Child's Play 3 (4 Stars)

"You just can't keep a Good Guy down!"

Most of my friends disagree with me when I say that the first Child's Play film (or the first Chucky film, as I prefer to call it) was the weakest in the series. Rather than get involved in long arguments with them I've asked myself what I like so much about the following films. The answer is easy. The first film was a low budget film, carefully crafted with uncertain hopes of success, whereas the sequels are pompous and pretentious, with glorious musical accompaniment. Right from the opening minutes the films yell "Look at us, we're great". I like that, but I can understand other people finding it unpleasantly self-indulgent.

Although only made a year after "Child's Play 2" it takes place about eight years later. Andy Barclay is now 16, and a new actor has been chosen to show the transition. He's been sent to a military boarding school, Kent Military Academy, after causing trouble at a series of foster homes. This is enough to make it a horror film in itself. I wouldn't have survived in an environment like that as a child, I would either have run away or killed myself.

On the other hand, it's a strange military academy, as far as the gender distribution goes. There are about 60 boys and two girls. I would have understood it being an all boys school, and I would have understood it being a mixed school with even distribution, but this is a strange mix. I bet the girls never had trouble getting dates.

Chucky was destroyed at the end of the second film, but now he's back again. When the remains of his body were crushed his blood flowed out and was mixed in with the purified plastic. The first Good Guy doll of the new batch houses his soul, and the killing spree begins again.

In the film the school's principal reads a newspaper clip about Andy and the Chucky doll. It's a strange newspaper, because the same text is repeated in all three columns. You can click on the picture to enlarge it if you don't believe me. Sloppy.

	Order from Amazon.com
	Order from Amazon.co.uk
	Order from Amazon.de