a Hitchcockian blend of high tension and dark comedy, with a rich seam of psychological subtext, as little Andy must decide between maternal influence and peer pressure.

| Dec 23, 2023

A rip-roaring low-budget screamer.

| May 14, 2020

The filmmakers seem more than aware of the logical and dramatic deficiencies of their material, and so they flee to that last refuge of movie scoundrels: self-conscious campiness.

| Original Score: 1/4 | May 14, 2020

Scary, yet darkly funny, this thriller of the supernatural from the director of the terrific "Fright Night" moves with the speed of a bullet train and with style to burn.

| May 14, 2020

The sequences without Chucky are as stock as they come, and so are all the flesh-and-blood characters around him, but he's still a hugely entertaining mischief-maker, and what he lacks in physical gifts, he compensates for in sneakiness.

| May 13, 2020

Making a good horror-thriller, or even a good horror-comedy, is not child's play, as this schizoid film all too unfortunately proves.

| Nov 2, 2014

It's nothing wildly original, but it is pacey and entertaining when it gets going.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 21, 2008

Fun withers in stretching the thin material to feature length.

| Oct 21, 2008

I'm sure Child's Play was far from the only film of its era sold as one of the great scareshows of all time.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 8, 2008

Holland's sure handling of the suspense and shock moments lends the film a sharp and scary edge.

| Feb 9, 2006

[Holland] creates an artifice with just a tiny chink to admit true horror: the most reasonable people on the screen believe in the living, murderous doll.

| Aug 30, 2004

Child's Play is a cheerfully energetic horror film of the slam-bang school, but slicker and more clever than most.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Director Tom Holland keeps things moving without rushing them. Unfortunately, Child's Play gets a little ugly at the end.

| Jan 1, 2000