Child’s Play 2 (1990) puts Andy Barclay in foster care and sends Chucky after him again, ending in the factory where Good Guys dolls are made. John Lafia directed. Don Mancini wrote the screenplay. Universal Pictures released the film in the United States on November 9, 1990. Alex Vincent returns as Andy, Christine Elise plays his foster sister Kyle, and Brad Dourif is Chucky’s voice. It did not match the first film’s gross, and it is the sequel fans usually mean when they talk about the factory ending.
At a glance
| Release date | November 9, 1990 (United States) |
| Director | John Lafia |
| Writer | Don Mancini |
| Starring | Alex Vincent, Jenny Agutter, Gerrit Graham, Christine Elise, Brad Dourif |
| Runtime | 84 minutes |
| Rating | R |
| Genre | Slasher, supernatural horror |
| Budget | About $13 million |
| Box office | About $28.5 million domestic; about $35.7 million worldwide |
Plot summary
Two years after the first film, Andy is in the foster system because his mother has been institutionalized and no court is ready to believe a doll did the killing. The Play Pals company, which makes Good Guys, recovers the burned Chucky and rebuilds him to prove the product was not at fault. The rebuild wakes Charles Lee Ray up in the plastic again. He still needs a body, and he still wants Andy’s.
Andy’s new house belongs to Phil and Joanne Simpson. Kyle, an older foster kid who is about to age out, is the only person in the house who treats Andy as something other than a file. Chucky arrives as a replacement doll after he engineers a death at the factory. The film repeats the first movie’s problem on purpose: every adult who might help has already decided Andy is the dangerous one. Kyle is the exception, and she comes to it late.
Spoiler section: the ending
Andy and Kyle end up on the night shift at the Play Pals plant, with Chucky loose on the assembly line. Joanne and Phil are already dead. Kyle and Andy use the machinery, molten plastic and a high-pressure hose, to finish him. A social worker arrives in the morning and finds two kids and a factory full of identical dolls. The film does not pretend the adults will understand the report.
Production and behind the scenes
Lafia had co-written the first film and stepped into the director’s chair for the sequel. Mancini stayed on the script. Universal raised the budget to about $13 million, partly so the doll work could be more elaborate than the 1988 film. Kevin Yagher’s shop built several Chuckys for walking, talking, and the factory gags. Dourif recorded the voice in sessions that let the puppeteers time the mouth. Vincent was still young enough that the production scheduled his scenes in short days.
The factory ending was the sequel’s reason to exist. A house can only hide so many doll gags. An assembly line can hide a dozen. Elise, as Kyle, was written as a skeptic who has been through the foster system and does not need a speech to switch sides. Agutter and Graham play the Simpsons as decent people who make the wrong call, which keeps the film from blaming cartoon bad parents. Graeme Revell scored it. The Good Guys jingle is back, meaner because the company is now a location.
Release and reception
Universal opened the film on November 9, 1990. It made about $10.7 million in its first weekend and about $28.5 million in the United States and Canada, a step down from the first film’s run. Reviews were mixed, kinder to the factory sequence than to the foster-house repeat. Child’s Play 3 followed in 1991 and sent Andy to military school. The series then sat until Bride of Chucky changed the tone.
Cast
- Alex Vincent as Andy Barclay
- Christine Elise as Kyle
- Jenny Agutter as Joanne Simpson
- Gerrit Graham as Phil Simpson
- Brad Dourif as the voice of Chucky
- Grace Zabriskie as Grace Poole
Trivia
- The factory was a set, not a toy plant. The conveyor had to be slow enough for a puppet to read on camera.
- Dourif is heard and, in one reconstructed-face shot, briefly suggested. He does not play Ray in human form here.
- Kyle was written to carry the series if Vincent aged out. Child’s Play 3 recast Andy instead.
- The MPAA trimmed the factory kills. Later cuts have restored some of the plastic-vat footage.
- Lafia did not return for the third film. Jack Bender directed that one.
- The Good Guys name stayed a fictional brand. Hasbro was not involved.
Related links
- Chucky
- Child’s Play (1988)
- Bride of Chucky (1998)