The 1990 horror movie Child’s Play 2 takes place in Chicago, IL. It stars Alex Vincent as Andy Barclay, Jenny Agutter as Joanne Simpson, Gerrit Graham as Phil Simpson, Christine Elise as Kyle, and Grace Zabriskie as Grace Poole. The producer is David Kirschner (Child’s Play). The film is directed by John Lafia (TV’s Babylon 5).
The story begins two years after the events of the first children’s game. The original “Chucky” doll is in the possession of Play Pals, Inc. They are trying to save the company’s reputation by rebuilding it while Andy Barclay’s mother is under psychiatric care for supporting her son’s story about the doll. After an electrocution brings Chucky back to life, he begins to hunt down his former owner. Andy is under the temporary guardianship of Phil and Joanne Simpson. Phil is skeptical, while Joanne immediately takes a liking to him. Chucky arrives at the Simpsons’ house on Andy’s first night and assumes the identity of Good Guy’s “Tommy” doll already there. The following night, Chucky ties Andy to his bed and attempts to transfer his soul to the boy’s body.
But he’s interrupted when foster sister Kyle sneaks in through the bedroom window. The Simpsons listen to both of them and enter the room. Andy immediately blames Chucky, who is now sitting inanimate on his stomach. Phil does not believe him and takes the doll, thinking it is his “Tommy” doll, and throws it down the basement stairs. When morning comes, Andy heads to his new school. But Chucky gets caught under his bus. During recess, the killer doll writes obscene words on Andy’s test. When the bell rings to finish school, the teacher, Miss Kettlewell, sees the newspaper and makes Andy stay after the arrest. When he leaves the room, Andy heads to the closet where the teacher had thrown Chucky. Look through the keyhole of the locked closet and see the doll standing there demanding to be released. Andy escapes through the window.
Miss Kettlewell returns and, upon hearing the closet door, believes that her detained student is inside. Chucky emerges, stabbing her with an air bomb and beating her to death with a stick. When Andy returns home, he is confronted by Phil and Joanne, who had been notified by his teacher about what had happened to his test. Andy blames Chucky, so Phil opens the nearby basement door to confirm that “Tommy” is still there. Find Chucky lying there like before. The boy finally decides to end the nasty doll once and for all. He takes an electric knife and heads to the basement. Phil, having overheard their struggle, opens the door and finds Andy standing there with the knife while Chucky hides under the stairs. While walking down the stairs, Phil trips over Chucky and falls headfirst onto the concrete floor, killing him. Joanne and Kyle rush down.
Joanne, wishing she had heard Phil about Andy, quickly packs up the boy’s things and calls Foster Care to pick him up. After her husband’s body is removed and the police leave, Kyle goes out onto the swing in the backyard. While swinging, Kyle discovers the damaged “Tommy” doll that Chucky had previously buried. Immediately, he checks the trash can where he had left the “Good Guy” doll and finds it empty. Now he’s starting to believe Andy’s story and heads to his foster mother Joanne’s room to tell her about it, grabbing a knife along the way. He finds her dead when Chucky comes out and attacks her. After a fight, he forces the girl, at knife point, to take him to Andy.
When they arrive at Foster Care, the killer doll sounds the fire alarm to clear the building. Grace Poole, director of Foster Care, sees Kyle and Chucky there and accuses her of setting off the alarm. Holding Andy in hand, Grace and the others head to her office, where the doll comes to life and kills the head of Foster Care. Kyle, who had been kicked out of the office when Chucky came to life, bursts in and discovers that the boy and the doll had slipped out of the window and onto a newspaper truck. She interrupts the driver with her car as the two escape once more, this time at a Good Guy factory. Andy’s foster sister barely makes it to the factory when the door closes. This sets the stage for the final showdown.
A particular feature of this film that distinguishes it from the previous one is the humor. The story is not as dark as it was in the first movie. For example, when Kyle and Chucky head towards Andy, they are stopped. The police officer notices that the wrist is bleeding. Kyle sees this too and says “Have you seen dolls that pee? This bleeds.” He lets her go with a warning and tells Kyle to buckle up. When they leave, Chucky forces Kyle to go faster. She sees that the doll is not wearing a seat belt, so she buckles hers. Then, Kyle hits the brakes, forcing Chucky through the front windshield. As the killer regains his balance on the front bumper, she knocks him down. While trying to get him out of the front of the car, Chucky yells “Damn drivers!”
The location of the final scenes in the film is interesting: the Good Guy Doll Factory. To really destroy something in a story, they sometimes say that you have to go back to the source, as in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. In Child’s Play 2, this is no exception. The “Chucky” doll was created in the factory, so there history must return to finally end Chucky once and for all.
Finally, if what you are looking for is a horror movie with a bit of humor, then Child’s Play 2 is the movie for you.