Child's Play

Chucky gets a hi-tech makeover as the gory toy story franchise gets the reboot treatment. This time, a disgruntled Vietnamese sweatshop worker removes the AI safety protocols from one assembly line "Buddi" doll, making it an evil robot sociopath able to control other smart devices. Hearing-impaired Andy (Gabriel Bateman) is gifted the menacing mannequin (voiced by Mark Hamill), which goes on a slaughter spree to preserve their friendship. Striking exactly the right tone between the comical and the ghoulish, director Lars Klevberg confidently pays tribute to a nifty assemblage of genre references including ET, The Goonies and Frankenstein. Despite the credibility-straining premise, the atmosphere remains gaudily creepy and the visual effects eerily efficient throughout some truly hilarious bloodletting. It's great fun, right up to the final megastore massacre that caps the film's novelty-value cool.