Child’s Play is pretty well regarded as one of the major horror franchises. It ranks right up there with A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and Friday the 13th. Chucky is a worldwide icon and a major figure in the horror genre. He’s been scaring and entertaining audiences for over twenty-five years now. The franchise is unique in that it is one of the few horror series in which every entry has been penned or co-pened by the same writer, that being Don Mancini. This has done a lot to keep the series fresh. Each movie stands apart from the others. None of them repeat themselves and they all take the story in new directions.
Child’s Play is, naturally, the immortal classic. Child’s Play 2 is widely considered to be a strong follow up with some of the most fondly remembered scenes in the whole series, including the showdown in the toy factory. Bride of Chucky divides fans a little bit, but it has more admirers than detractors and most enjoy the black sense of humor and the way it works in comedy without losing sight of the horror. Seed of Chucky is pretty much universally panned, with most people feeling that it went too far in the direction of comedy and completely lost sight of the horror. Curse of Chucky is praised as being the entry that took Chucky back to his roots and got the series back on track.
This has never been an overtly macho franchise, and Child’s Play 3 comments on that. It’s about a killer doll, an ambiguous toy that could be played with by either boys or girls and Chucky’s aggressive need to hold onto his masculinity despite his appearance has been a part of the doll’s character from the very beginning. Now, there’s really a whole movie based around it. With everything thrown in his way to keep him from achieving his goal, it’s not until somebody actually puts lipstick on the doll that Chucky utters the words “This means war.”
The men at the military academy may think they’re as tough as it gets, but they can’t find a way to survive the killer doll in their midst. The point is made especially clear when Colonel Cochran, the hardass man who runs this place and has survived multiple tours in Vietnam, takes one look at Chucky and then promptly has a heart attack and dies. Then you have the barber, who’s entire job is based on providing these young men with a traditionally masculine appearance, who attempts to play with the doll when no one is around to watch him.
On top of the smart script and the surprising social commentary, Child’s Play 3 is simply a fun and entertaining horror movie. Chucky is at his meanest and scariest here. Replacing paintball ammo with real ammo is still one of the cruelest things the little doll has ever done. The fantastic climax, set at a carnival, is just as good as the Good Guy factory ending of Child’s Play 2. There’s no real reason for this one to fall by the wayside. It’s one of the better slasher sequels of the ‘90’s, and definitely deserves way more praise than it seems to get. At the very least, it doesn’t deserve to be the forgotten entry in the series, because there’s a lot here that’s worth remembering.