Child's Play (2019)

Brian Tyree Henry

KatzSmith Productions

**Child's Play** is a remake of the original 1988 film of the same name. The original film was directed by Tom Holland but the remake was directed by Lars Klevberg and written by Tyler Burton Smith. The film stars Gabriel Bateman, Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry and Tim Matheson, and is produced by Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg.

## Plot

At the Kaslan Industries "Buddi" assembly factory in Vietnam, a male employee is chastised and fired by his supervisor for insufficient work. In response, the employee uses a computer at his workstation to tamper with the doll he is assembling, disabling all of the safety features. As this particular Buddi is packed alongside others in preparation for international delivery, the employee commits suicide.

In Chicago, Illinois, Zed-Mart clerk Karen Barclay and her 13-year-old hearing-impaired son Andy Barclay are settling into their new apartment, where Karen encourages Andy to make new friends as she works to prepare for his upcoming birthday. In an attempt to cheer Andy up and make up for the unease caused by the move, as well as the presence of her new boyfriend Shane, Karen blackmails one of her work colleagues in order to procure a defective Buddi doll and presents the toy to Andy as an early birthday gift. Once Andy activates the doll, it names itself Chucky and becomes very attached to Andy. As the two bond, Chucky helps Andy befriend two other children in the building – a girl named Falyn and a boy named Pugg – and even frightens Shane on Andy's request. Over time, however, Chucky begins to display violent tendencies. He strangles the Barclays' pet cat after it scratches Andy, and as Andy and his friends gleefully watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 one night, Chucky starts mimicking the violence on the screen and approaches the trio with a kitchen knife, before Andy disarms him.

Andy arrives home the next day to find that the cat is dead, and Chucky admits to murdering it so that it wouldn't hurt him anymore. Further antics cause Karen to lock Chucky in a cupboard despite Andy's pleas, but he escapes and further terrorizes Shane, which leads to Shane confronting Andy. After overhearing Andy's pleas for Shane to disappear, Chucky follows him home, where it is revealed that Shane has a family and has been cheating with Karen. While Shane is outside taking down Christmas lights, Chucky frightens Shane into falling from the ladder and breaking both of his legs. Chucky then activates a tiller which runs into Shane's head, killing him. By the following day, Chucky has delivered Shane's skinned face as a gift, to Andy's horror.

While police detective Mike Norris and his partner Willis begin an investigation, Andy, Falyn and Pugg decide to disable Chucky and dispose of him in the garbage. Building voyeur and electrician Gabe intercepts the doll and takes him to the building's basement to prepare him for online sale. Now fully repaired, Chucky demonstrates his ability to remotely interface with other Kaslan products and torments Gabe before mutilating him with a table saw. After making his way back to ground level, Chucky ends up in the possession of another kid in the building, Omar and ultimately proceeds to kill Mike's mother down the hall, Doreen by causing the Kaslan Car she is travelling in to crash, before stabbing her in the chest. Meanwhile, Andy fails to convince Karen that Chucky has become murderous, and she takes Andy along to her next work shift in order to keep him nearby.

Mike, suspecting that Andy is the killer, travels to Zed-Mart and apprehends him just as Chucky takes control of the store. Havoc ensues as employees and patrons alike are assaulted and murdered by drones and other hacked toys, while Chucky triggers the building's lockdown sequence. Mike is wounded amid the chaos, and Andy and his friends manage to reach the exit, only for Andy to be lured back in when Chucky reveals that he is holding Karen hostage and plans to kill her. Andy manages to free his mother while under attack from Chucky, before overpowering and defeating the doll with help from Karen and Mike. While paramedics tend to Karen, Mike and other survivors, Andy and the rest of his friends smash Chucky’s lifeless body in a nearby alleyway. In the aftermath of Chucky's killing spree, Kaslan Industries CEO Henry Kaslan provides a disclaimer regarding Chucky's programming, and as more Buddi dolls are shown being recalled and placed into storage, one starts malfunctioning inside its box.

## Cast

* Aubrey Plaza as Karen Barclay
* Gabriel Bateman as Andy Barclay
* Mark Hamill as Chucky
* Brian Tyree Henry as Mike Norris
* David Lewis as Shane
* Tim Matheson as Henry Kaslan
* Ty Consiglio as Pugg
* Beatrice Kitsos as Falyn
* Marlon Kazadi as Omar
* Carlease Burke as Doreen
* Nicole Anthony as Detective Willis