Child’s Play: Impact of a Legend.

“Hi I’m Chucky and I’m your friend to the end…”

That quote has sent shivers down the spines of horror-phobes and put smiles on the faces of horror fans for the past 34 years. That quote comes from the Good Guy doll possessed by the infamous Charles Lee Ray aka Chucky in the Child’s Play horror film series created by Don Mancini. From 1988 all the way to this very moment, the Child’s Play franchise has been and still is one of the greatest and most influential horror/slasher franchises in film history. Understanding the success and impact of the Child’s Play brand is actually very simple, all the credit goes to the legacy of the Franchise’s central villain, Chucky and the creative storytelling from series creator, Don Mancini.

Released on November 9th, 1988, the story of Child’s Play is centered around a serial murderer named Charles Lee Ray aka Chucky aka The Lakeshore Strangler. Ray was responsible for a number of voodoo ritualistic style slayings and after being gunned down by police, used his voodoo teachings to transfer his soul into the plastic body of popular children’s doll known as a Good Guy. Soon after the doll would end up in the possession of a six year old child named Andy Barclay as a birthday gift. Using Andy as a cover, our friend Chucky begins to wreak havoc and it is here that his journey begins.

From its very beginning Child’s Play was an instant hit, receiving a positive critical reception from both fans and critics and grossing over $44 million on a $13 million budget. Given the film’s success and the appeal of its antagonist, it wasn’t hard to figure out that Child’s Play would in time become a series, one which would find great success due to the creativity and organization of its creator and the team behind him.

When Hollywood produces a successful film with a story that has the potential to be taken further it is almost a guarantee that the film will be given a sequel. Most of the time that sequel or sequels will have the same studio and producers as the previous film, but more than half of the time the writer and director will be switched up. Though the Child’s Play series did commonly switch up its directors, Don Mancini, who created the story, wrote the screenplay for every future film in the series. This is the main reason why the series has been so successful and is still on going.

With Don Mancini remaining in the driver’s seat as the series brain child he was smart enough to maintain a sense of reoccurring familiarity with its story and characters. He gave us Andy the hero and Chucky the villain and created a rivalrous dynamic between the two. Though the dynamic stayed the same, the setting of that dynamic was switched up with every sequel to give each new film a fresh feeling. What makes this different from most other film franchises, especially in horror is when a sequel enters the equation the writer and director will often be swapped out and will not be the same team of two as the previous film. A common mistake that comes as a consequence of this type of move is you will end up with a film that is either too derivative of the previous film or on the flip side, too far removed from previous film, both of which can be very underwhelming and displeasing to an audience.

Don Mancini was wise enough to operate with this mindset while crafting the series’s sequels, the fans love Chucky and Andy, so let’s keep giving them Chucky and Andy, but at the same time let’s break some new ground with where they stand. On one hand, the battle between the two will be fought in foster care (Child’s Play 2) on the other hand the battle of Chucky vs Andy would be fought in military school (Child’s Play 3).

By the late 90s and early 2000s Mancini did something with the character of Chucky that was almost unheard of, he gave him a murderous family as his cohorts with Bride of Chucky (1998) and Seed of Chucky (2004). Though many fans saw this move as outrageous and considerably campy, most fans enjoyed this approach and it worked. The two films were successful because they fit in with the wise cracking personality of everything Mancini had given us before with Chucky, they were consistent with the original dynamic.

Fast forward to the 2000-teens and out of nowhere Don Mancini resurrects the Child’s Play series with Curse of Chucky (2013) and Cult of Chucky (2017).

I personally always felt that the formation of these films was very interesting because these two films were released on direct to DVD, and yet they were both great films that received very positive critical reception from fans and critics. The films also managed to bring back most of the original cast members of the series while at the same time introduced a new story with new characters that all tied in with the original story.

The year is now 2022 and back in 2021 Don Mancini managed to turn Child’s Play into a hit television series called Chucky. Once again the series brings back all the legacy characters of the franchise while at the same time giving the fans something new to enjoy. I don’t think anyone ever saw a hit theatrical slasher like Chucky making a successful transition to the small screen. Even I did not see this coming and Child’s Play is one of my favorite horror franchises, but at the same time I am not surprised. This whole franchise comes from a man who has done better than most have with consistency in the horror genre. With Mancini’s great sense of storytelling and consistency it’s safe to say that our friend Chucky isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.