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‘Child’s Play’ is a Blast and Exists in its Own Parallel Universe

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Every time a reboot, remake, rehash, re-do, or remix of one of cult fave film occurs there tends to be a bit of a hubbub. And by “hubbub,” I mean Cold War type spats. These either lead to a shaky acceptance or all out Film Twitter disdain. In the case of Child’s Play, I can say that this is one that is an all-out surprise in terms my expectation being totally exceeded in a variety of delightful, if not murdery, ways.

Child’s Play takes the selective bones of Tom Holland’s Child’s Play ‘88 and strips it of the elements of voodoo and possession. Instead, taking a two-fisted approach to the scarier side of spooky AI and nearly existent tech. Here, the Kaslan Buddi doll is able to control other Kaslan products through Bluetooth, giving him a wide range of control over tech like drones, thermostats, home electronics, etc… Taking a much more Sci-fi approach to the previous straight horror approach.

In the place of a voodoo ritual, we are instead introduced to a disgruntled employee at a Kaslan factory who decides to remove certain safety features from one particular Buddi doll. When young mother decides to gift the doll to her son, things take a bloody, and sometimes oddly touching turn

Director Lars Klevberg comes at this through a really fun approach. Well written and delivered dialogue makes everyone believable and ultimately likeable.  Creating a fun Monster Squad, or Lost Boys era childhood camaraderie dynamic.  The stand out feature in the first two acts of the film revolve primarily around how bizarre and funny the approach is to Andy and Chucky’s relationship. The beats are familiar to the relationship between John Connor and the T-800 in Terminator 2.

The most hilarious bits are built around the fact that the Buddi doll is severely… off. From facial expressions to strange dialogue, it’s cute and clear that this lil dude is on a planet of his own. Mark Hamill lending voice to Chucky seals the deal and makes the whole Chucky experience magical and simultaneously maniacal.

Don’t let all my talk about how funny and semi-adorable sections of this movie are though, horror hounds. Child’s Play is 100 percent brutal creating some severely well-done gory kills. All while keeping it almost completely practical in the process. Added to that Chucky is very creepy, watching Andy sleep or sitting in dark corners in full stalker mode.

The quality of the third act of Child’s Play is where we see the film start to follow more traditional tropes and is ultimately where the film didn’t work for me. It is seemingly and suddenly in a rush to get to the end credits. And does a criminal job of taking the strange heart that the previous acts did a great job building up. It’s rudimentary but not terrible.

It would be criminal if I didn’t mention the creepy and catchy Buddi song that is repeated more than a few times throughout the films runtime. In addition to the song being pretty dang great, Klevberg and Co. frame the tune in a different light each time it is comes up. Making the song, hilarious, terrifying, heartbreaking and then hilarious again. Composer, Bear McCreary brings a vivaciously eerie soundtrack to the mix all driven by children toys that he decided to use to capture the sounds of a child’s playroom.

This Child’s Play exists in its own parallel universe in my mind. It re-imagines a new killer doll nightmare and does so in a way that is an absolute blast and on its own terms. I’m not usually a remake apologist but in the case of this Child’s Play there is enough driving its engine that I was pleasantly surprised with just how impressive parts of it were. There is nothing about this iteration that takes anything away from Don Mancini’s ongoing Chucky legacy. In fact, this film takes care not to step too far into that wheelhouse and ultimately won me over in the process.

 

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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