The 1990 horror movie Child’s Play 2 takes place in Chicago, IL. It stars Alex Vincent as Andy Barclay, Jenny Agutter as Joanne Simpson, Gerrit Graham as Phil Simpson, Christine Elise as Kyle, and Grace Zabriskie as Grace Poole. The producer is David Kirschner (Child’s Play). The film is directed by John Lafia (TV’s Babylon 5).
The story picks up two years after the events of the first Child’s Play. The original “Chucky” doll is in the possession of Play Pals, Inc. They attempt to save the reputation of the company by reconstructing it while Andy Barclay’s mother is under psychiatric care for backing up her son’s story about the doll. After an electrocution brings Chucky back to life, he begins to hunt down his former owner. Andy is under the temporary guardianship of Phil and Joanne Simpson. Phil is skeptical while Joanne immediately takes a liking to him. Chucky arrives at the Simpson house on Andy’s first night and assumes the identity of the Good Guy “Tommy” doll who is already there. The following night, Chucky ties Andy to his bed and tries to transfer his soul into the boy’s body. But he is interrupted when foster sister Kyle sneaks in through the bedroom window. The Simpsons overhear the two of them and enter the room. Right away, Andy blames Chucky, who is now sitting inanimate on his stomach. Phil doesn’t believe him and takes the doll, thinking it to be their “Tommy” doll, and throws it down the basement stairs. When morning comes, Andy heads off to his new school. But Chucky hitches a ride under his bus. During recess, the killer doll writes obscene words on Andy’s test paper. As the bell rings to end school the teacher Miss Kettlewell sees the paper and makes Andy stay after for detention. When she leaves the room, Andy goes over to the closet where the teacher had tossed Chucky. He looks through the locked closet keyhole and sees the doll in there demanding to be let out. Andy escapes through the window. Miss Kettlewell returns and, upon hearing the closet door, believes her detained student is inside. Chucky emerges, stabbing her with an air pump and beating her to death with a yard stick. When Andy returns home, he is confronted by Phil and Joanne who had been notified by his teacher about what had happened with his test paper. Andy blames Chucky, so Phil opens the nearby basement door to confirm that “Tommy” is still there. He finds Chucky lying there as before. The boy finally decides to finish off the nasty doll once and for all. He takes an electric knife and proceeds to the basement. Phil, having heard their struggle, opens the door and finds Andy standing there with the knife as Chucky hides under the stairs. As he descends the stairs, Phil is tripped by Chucky and dropped head first onto the concrete floor, killing him. Joanne and Kyle hurry down. Joanne, wishing she had listened to Phil about Andy, quickly packs up the boy’s things and calls Foster Care to pick him up. After her husband’s body is removed and the police leave, Kyle goes out to the swing in the backyard. As she is swinging, Kyle uncovers the damaged “Tommy” doll that Chucky had buried earlier. Immediately, she checks the garbage can where she had dumped the “Good Guy” doll and finds it empty. She is now starting to believe Andy’s story and heads up to her foster mother Joanne’s bedroom to tell her, grabbing a knife along the way. She finds her dead as Chucky comes out and attacks her. After a struggle he forces the girl, at knifepoint, take him to Andy. When they arrive at Foster Care, the killer doll pulls the fire alarm to clear the building. Grace Poole, the head of Foster Care, sees Kyle and Chucky there and accuses her of pulling the alarm. Having Andy in hand, Grace and the others all head into her office where the doll comes alive and kills the Foster Care head. Kyle, who had been locked out of the office when Chucky came alive, breaks in and discovers that the boy and the doll had slipped through the window and onto a newspaper truck. She cuts off the driver with her car while the two once again sneak away, this time into a Good Guy factory. Andy’s foster sister just barely makes it into the factory as the door closes. This sets the stage for the final showdown.
One particular feature of this film that sets it apart from the previous film is the humor. The story is not nearly as dark as it was in the first movie. For example as Kyle and Chucky are on their way to Andy, they are pulled over. The cop notices that the doll is bleeding. Kyle also sees this and says “You’ve seen dolls that pee? This one bleeds.” He lets her off with a warning and tells Kyle to buckle up. When they leave, Chucky forces Kyle to go faster. She sees that the doll is not wearing a seat belt, so she buckles hers. Then, Kyle slams on the brakes, forcing Chucky through the front windshield. As the killer is regaining his balance on the front bumper, she floors it. As she is trying to shake him off the front of the car, Chucky screams “You goddamn women drivers!”
The location of the final scenes of the film is interesting: the Good Guy doll factory. To truly destroy something in a story, they sometimes say that you must return to the source, like in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In Child’s Play 2, this is no exception. The “Chucky” doll was created at the factory, so there the story must return in order to finally finish off Chucky once and for all.
To wrap, if a horror movie with a little side humor is what you’re looking for, then Child’s Play 2 is the movie for you.