to go after Tyler instead. At first, Tyler finds Chucky to be a nice guy, but realizes the true colors of the doll's evil murderous ways once he attempts to transfer his soul into his body much like he attempted to do with Andy in the first two films. Appears in the third film, written out of the series (along with Andy), but was originally going to be killed off alongside Andy in the original draft to Seed of Chucky.
• Kristen De Silva (played by Perrey Reeves) - Andy's girlfriend at the military school he attends, ends up sticking up for him when Shelton and the other guys take a liking in bullying him. Appears in the third film.
• Jack "Mario" Santos (played by Tommy Swerdlow) - Mike's partner who was also investigating Andy's babysitter's death. In the beginning of the first film, he was mostly the cop who drove Mike's car to chase Eddie Caputo in his van. He was also one of the police officers that believed Andy was the killer. During the end, he tried to show Mike that Chucky wasn't alive, but was nearly killed by him and then he believed that the Barclays and Mike were telling the truth. He only appeared in the first film and has a face similar to that of the popular Nintendo video game character, Mario.
• Tiffany (played by Jennifer Tilly) - Charles Lee Ray's former girlfriend (and later wife) who later gets her soul stuck in a doll like Chucky. Appears in Bride and Seed.
• Jennifer Tilly (played by herself) - An exaggerated version of Tilly, herself, and Tiffany's idol. Appears in Bride in the role of Tiffany (both human and doll forms), and in Seed as both herself and the voice of Tiffany.
• Glen (played by Billy Boyd) - Chucky and Tiffany's original child and Glenda's twin brother. He was an orphan for the first five or six years of his life until he saw his parents on television. Glen is a good person, and he doesn't like violence and definitely does not like murder like his parents. He fears but still loves his dad due to the fact he killed him in a misunderstanding. He is the only living doll character not to be voiced by an Academy Award nominee. Appears in Bride (at the end as an infant) and Seed.
• Glenda - Chucky and Tiffany's second child and the twin sister of Glen. She was originally Glen's alter ego for a brief moment, but was reborn as a human. Unlike Glen, she is violent, sadistic, and cruel. She is even more ruthless than her father. Appears in Seed.
• Jesse (played by Nick Stabile) - former friend of Tiffany Ray and boyfriend of Jade. He was greatly disliked by Jade's uncle and believed to be responsible for his death until Chucky and Tiffany reveal themselves. In the end, Jade kills Chucky and she and Jesse leave the scene. He also appears in a Chucky comic continuation. Appears in Bride of Chucky; mentioned and killed in early draft of Seed of Chucky.
• Jade (played by Katherine Heigl) - girlfriend of Jesse. Her uncle Warren is killed by Chucky and Tiffany early in the film. In the end, Jade shoots Chucky and she and Jesse leave the scene. She also appears with Jesse in another struggle with Chucky in a comic book continuation. Appears in Bride of Chucky; mentioned and killed in early draft of Seed of Chucky.

Character appearances

Character	Film
	Child's Play (1988)	Child's Play 2 (1990)	Child's Play 3 (1991)	Bride of Chucky (1998)	Seed of Chucky (2004)	Curse of Chucky (2013)
Chucky	Brad Dourif (voice)
Charles Lee Ray	Brad Dourif		(pictured)			Brad Dourif
Andy Barclay	Alex Vincent		Justin Whalin
Karen Barclay	Catherine Hicks	(pictured)
Detective Mike Norris	Chris Sarandon	(mentioned)
Jack "Mario" Santos	Tommy Swerdlow	(mentioned)
Kyle		Christine Elise
Joanne Simpson		Jenny Agutter
Phil Simpson		Gerrit Graham
Mr. Sullivan		Peter Haskell
Ronald Tyler			Jeremy Sylvers
Kristen De Silva			Perrey Reeves
Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Brett C. Shelton			Travis Fine
Harold Aubrey Whitehurst			Dean Jacobson
Tiffany				Jennifer Tilly (voice)
Glen				(infant cameo)	Billy Boyd (voice)
Jesse				Nick Stabile
Jade				Katherine Heigl
Chief Warren Kincaid				John Ritter
David Collins				Gordon Michael Woolvett
Jennifer Tilly					Jennifer Tilly
Redman					Redman
Joan					Hannah Spearritt
Pete Peters					John Waters
Nica						Fiona Dourif
Barb						Danielle Bisutti
Father Frank						A Martinez
Ian						Brennan Elliott
Sarah						Chantal Quesnelle

Box office

Film	Release date	Box office revenue			Box office ranking		Budget	Reference
		United States	Foreign	Worldwide	All time domestic	All time worldwide
Child's Play	November 9, 1988	$33,244,684	$10,952,000	$44,196,684	#1,680		$9,000,000
Child's Play 2	November 9, 1990	$28,501,605	$7,262,000	$35,763,605	#1,916		$13,000,000
Child's Play 3	August 30, 1991	$14,960,255	$5,600,000	$20,560,255	#2,896		$13,000,000
Bride of Chucky	October 16, 1998	$32,404,188	$18,288,000	$50,692,188	#1,727		$25,000,000
Seed of Chucky	November 12, 2004	$17,083,732	$7,745,912	$24,829,644	#2,685		$12,000,000
Total		$126,194,464	$49,847,912	$176,042,376			$72,000,000(E)
List indicator(s) A dark grey cell indicates the information is not available for the film. (E) indicates an estimated figure based on available numbers.

When comparing the Child's Play film series with the other top-grossing horror franchises—A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hellraiser, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Saw, Scream, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre—and adjusting for the 2008 inflation,[13] Hellraiser is the lowest grossing horror franchise in the United States, at approximately $84 million.[14] The Child's Play series is surpassed by Friday the 13th, which tops the list at $614 million.[15] The Hannibal Lecter film series follows closely with $573 million,[16] A Nightmare on Elm Street with $522 million,[17] Halloween with $517 million,[18] Scream with $400 million,[19] Saw with $378 million,[20] Psycho with $371 million,[21] The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with $315 million,[22] and the Child's Play film series rounding out the list with approximately $200 million.

Music

Joe Renzetti composed the first Child's Play, followed by Graeme Revell, who did the soundtrack for Child's Play 2 and Bride of Chucky. John D' Andrea and Cory Lerios wrote the score for Child's Play 3, while Pino Donaggio composed Seed of Chucky.

Reviews

Film	Rotten Tomatoes	Metacritic
Child's Play	68% (28 reviews)
Child's Play 2	43% (14 reviews)
Child's Play 3	23% (13 reviews)
Bride of Chucky	42% (33 reviews)
Seed of Chucky	33% (72 reviews)	46/100 (17 reviews)
Curse of Chucky
Average Ratings	42%

Comic books

Innovation Publishing

Beginning in 1990, Innovation Publishing released the first comic books based on the films, in the form of a three issue adaptation of Child's Play 2. It was later collected in a trade paperback. The success of the adaptation led to a monthly series of new stories starting in 1991. The series, titled Child's Play: The Series, ended in 1992 after only five issues. This was followed by a three issue adaptation of Child's Play 3.

Devil's Due Publishing

In 2007, Devil's Due Publishing obtained the license to publish Child's Play comics and released a one-shot crossover with Hack/Slash titled Hack/Slash vs. Chucky which takes place after the events of the Seed of Chucky film. This was followed by a four-issue series called Chucky. A second volume began in early 2009 but ceased publication after only one issue.

Cancelled Video Game

TikGames are announcing a video game based on the Child's Play film series. Alex Tikhman, co-founder and Vice President of publishing for TikGames, said, “We’re proud to be able to bring a fan-favorite movie character, such as Chucky, to gaming platforms... Fans have been asking for a Chucky game for years and, soon, gamers around the world will be able to enjoy highly-entertaining, interactive, downright gory experiences with this brand."

Tikgames made the Chucky cancellation official on its Facebook page. “It is with great sadness that we announce the cancellation of this Kickstarter Campaign. For those who have followed Chucky this last week, you know that pledges have been very slow. We built a fun campaign with lots of great goodies, got the word out to as many people as we could, but sadly not enough people loved the concept of a Chucky video game as much as we did. Our sincerest thanks go out to all of you who pledged to Chucky and we promise no charges will be made to your credit card for this Kickstarter project.”

Reboot

In an August 2008 interview, Don Mancini and David Kirschner spoke of a planned reboot of the franchise to be written and directed by Mancini. They described their choice of a remake over a sequel as a response to the will of the fans, who "want to see a scary Chucky movie again", and "want to go back to the straightforward horror rather than the horror comedy." They indicated that Brad Dourif would return as the voice of Chucky.

In a subsequent interview, Mancini described the remake as a darker and scarier retelling of the original movie, but one that, while having new twists and turns, will not stray too far from the original concept. At a 2009 horror convention, Brad Dourif confirmed his role in the remake. At a reunion panel at the Mad Monster Party horror & sci-fi convention, cast and crew from the original film confirmed both a remake and a spin-off are in development. Writer Don Mancini and Producer David Kirschner were working on a sequel titled "Revenge of Chucky".

In June 2012. plans for the reboot were put on hold and a sixth film, Curse of Chucky, went into production in September 2012. It will be the first direct-to-DVD installment of the franchise and will be released on October 8, 2013.

See also

• Killer toys