the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Darren Mooney and Charlene Lydon, this week joined by special guest Bren Murphy, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This week, Tom Holland’s Child’s Play.

Young Andy Barclay just wants one thing for his birthday: a Good Guy Doll. However, the coveted toy is outside his mother’s price range. Luckily, fate brings a discount doll into her hands, but things quickly become complicated. Andy finds himself at the centre of a series of mysterious deaths and is convinced that his beloved companion has taken on a life of his own, inheriting the spirit of the serial killer Charles Lee Ray, better known as “Chucky.”

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

Show Notes:

• Recorded 31st January 2023.
• Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
• Child’s Play at The Internet Movie Database.
• Follow Charlene on Twitter.
• Visit the Lighthouse Cinema’s homepage.
• Follow the Lighthouse Cinema on Twitter.
• Follow Bren on Twitter.
• Read Bren’s articles at RTÉ.
• Listen to Bren’s podcast, Under Your Bed.
• James Muses at Owlcation discusses “the incongruity theory of comedy”, June 2022.
• Blake Morrison at The Guardian looks back on the media furore around the Jamie Bulger case, February 2003.
• Terry Kirby at The Independent reports on the role that Child’s Play 3 played in the murder of Jamie Bulger, November 1993.
• Jake Rossen at Mental Floss offers an oral history of the Child’s Play franchise, June 2019.
• Clark Collis at Entertainment Weekly offers a brief history of the origins of the Child’s Play franchise, February 2019.
• Brigit Katz at Mental Floss looks back on the Cabbage Patch Kids craze, December 2022.
• The New York Times reports on Edward Pennington’s trip to the United Kingdom to secure his kid’s Christmas present, December 1983.
• Liz Nakahara at The Washington Post reports on the chaos over the Cabbage Patch Kids, November 1983.
• Peter David at The New York Times reports on the desperate attemps by parents to secure the hottest toys for their children, December 1983.
• Laurie A. O’Neill at The New York Times reports on the Christmas rush over the Cabbage Patch Kid dolls, December 1983.
• The New York Times looks at the explosion in consumerism during the early part of the decade, December 1983.
• Fay S. Joyce at The New York Times reports on the battle over the rights to the Cabbage Patch Kids, December 1983.
• Philip H. Dougherty at The New York Times looks at the marketting and sales of the Cabbage Patch Kids, December 1983.
• Crystal Ponti at The Atlantic considers the history of the killer doll, November 2018.
• Cassidy Ward at SyFy considers the uncanny valley of horror cinema’s creepy dolls, October 2020.
• Tommy Cummings at The Dallas Daily News writes an obituary for June Foray, the voice of Chatty Cathy and Talky Tina, July 2017.
• Don Mancini talks to SyFy about the original titles for Child’s Play, May 2020.
• Don Mancini talks to The Hollywood Reporter about his original concept for Child’s Play, November 2018.
• The New York Times reports on the beginning of a writers’ strike, March 1988.
• Jonathan Mandell at CBS News looks back on the writers’ strike of 1988, November 2007.
• Scott Wilson at The Los Angeles Times offers a brief history of writers’ strikes in Hollywood, May 2023.
• Tom Holland talks to The Hollywood Interview about the contested origins of Child’s Play, September 2008.
• Tom Holland talks to The Movie Blog about directing Child’s Play and Fright Night, June 2013.
• Don Kaye at Den of Geek looks back on the enduring appeal of Tom Holland’s Fright Night, August 2019.
• Susan Sarandon talks to Today about her first marriage, March 2021.
• Jodi Guglielmi at People reflects on the origins of Michael Keaton’s stage name, June 2017.
• Roger Ebert reviews Fatal Beauty for The Chicago Sun Times, October 1987.
• Daniel Kurland at Bloody Disgusting looks back on Wes Craven’s Shocker, May 2019.
• Tommy Swerdlow talks to Deadline about his life and career, April 2017.
• Bill Bria at Crooked Marquee considers Child’s Play as a metaphor for consumerism run amok, November 2018.
• Simon Thompson at Forbes reports on plans for Chucky to appear at Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights, August 2017.
• Hugo Martín at The Los Angeles Times reports on the controversy over Chucky’s insult comic routine at Universal Halloween Horror Nights, October 2014.
• Tom Holland talks to The New York Post about directing Jessica Walter’s original vocal performance as Chucky in Child’s Play, March 2021.
• Mara Bachman at ScreenRant looks at the queer coding of the Child’s Play franchise, July 2020.
• Kevin Thomas at The Los Angeles Times considers “the celluloid closet”, January 1996.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: Brad Dourif, charlene lydon, child's play, consumerism, don mancini, horror, imdb, killer dolls, mayhem, murder, podcast, slasher, The 250, Tom Holland |