Chucky's gonna go Bro!: Child's Play 3 (1991)

Child's Play 3 (1991)
Rating: **1/2
Starring: Justin Whalin, Perrey Reeves and Jeremy Sylvers

The last time we left possessed killer doll Chucky, he took a lot of bruising once again as he got plastic doll parts forced into his body and cutting him in half in the process, melted with liquid plastic and had his head inflated and popped like a eight week old zit in a doll factory. All by the same kid he is trying to possess some years earlier, Andy Barclay, and his older step sister. Apparently nobody noticed this hot, melted mass of bloody plastic parts for over eight years or so (or maybe they just didn't care?) but by the time they did, the factory's on a dry run. Literally.

During a clean-up, a winch picks up this messed-up chunk of fleshy doll bits, metal claws piercing into its chest and letting the blood drip all over a vat of liquid plastic. The liquid then bubbles and we watch Chucky gets reborn. (again)

But no, really, did anybody paid attention to the melted remains of a toy gushing blood?

It turns out, despite after so much bad publicity Andy brought upon to the Good Guy Dolls, the same company that distributes these toys wants to make a comeback, wherein shipping starts weeks later and in celebration to this triumphant return, the head of the company gets the first doll fresh from the factory. And we all know who that doll is.

After torturing and strangling this guy with a yoyo, Chucky easily locates Andy, now 16 years old and attending military school after some "adjustment issues". And as if life wasn't hard enough for this kid, Andy now has to put up with arseholes that abuse their position in this school, same goes to the officials who don't give a damn about anybody but themselves. Things spiral down to a bigger hell hole when Chucky, mailing himself to the military school, finds a new body to possess; that of a young cadet named Tyler after figuring out that the boy's younger body might be more useful than Andy's. With this, Chucky decides to stop Andy and anybody else who would get in the way of his mission to possess the kid. And being stuck in a place where live rounds are everywhere, that may not be a hard thing to do for a killer doll...

Sadly, much of the thrills of Child's Play 3 were lacking in comparison to the first two of the series and I believe the problem that caused this was the plot; Don Mancini, the writer of the first two, was forced to do this one. Of course, nine months is an awfully short time to work on a new script so the lack of ideas led this being a hasty entry to the franchise which explains a lot of ideas that weren't working right.

The military backdrop, for one, is a tough ride to pull through; while it did call for some good thrills seeing Chucky preying on people in such a crowded location, he just seems out of place with all the adults going around being  serious and mature. Even the Tyler character is a little too old to be playing with dolls and the kid's age is one thing that really affects the whole movie since a large part of Chucky's notoriety was his constant attempt to possess a young innocent kid and Tyler ain't young. I mean, really, how old is this kid? Would a kid in his age say "wow" to a talking doll's commercial? Perhaps it's an odd attempt to add some humor to the movie, but it's not working, personally speaking.

Another thing about the movie that didn't sit well with me was the pacing. It kept itself steady on the whole stalk and kill routine, all the while building up with Andy either trying to fit in to a more demanding world, or warning little Tyler of the evils his new "friend" is capable of. Again, no avails on both. It's awfully tedious and nearly similar of a plot from the entry prior to this, only with a different location and with an additional lead.

With little people to care about (and a lot of them left alive that should have been killed), the last half hour did make up for this with a climax taking place in a nearby fun park. More specifically, a roller coaster-slash-dark ride. (At a traveling carnival...wait, what?) The scene is as grueling as it is fun, with our killer doll getting all beaten up and mutilated again and again, leading to an ending that's more gruesome compared to the first two.

So, despite some plot holes and pacing problems, Child's Play 3 is still watchable thanks to, yet again, Chucky. As did the rest of other successful horror icons out there, Chucky's rising star has reached to the point here that everybody's warming up and rooting for ole' Charles Lee Ray to do some slashing. He's an entertainer now and a cheesy one from this point on, living up to the people's wants and needs for him to cut a throat and hackle at the dying victim. Plus, while the murders in this entry are no different from the first two in terms of gore and splatter, it's still a passable count especially if it involves the little guy switching paintball bullets with live rounds.

So is it a bad flick? Not entirely, just lost some sparks here and there. Child's Play 3 still deserves its views and it's still a hoot of a fun ride if it hits you in the right moment. In fact, the Child's Play series happens to be, personally, one of the slasher franchises I know that's yet to make an awful entry. (And no, I don't think Seed of Chucky is shit. I think it's downright hilarious!) It's a mediocre, and inevitable, dip to the cheese, but worth its time.

Bodycount:
1 male strangled with yoyo
1 male crushed in a truck compactor
1 male scared to a heart attack
1 male gets a throat cut with razor
1 male shot with rifle by accident
1 male decimated by grenade
1 male shot on the head
Total: 7