Corky: (Peter) Quyen Nguyen

Child's Play Film Review Analysis

The film that I am going to analyse is called ‘Child’s Play’ directed by Tom Holland who also directed Fright Night (1985) which was quite popular receiving a rating of 6.9 out of 10 on IMDb with Child’s Play only receiving 6.4 on IMDb. Child’s Play is a Horror/Slasher film set in the 1980’s Chicago, Illinois where Charles Lee Ray, a serial killer who is shot and mortally wounded is on the run from a detective and runs into a toy store to take cover, but knowing his imminent death he performs a voodoo ritual before his death to transfer his soul into one of the dolls therefore possessing it leading to many unexpected events to unfold.

Part One:

Tzvetan Todorov created the equilibrium model which can be applied to most films. There are five stages of narrative, which progress through firstly a state of equilibrium where everything happening on screen is normal and casual. After the equilibrium there is a disruption in the equilibrium. Thirdly a recognition that the disorder has occurred, then the fourth stage is an attempt to repair the damage caused from the disruption and lastly a new equilibrium is introduced. These five stages of narrative are applied to Child’s Play for example the equilibrium when Maggie is putting away dishes and suddenly a disruption of the TV sounds with a recognition of seeing Chucky next to the TV which somehow has been turned on. An attempt to repair the damage is done with Maggie turning off the TV, taking Chucky and Andy away to bed. Then a new equilibrium is introduced with Maggie reading a book on a sofa.

Levi-Strauss theory binary oppositions are a set of opposite values which reveal the structure of media texts by looking for a deeper meaning of themes. In Child’s Play for example Good and evil are opposites. Also in Child’s Play case there is a single mother with one son going against a concept, that males as perceived to be more dominant and most likely to be a dad rather than mum but the meaning behind this is that females are more vulnerable, easier scared and naive. Therefore this contributes to the film because you get to understand the characters perspective and be scared. Most horrors films include other binary oppositions such as Good and evil, sanity and insanity and human and supernatural begins which is shown in the film where Chucky is deemed as innocent but turns out not to be due to supernatural events.

The film is in chronological order which makes the narrative linear as for each action there is a consequence afterwards with an closed narrative because of the showing of the beginning of the film and how the story unravels before the audience aswell as the ending with prequels following it up which is done cause by 2013 there are 5 prequels following the first Child’s Play. The film is omniscient as you are not restricted to one person’s thinking but you get to explore the more than one persons head and how they feel.

Part two:

The Characters are typical of the horror genre because Karen Barclay played by Catherine Hicks is very typical of the genre by the way she acts and how naive and vulnerable she is. This is shown through behaviour as she completely rejects the idea that Chucky is alive. This is shown through her way of speaking to Andy, where she is almost shouting at him as well as her facial expressions and body language as she holds Andy with both hands with a stern face where she doesn’t believe a word Andy says. This leads to how unexpected and scared she would be when she finally realises that Chucky is really alive, scaring the audience therefore typical of the genre because most characters don’t realise until later on in the movie and reject the thought that something supernatural is happening at first. Also her appearance is of a vulnerable woman mostly because the way her hair, makeup and costume is portrayed such as blonde hair and wearing dresses showing femininity presenting that she is vulnerable to the audience. This is typical of the genre as characters are very vulnerable, to be able to put the audience in the characters shoes and feel the same way as the characters do. When Karen Barclay realises that Chucky is indeed alive her facial expression and body languages changes from a suspicious tone to surprised and scared which is shown by the way she reacts to Chucky assaulting her.

Other character such as Mike Norris is the main male character in this film who is a detective also rejects the idea that Chucky is alive but soon realises that it is really alive. There is a scene where Karen is clearly vulnerable in a area full of hooligans where she is about to be sexually assaulted but is protected by Mike Norris which is typical of the genre as the male character is the hero protecting the heroine from danger aswell as protecting her from Chucky. Mike Norris is typical through his costume and hair because he is a detective, wearing a suit and tie showing his authority and power. Also this is shown through his clean cut haircut which goes to show that he is the main male in the film who is the hero due to his appearance also contributing to the idea. The way Mike also behaves and talks like, shows he is of higher authority and more powerful than Karen with his stern facial expressions of seriousness most of the time until he meets the unexpected and becomes shocked that Chucky is alive, typical of the horror genre.

The story line is typical of the horror genre because most horrors have characters that think the supernatural is impossible and reject the fact that anything could happen to them but as the story progresses, they began to realise that the supernatural is possible and that they are in danger and with their fate hanging in a balance. Also it’s typical as the audience realises what is going on but the characters do not realise this which makes it scary for the audience because the audience knows that Chucky is alive but the characters don’t putting them in danger, making the audience expect the unexpected to occur.

The themes of Child’s Play is that it incites violence in children and in general due to an innocent doll for children’s from the ages of 5 which was how old Andy was in the film turns into a evil killing doll leading it to be accused of inspiring violence in children. The film also includes a death of a character which is typical of horror genre because in most horrors people die due to the supernatural or murder, leading to other characters becoming on the edge and begin to realise what’s impossible is possible. Due to the possession of the doll through the use of voodoo shows that it is supernatural which is typical of the genre as most supernatural things occur in horrors films leading to murders, accidents and suicide. Which mostly comes from a weapon used by the villain such as a hammer and knife used in Child’s Play to assault various characters causing suspense beforehand, gradually building up before the assault to make the audience surprised with non diegetic background sounds which becomes louder the closer the character gets close to the danger and on the verge on it.

Part Three:

I will be creating a detailed textual analysis on Child’s play from the: 73^rd to the 76^th minute of the film.

Sound

There is a non diegetic background noise overplaying in the background to create a further suspense that something is going to happen from being very high pitch and frequent at the start of the extract where Chucky is thrown off Andy and cuts Mike in the leg. This slowly calms down but still plays in the background and dramatically increases when an action happens that leads to danger typical as horrors main aim is to scare the audience and by doing so scares the audience. On screen diegetic sounds such as dialogue is to explain what is happening through conservations or for the characters to express the pain they are in for example when Chucky cuts Mike in the leg he screams as a reaction to it. The non diegetic back ground soundtrack volume slowly drop to a normal pace after Chucky disappears with on screen diegetic dialogue of Mike telling Karen to take care of Andy progressing the narrative. However this soundtrack is still playing while Mike goes on to find Chucky creating suspense and tension for the audience as they don’t know what to expect along with the on screen sounds are Mike heavily breathing as he approaches the door. Mike then quickly opens the door, the non diegetic sound volume spikes up to give the audience the scare that something has occurred when it has not then the sound returns back to normal pacing and calm melody to give a sense of equilibrium and peace. As Mike slowly gets closer to Chucky and searches throughout the room, the soundtrack increasing gets louder and louder so that the audience will expect for something to jump out onto the screen and scare them. Chucky then emerges through the other door with a baseball bat hitting Mike and knocking him out. Every time Chucky manages to land a blown onto Mike the soundtrack volumes increasingly turns up to show the significant damage done to Mike. Chucky prepares to land the final blown to Mike when suddenly Karen shots Chucky in the land, changing the off screen non diegetic sound to a more dramatic, fast paced sound to match the actions (Parallel Sounds) as Karen tries to get away from Chucky. With Chucky pursuing Karen, on screen diegetic sounds are used with Chucky screaming crazily after Karen and Karen screaming scared as she tries to get away. The soundtrack keeps on playing as Karen throws Chucky into the fireplace and struggles to hold him there while trying to get matches to light it up to show her struggle and panicking. Then dialogue is used between Karen and Andy so that the narrative progresses with Andy taking a match lighting it up. All sounds are then cut off except for dialogue when Chucky says “Andy no, please, we are friends to the end remember?” With Andy replying “This is the end friend.” to make the audience focus on Chucky and Andy giving that sense of justice and that the film is coming to its end. After Andy throws the match into the fireplace, the non diegetic soundtrack immediately comes back as Chucky screams because he is being burned putting the audience into a scare as it Chucky is shown being burned alive and screaming to death.

Editing

During this extract, the editing presenting is quick paced when Chucky is around to give the sense of chase and pursuit with straight cuts to show continuity throughout the extract. This is shown at the start of the extract when Chucky is thrown off Andy by Mike and it cuts to Chucky bringing out a knife and advancing towards Mike and injuring him in process. Then the editing pace is returned back to slowed down back to normal to try find a equilibrium and therefore create suspense for the audience for it to find another disruption. Also they use CGI effects to create the doll mouth moving effect to show Chucky talking as well as his movements to assault Karen Barclay and Mike Norris. This contributes to the film and is typical because it is fast paced editing to make us audience feel the same way as the characters does and slowed down to make us think that it’s alright but create another disruption which is the technique horrors use to frighten us therefore typical of a horror genre to do so. As Mike pursues Chucky the editing pace is slower than usual, to contribute to the suspense and tension created. The pace then immediately speeds up as Mike opens the door to try and find Chucky to scare the audience that something is in the room. This is then returned back to slow pacing as Mike looks around the room and beneath the bed. After Chucky appears and hits Mike the editing pace dramatically increases as Mike is knocked out and is returned back to normal for a short period of time until Karen shoots Chucky in the leg. This leads to Chucky chasing after Karen where the editing is quick paced once again like that start of the extract. As Karen fends off Chucky and throws him into a fireplace, Andy gets a match and begins to light it up and the pace of the film slows down until Andy throws the match into the fire burning Chucky returning back to fast pace. This is done throughout the extract to give the audience a sense of calm and danger, as the editing pace is slow when there are no actions but very fast when there is actions. This contributes to the horror genre as this matches alongside the sounds used by horror films to contribute to the tension and suspense, scaring the audience.

Misc-en-scene

In the beginning extract, you see Mike wearing a shirt and tie as he throws Chucky off Karen showing his authority and power through usage of uniform. Chucky is seen to be wearing children clothing which has very vibrant colours such as red, blue and green contrasting his villain persona. This extract is settled up in their flat apartment with a high contrast low key lighting due to the shadows creating suspense with the low key to create the horror effect that something is going to happen typical of the genre. Props such as knives and guns are also shown in the extract which is typical of horrors since horrors always contain at least one death from a cause of a weapon. This is shown through Chucky holding a knife, baseball bat and Mike holding a gun leading to the possibility of death occurring very soon in the extract I am analysing. Karen being the main female in the film is seen with blonde hair and makeup contributes to her characters as being vulnerable typical convention of the horror genre using blond hair actresses. Mike is also seen with neat, short cut hair complementing his attire as a police officer showing his authority. The setting of the house is used to contrast to the fact a home is supposed to be a safe ‘haven’ where you go back every day to relax and sleep however Chucky being there makes it unsafe for everyone. This is a typical convention of horrors as they usually get conventions associated with safety and innocent and reverse it like for example home and what dolls are used for.

Cinematography

In the beginning of this sequence, POV shots are used to show a characters point of view for example at the beginning Corky takes out a knife and runs towards Mike and cuts him in the leg. POV shots are typical of the horror genre because it shows the characters view to the audience putting them in their shoes. Once Chucky cuts Mike, a medium close up is used Mike at eye level to show his pain and Karen to show her reaction. In the extract when Mike steadily approaches the door and when he scans the room for Chucky, a POV is used to create suspense and tension for the audience. Also medium close ups are used to show the characters facial expressions as they approach Chucky, for example Mike steadily walking across the hallway contributing to the fear factor creating suspense and tension. As Mike is trying to search for Chucky from behind, a POV shots from Chucky is used again when he runs towards him with a baseball bat creating that scare in horrors as Chucky knocks out Mike. Yet again medium close up shot is used at eye level on Karen when she shots Chucky in the leg to show her facial expression being shock and scared at the same time. When Karen runs out of bullets, a close up of the gun is used to signify the gun running out of ammo. A close up of Chucky is shown to present how scary and crazy he is. She then immediately runs away tripping over when a POV from Chucky races after her once again creating this fear factor as she tries to get away from him. A close up is used before and when Karen is bitten by Chucky, to show Chucky’s crazy scary face beforehand and her facial expression experiencing physical pain due to the bites from Chucky. This is a typical of the convention as the camera focuses on the antagonist face which is supernatural and scary therefore giving the audience a scare. Once Chucky is thrown into a fireplace by Karen and held off with a metal barrier, a close up of his face is used to show once again how scary and crazy Chucky is. A close up is also used afterwards as Andy becomes alerted that his mother Karen is in danger switching between Karen and Andy to show Karen panicking scared as she tries to fend off Chucky. As Karen tries to grab the matches, a close up of her hand is used to emphasize her struggling to get the match. Also this is done once again as Karen tries to turn on the gas for the fireplace whilst struggling to hold off Chucky. A shot reverse shot close ups are used between Andy and Chucky as they converse and their facial expression. As Andy aggressively lights up the match and throws into fireplace, before this Chucky is acting all innocent to persuade Andy not to do so showing how cunning Chucky is. Once Chucky is up in flames, Karen takes Andy away from the fire portrayed through a tracking long shot to show the characters movement away from Chucky. With Chucky on fire, a close up is used to show his doll face being burned and melting away disfiguring his face scaring the audience at how creepy he looks. As Chucky tries to put down the fire, in a long shot he runs out of the fireplace once again, scaring the audience which is a typical convention of horrors to show how disfigured and demented the villain is. As a reaction to this a close up of Karen is used, to show her shock at this supernatural event occurring and how scared she is.

Storyboard

Analysis of Review - Empire

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=14280

In Empire Magazine the ratings are clearly seen from the screenshot with a 3 star out of 5 showing that it is a decent film to watch but won’t attract many readers interest because of the star rating which is nothing special. Below the title of the film, it says “A child’s doll get homicidal tendencies in this cult horror” which shows and displays the genre as it says horror at the end but you wouldn’t expect it to be because of the title Child's Play is something associated with playing with toys and make-believe and isn’t usually associated with horror. It then summarises the plot of the film briefly describing who and what happens in the film, trying to not give away too much spoilers but entice the readers into watching the film because if it gave away too much information there wouldn’t be a point in watching the film. The reviewer Kim Newman then goes on to talk about the director of the film who is Tom Holland, who also has directed many success horrors such as Fright Night before Child’s Play. He describes the director as ideal for the role of the film as Tom Holland has directed films such as Scream for Help, Cloak and Dagger and Psycho 2 where he focuses on the ‘innocent’ usually male and children who fantasises too much and is disbelieved when the ‘impossible’ become real which in this case he applies into Child’s Play making him the ideal director for the film. Kim then goes on to describing the looks of the Good Guy doll which has a ‘grinning freckle-faced munchkin in bright dungerees’ and explains what generally happens in the film where the supernatural occurs where the mother of innocent little boy who knows the truth believes he is just going nuts, while the cops on the case are chasing the murderer of the babysitter suspecting the ‘brat’ using terms in a informal manner attracting general readers who don’t read often. Using evidence from the film and relating it to the Good Guy Dolls, which are deemed as innocent are then possessed by a serial killer and is disbelieved by many except for Andy until they finally realise its true. He relates the film to old previous films such as The Devil Doll and how the concept of Dolls killing has been a staple for horror over the years mostly from 1936 to 1964 but Child’s Play is the first to take advantage of higher technology by using special effects to make Chucky Alive as with what Tom Holland did with Fright Night was that he took a old vampire story but revamped it with spectacular effects. Kim goes onto the characters which he believes to be ‘annoyingly stupid in the way only people in duff horror movies can be’ which means that the characters (Hicks & Sarandon) are very typical of the horror genre by disbelieving that the doll is possessed and after progressing through the film do they slowly begin to realise that Chucky is alive and that it is really true and possible. He also states that Dourif voice acting is pure quality with the sneering voice for Chucky along with the state-of-art puppetry to create a real intimidating Chucky. Included in the context he states that Tom Holland use of special effects and master puppetry to create Chucky movements and the way he walks and talks making the film much more successful in being a horror. The way the review was written was in an informal way for general readers, as it doesn’t get in depth of the film but gives little context of the film, also it doesn’t address the niche audience to be interested in reading this review because it is written in a much easier way for everyone to understand and read, whereas a niche audience would like to read a in-depth, explained and detailed review of the film. At the end he produces an overall verdict stating that it’s not a break-through horror but a decent enough little time-waster with nothing original but pacey and entertaining.

Analysis of Review - New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D02E1DF153AF93AA35752C1A96E948260&partner=Rotten%2520Tomatoes

In the New York Times review of Child’s Play, the title is clearly presented at the top of the page with “A Killer Companion in Child’s Play” by Caryn James Published on November 9, 1988. She immediately compares the film to a television show called “The Twilight Zone”, and then briefly explains what happens at the beginning of the film stating how the beginning scene is ‘television-perfect’ shallow, artificial and lurid showing that the film is blatantly ironic and generic suiting the ways of the director Tom Holland’s clever, playful thriller. She then again compares the film to “Twilight Zone” territory, where Childs play occupies the same type of ‘sendup’ and suspense similar to “Twilight Zone”. She then begins to describe what happens in the story mentioning various actor names such as Chris Sarandon and Brad Dourif, describing Brad Dourif character as “scraggly-looking” and explaining how the Good Guy becomes possessed by the “Lakeshore Strangler” by ‘throwing’ his departing soul into the nearest available body in his dying moments which came to be a ‘three-foot-tall’ doll called a Good Guy. Caryn goes on to explain further along the story line whereas 6-year-old Andy who has wanted a Good Guy doll for a present for his birthday, ‘surprisingly’ receives one out of the blue when his Mom appeared to not afford it. She briefly describes the doll with the same features Dourif has with a ‘chilly blue eyes and thin voice along with a quote the doll says “My name is Chucky and I’m your friend to the end” he tells Andy. Chucky then wants to stay up and watch the news where the baby sitter Maggie says no, knowing this connotes that something bad will happen because the readers know that that the Good Guy is actually the “Lakeshore Strangler” and with Maggie denying him watching the news you can expect what happens next. She shows that the characters disbelieve that chucky is alive and the serial killer however Andy who says that Chucky is alive is branded as a bad seed which is shown through quotes from the film. After she explains around half the story plot and how it progresses, she begins to talk about the director Tom Holland who she thinks relies heavily on his own Fright Night then briefly describing what Fright Night was all about, a 1985 spoof with a teenager spending first of the film trying to convince adults that a vampire lives next door and the second half trying to kill it off the vampire (played by Mr. Sarandon) which she links to Child’s Play how Mr. Holland borrow heavily from “Fright Night” cause in Child’s play the similar things happen where the audience believes Andy at first where first half of film Andy tries to convince the adults that Chucky is alive and the second half trying to kill it. She states that originality is not the point of “Child’s Play” but the swift editing and ‘deft wit’ that keeps the audience off guard, no matter how predictable the plot is, so even though the idea of the story is generic and not original, it’s still pretty good as it keeps the audience off guard when the ‘unexpected’ happens. She goes on to identify one scene in which she believes to be fresh and brilliant when Andy is in a one on one battle when Chucky the walking, talking doll arrives at the hospital where Andy is being observed by adults, no one believes Andy’s cries that Chucky is here to kill him “Chucky is here and he’s going to kill me!”. She goes on to explain the brilliance of the scene as in a dark operating room, Andy a boy of 6-year-old’s resourcefulness is pitted against the doll’s criminal mind in a one-to-one battle and states that Andy played by Alex Vincent is wonderfully natural with his crying scene making most method actors looking like amateurs. She then discuses when it was released and that it appeals to ‘upscale horror fans’ rather than a general audience with Tom Holland doing a excellent job in creating child’s play as it is a fitting successor to the classic television horror “The Twilight Zone” directed by Rod Serling.

Analysis of Posters from Textual Analysis film “Child’s Play”

The genre of the film is clearly seen through the following two posters below due to the appearance of the character which is Chucky seen to be holding a knife with a black background denotes a horror/slasher film because conventions such as the colour scheme of black and red connote the horror/slasher film. The knife along with the body language of Chucky shows that Chucky is about to slash someone which is a typical convention of a slasher film. The font of the title of the film has a very sharp font with a lot of sharp edges, looking rough connotes this film is connected with the slasher genre also the font is huge and in capital letters with the positioning of the title on the top left taking up a lot of space to shown the significance of the information highlight the title drawing the audience attention. Also the title raises connotations with something to do with a little child toy or something a child plays with, deemed to be innocent connecting to the image of Chucky however in this film it is the exact opposite. The USP of these posters can be seen on the left poster with “Excellent Special Effects! It Packs a Wallop!” as well as the actors name at the top of the poster such as “Catherine Hicks & Chris Sarandon” with Catherine Hicks starring in Star Trek (1982) and Chris starring in Fright Night (1985) becoming the USP because of the previous films they were in has given them a fan base attracting people to go watch it aswell at the review of the film telling the audience that it is excellent. Chucky’s expression on these posters looks really evil since the right poster focuses on his eyes with dark shading showing this expression and with the left his body language is angry and evil since his hand is raised showing violent intent. Also, the title ‘Child’s Play’ in the right poster has hints of blood smeared across it looking like if someone has been slashed indicating once again the horror/slasher type genre. The Tagline “Something’s moved in with the Barclay family, and so has terror” shows the genre of film cause the film is associating with terror occurring along with “You’ll wish it was only make-believe” referring to the fact that children like to play “Make-believe” and that you’ll wish it was only make believe because Andy is telling the truth and isn’t acting, making the audience think it is something supernatural that occurred creating terror within the Barclay’s family.

Poster 1

Poster 2

These posters produce representational issues such as age because it is going against the normal with children wanting to play with toys because they are fun to play make-believe with. However in these posters it completely reverses this and making a toy for children a murderer, which produces issues as people wouldn’t like their children see this cause otherwise they will be affected by this because it would show toys aren’t as ‘innocent’ as they seem. So child’s play with is a word associated with the young from the ages 0 to 8 is actually not true but used to entice an older mature audience from the ages of 15 to 25 because the genre of the film is horror/slasher. In Contrast to the other two posters we have these posters which presents a bloodier theme because there is more red in the poster denotes the horror/slasher genre, also in these posters the knife is clearly shown to the audience which connotes that the film is a horror/slasher. Instead of using the actors name and film reviews as the USP of the poster, these posters use the directors name as the USP which is Don Mancini who also directed Fright Night (1985) this encourages fans of the film Fright Night to watch the film. A new tagline is introduced “He wants you for a new best friend” on the right poster connecting to the image of chucky looking innocent due to the characters expression with his eye hinted in red showing a sense of possession and evil in contrast to the innocent view of dolls and how harmless because children play with them. In these posters the font is big and has sharp edges which connote a slasher/horror type film with its black and red backgrounds, these posters however have the billing block presented at the bottom of the posters showing the production company details. The target audience for these films are mostly a mature audience who enjoy the thrill of horrors so it would most likely by around the ages of 15 – 25.