“The rules are simple, just pick your favorite horror film for each day! However, you can’t pick the same horror film more [than] once. So once you pick say THE EXORCIST for your favorite horror film involving the powers of Hell, you can’t [pick] it again for any other day [whatsoever,] including favorite horror film.”
Source: Dollar Bin Horror
—
Day 16 – Your favorite childhood themed horror film
Film: Child’s Play (1988) – dir. Tom Holland
There were a few films I always insisted on renting on my weekly/bi-weekly Blockbuster trips, and my parents, being the wonderful people they are, let me rent them. The first was every WWF Pay-Per-View VHS, my favorite being the Royal Rumble. The second set of films were the Child’s Play movies. I rented the first and third ones more times than I can count, and waited ever-so-impatiently for Child’s Play 2 to come back in stock. After a few months, I realized that it was never happening, and my dad told me it must have been stolen.
This series, along with R.L. Stine’s “Night of the Living Dummy” series, is the reason why I’m still scared by ventriloquist dummies today. Unfortunately this series went the way of Freddy Krueger and his Nightmare on Elm Street films: comedic and bad. Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky are the worst culprits for turning Chucky into a joke of his former self, but the trend really began with Child’s Play 3. Though I enjoy the film much more than Seed or Bride, Chucky started finding his humorous, less scary side at that boot camp with Justin Whalin. Regardless of the sequels, Child’s Play is a terrifying film that mixes dolls, kids, and murder exceptionally well. The remake that was rumored by MGM last month looked promising because Don Mancini, the original writer, was to be writing the script. MGM later said they had no plans to reboot the franchise. This is all the more reason to give the original another viewing.
Branden has been a film fan since he was young, roaming the halls of Blockbuster Video, trying to find the grossest, scariest looking VHS covers to rent and watch alone in the basement. It wasn’t until recently, though, that Branden started seeking out the classics of cinema, and began to develop his true passion for the art form. Branden approaches each film with the unique perspective of having studied the art from the inside, having both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in acting. He has been a film critic since 2010, and has previously written for Inside Pulse Movies, We Love Cult, and Diehard Gamefan. His biggest achievement as a film critic, to date, has been founding Cinefessions and turning it from a personal blog to a true film website, housing hundreds of film and television reviews, and dozens of podcasts.
