Child's Play 3 (1991)

March 22, 2022 10:22 AM

It's been years since Chucky, the doll with the soul and the voice (Brad Dourif) of a psychopathic killer, was apparently destroyed in a fire at a doll factory. Now the toy manufacturer is remaking the same line of toys with the old, still haunted materials. This resurrects Chucky, who goes after Andy (Justin Whalin), his former owner, who now attends military school. Chucky slashes his way through a string of grotesque murders as Andy tries to stop the homicidal doll and the spirit within it.

Currently available for digital rental via the usual services.

Directed by Jack Bender, who would go on to become a primary director on Lost.

posted by DirtyOldTown (3 comments total)

While this isn't unwatchable or that bad, it's the low point of the series. It's got the most egregious Chucky mugging, the weakest plot, etc. It's not poorly made or completely ridiculous in the way some of the Friday the 13th or Halloween sequels, as it's still a studio film made by professionals. It's just unnecessary and treading water.

By rapidly aging Andy up to a teen and moving the story to be with older kids in a military school, they're losing a big chunk of what made the first two compelling. A very young kid in peril that no one believes was more interesting. This is almost more like a standard slasher: waiting for terrible people to die.

There was also that whole thing with it being associated with the James Bulger murder in the UK, though that has since been proven to be largely baseless.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:55 AM on March 22, 2022

This one does have one redeeming quality, which is Chucky springing out at the school officer only to be frustrated and annoyed when the man promptly suffers a fatal heart attack; he's just so offended!
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:25 AM on March 25, 2022

The military school setting had me thinking this was an homage to Omen II, but sadly there is no Lance Henriksen to be found. Even the filmmakers seem kind of bored and uninspired by the school, and the film finally wakes up when they leave it in the last reel.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:39 AM on March 27, 2022