Child’s Play 2 (1990)

Directed by John Lafia [Other horror films: Man’s Best Friend (1993), Monster! (1999), The Rats (2002)]

This moderately amazes me to say, but the second Child’s Play really is about as good as the first, if not a little better. It’s probably negligible when it comes to the rating, in truth, but nonetheless, Child’s Play 2 is an extraordinarily well-done sequel.

The main cast is close to excellent throughout. Gerrit Graham (of TerrorVision fame) plays a good jackass foster parent. Jenny Agutter, his character’s wife, does well as the more sensible of the two (though to be honest, out of the main cast, Agutter’s the least memorable). Of course, Alex Vincent comes back as Andy and does a fantastic job, basically playing a kid who knows he’s screwed, no matter what he does.

The winning cast member, however, is Christine Elise. Playing a street tough kid, Kyle, in the same foster home as Andy, Elise shows a lot of heart and never has a boring scene. She was in a few television movies and various episodes prior to Child’s Play 2, so this was her feature film debut, and boy, was it strong. A very likable character, Kyle was a gem to see throughout the film.

Of course, Brad Dourif does a fantastic job again, with some fantastically amusing and well-done lines. I can never get enough of Dourif’s voice acting, as it really makes Chucky the badass he is. On a related note, while there were a few deaths that didn’t do much for me (the first one, for instance), the suffocation death was jolly good fun, and every death past that was entirely serviceable. Chucky went all out, especially near the end (and boy, did he get mutilated as the movie went on), and was a sight to behold.

The special effects were damn good, especially regarding Chucky’s bodily mutilations toward the end. Somewhat ironic that most of the gore in this flick comes from the antagonist, but it looked great and worked out well.

I’ve seen this movie many times before, but it never struck me until now just how well this compares with the first movie. The tight story-writing and fantastic cast really allows this sequel to stand up with the original, and more so, this movie itself can stand up as one of the best 1990’s horror flicks (honestly, the competition wasn’t high in that decade). Child’s Play 2 wastes no time, and from beginning to end, it’s a damn fun ride with an amazing finale.

8.5/10

This was covered on Fight Evil’s podcast, episode #18. Listen below as Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss the film.