This review contains spoilers.
There is a scene early in the original Child's Play where the boy Andy is watching an 80s cartoon show called Good Guys while making breakfast -- toast, milk, and Good Guys branded cereal. Andy watches eagerly as a post-episode commercial airs for you to buy your own Good Guy doll, dressed in Good Guy brand overalls (the same kind Andy is wearing) and Good Guy brand T-shirt (the same kind Andy is wearing) and Good Guy brand shoes (the same kind Andy is wearing). Campy, genre-aware horror always works best when it is being ridiculous, satirical, or both. Child's Play flirts with the grotesque levels consumerism is marketed to kids, but doesn't quite sync all of these themes up with its fun schlock.
Chucky isn't just some doll come to life. He's been possessed by the soul of a serial killer, Charles Lee Ray, after he was mortally wounded in a shootout. As it turns out, he was a particularly ambitious serial killer, learning a little voodoo along the way in case his mortal coil ever gave a bother to him. Given he was shot in a toy store, the only viable option around was a Good Guys doll in order to continue living, and thus, with a little voodoo chant and some timely lightening, Chucky was born. The movie follows the expected moves for most of its runtime: no one believes the boy when he tells them the doll can walk and talk, and Chucky is given only partial glimpses on screen to encourage the mounting suspense. The first half of the film plays out really well like this, in a classic slasher fashion. Andy takes an incredibly long time to suspect anything too peculiar when Chucky can move and chat with him, and it is in part because this is a branded product he has been incredibly attached to. He trusts its iconography already because of its over-saturation in his daily life, so when it starts doing questionable things he gives it far more leeway than any sane adult would. By the time the boy realizes the doll isn't good for him, he's far beyond being able to help in fighting him.
The scene in which the mother realizes Chucky is, indeed, alive is one of the highlights to the film. After making herself feel silly trying to get the doll to talk the way her son says it can, she examines the box a bit, more perplexed than anything else. As she tumbles the box in her hands, a pack of batteries falls out. Even when obviously found out, Chucky waits until threatened being thrown in the fireplace before his face contorts into a snarl and he screams "You stupid bitch!" It's a shocking transformation that is as funny as it is startling, and one of the things the film does rather well. This scene, unfortunately, is the high point before the film starts to slide down into somewhat dull thriller territory. Mom and the cop who shot Chucky have to hunt him down before he gets to Andy and tries to take his body from him. It's slow and over explains Chucky when none of that really matters.
It is probably not ideal to talk about this film in a vacuum since it went on to become a cult film series (it's up to 7 films now!) with a remake recently released. As a standalone, it's a cult film that's fun but just shy of being all that great. It had a lot of potential toward satire but ultimately fails in the latter half where it gives in to schlock (more of the dull kind of schlock, not the fun kind of schlock). As part of a series, you can see where some of the goofier elements the series would become known for were played with here. The film can't quite commit to being totally a horror film or a suspense thriller, splitting the two styles down the middle of the film, and it hurts it overall. Child's Play is what it is, and either you're in on the silliness of the whole thing or you're not. Don't take it so seriously, and you'll enjoy it a lot more.
6.5
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