WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Child's Play, in theaters now.
In the original Child's Play movies, Chucky was a pint-sized version of your typical 1980s slasher who usually used knives to cut a bloody path toward a new body. However, the possessed doll utilized other weapons over the years, including a cult and witchcraft that allowed him to jump a new vessel. He also electrocuted his victims, dropped heavy objects on them, incinerated a few poor souls and set an array of booby traps to achieve his goals.
The reboot, however, goes in a different direction by making the new Buddi doll a technopath, all so he can try make the young Andy (Gabriel Bateman) his best friend forever. This allows Chucky to control drones, cars and technology on the whole, upgrading the killer like never before. Coincidentally, with the very concept of Chucky revamped for a modern audience, the remake actually ends up offering the doll his deadliest and, yes, his cutest weapon ever.
In the final act, Chucky (voiced by Mark Hamill) really cuts loose on a store full og unsuspecting innocents in a full-blown revenge mode. After being discarded by Andy, he returns to his apartment complex as a doll scorned, pretending to be another kid's toy and looking to exact revenge on everyone who tried to keep him and the boy apart. The ensuing drama culminates in Chucky taking control of all the Buddi-linked tech at the Zed Store on an overcrowded night sale similar to Black Friday.
That's when Chucky unleashes the violent Buddi Bears, who wear Chucky's clothes but coming off like flesh-eating monsters. They'll leave you going "Awww!" one moment and grimacing at their sheer aggression the next.
Before the sale, Henry Kaslan (Tim Matheson), founder and CEO of Kaslan Corp, made sure the store got a bunch of themed-Chucky dolls, including Leprechaun versions, to go along with the normal Buddi line on the shelf. These new Buddi Bears also have different hairstyles and clothes, basically acting as the cutest variants to the mainstream Chucky line. And when Chucky commands his drones to attack all the shoppers, he ups the ante with this fuzzy, lethal Buddi Bear legion.
These dolls look like psycho-Paddingtons, with hair all over their faces. They tackle folks and use weapons just like Chucky to pounce on and batter their victims. Most terrifyingly, they also use their sharp teeth to devour panicked victims.
As disturbing as it is, you can't help but giggle at how they go from cute fuzzballs to rabid bears you'd find in the woods in a matter of seconds. Seeing them gnaw away at shoppers is a guilty pleasure because it's a left-field move which catches viewers off-guard that also takes a subtle jab at the madness these sales bring forward in the real-world.
Many were expecting Chucky to do something obvious by controlling the other Buddi dolls like him, but by commanding the bears, the film creates some unexpected, totally different tiny terrors. In that respect, this even tops the original Child;s Play franchise, where Chucky's girlfriend, Tiffany, helped him slice and dice. The remake ups the gore and the number of humans writhing in pain or being torn limb from limb as the sounds of wild bears play in the background.
The Buddi Bears fiercely loyal robots, programmed to listen to Chucky alone and not develop a conscience, like the original Chucky's old cult. Theses cuddly critters are a legion wreaking havoc and who the humans clearly underestimated at their own peril. Again, this is a smart move that freshens up the Child's Play franchise that mixes in horror, action and comedy that embodies the spirit of the original film franchise
Directed by Lars Klevberg from a script by Tyler Burton Smith, Child's Play stars Aubrey Plaza, Brian Tyree Henry, Gabriel Bateman, Tim Matheson and Mark Hamill.