Child's Play 2 (1990) [SYFY edit]

 I went with SYFY's TV-14 edit specifically for my daughter (and my son also watched it while I was working), so a future review for the R-rated cut I have planned, perhaps nearing October.

I told my daughter when she asked me what my favorite Child's Play film was the sequel to Holland's popular 1988 film, John Lafia's 1990 sequel, Child's Play 2. I recalled to her how difficult it was to find the film when it was first released on VHS. I tried to locate it at the several rental stores available in my hometown, but the sequel was not easy to find. And that small cardboard poster with Chucky about to scissor the springing neck of Jack-in-the-box just whet my appetite. I wanted to see that movie so fucking bad, man. Well, eventually I got to watch it and recorded it on a blank videotape I had, revisiting it here and there during the early 90s. I would probably say that out of all the Chucky films, this sequel is probably the tamest in terms of graphic violence. Oh, I love the assembly doll eye punch machine that mechanically stabs a technician when Chucky, just for the hell of it, pushes him onto the running belt after repairs. An electrical malfunction electrocutes another technician, sending that poor soul through a booth window. Chucky, for kicks and giggles, rope-ties a yes-man suit for the company that makes Good Guy dolls and suffocates him with a plastic bag after holding him up with a water squirt gun. Poor Gerrit Graham refuses to believe adopted Alex Vincent (whose mom from the first film was sent away for mental evaluation) is telling the truth about his killer doll Chucky causing mischief and mayhem inside the house (and at school), hooked by the foot upside down by the little red-headed toy bastard when walking down the basement stairs and dropped on his neck, breaking it. Jenny Agutter, bless her heart, wants her "new family" to work so badly, but Vincent's Andy just can't get away from that terrible killer doll. The Good Guy folks just had to "refurbish" Chucky instead of letting him remain an obliterated mess. And Chucky wasn't about to let Agutter's sewing hobby go to waste when he could use it as a weapon. 

The sequel also has some serious casting highlights with Beth Grant (one of those actresses you see in everything, proving her to be quite the prolific performer) as a schoolteacher of Andy she considers an early signs for a problem child (Chucky's use of profanity as sport against the kid is used on an assignment that provokes her wrath) and Grace Zabriskie as adoption agency head jerking away the Chucky doll from Kyle after she pulled the fire alarm (by force thanks to a carefully held knife by Chuck) with unfortunate consequences...a knife Chuck clearly wanted to use comes to fruition. 

Well, this sequel took what the first film did to Chucky and said hold their beer. The toy factory conclusion, as I told my daughter, is my favorite sequence of the entire franchise. I absolutely love just how destructive the assembly line can be towards Chucky when Andy and Elise's Kyle (a teenager never adopted as she has moved from home to home, a survivor much like Andy) take what is available -- such as hot wax, staple machine, and a press machine that applies arms and legs -- and use it against him. By the time the toy factory is done with Chucky, he's a gooey mass of plastic with one eye and plenty of rage. To top off all that, Kyle makes sure he gets an almighty head explosion by way of pressurized air through hydraulics. It is epic and gnarly. I always liked how Kyle and Andy walk away from the factory in one piece not knowing what the hell was awaiting them.

Full of style and color, paced well and featuring Dourif really voicing Chuck with ruthless aggression, not to mention, the special effects which really capture the doll at his most furious and menacing; Child's Play 2, for me, delivers the goods. It isn't the goriest, though. It isn't "clever" or "Hollywood insider", and the film doesn't feature in-jokes or go for anything too tongue-in-cheek. I like the Child's Play series when Chuck is a threat to Andy, pursuing him relentlessly. After the third film, Mancini detours Chuck into a terrain that wasn't really for me. But those Chuck and Tiffany films have their audience. 4/5