Child's Play 3 - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Child's Play 3



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Now we come to 3rd and final Child’s Play film that Scream Factory is releasing right now (while I’m sad we don’t get the others, I will admit that these 3 films are the core of the original franchise and probably the most liked by fans). This one was shot less than a year after Child’s Play 2 came out, capitalizing on the surprise success of the sequel, and an attempt to keep the series moving as fast as possible. Directed by famed TV director Jack Bender, Child’s Play 3 got rid of the original Andy and moved the series nearly 10 years in the future when Andy is at military school. It’s also probably the most boring of the 5 main films (despite the lunacy of Seed and Bride) and the most forgettable, despite being the very last of the series Chucky films.

As I said, we moved a good 8 years forward from Child’s Play 2 and 10 years past the original to where Andy (now played by Justin Whalin) is now 16 years old and enrolling in military school because he’s bounced from one foster family to another. Andy is hoping to find some sort of peace in the structured life of military school (although it’s unclear who actually sent him there as a legal guardian), but he’s still haunted by memories of the demonic doll torturing him years ago.

Simultaneously we see the company that made the Good Guys dolls melting down the original material (including the body of the dead Charles Lee Ray...still voiced by Brad Dourif) and starting anew now that the public debacle of the original doll’s release has gone out of the public eye. As you guessed it, Chucky is alive again, a sort of Jason Vorhees type character now, and he’s . Hunting down Andy (after murdering the CEO of the Good Guys corp) he mails himself to the boy only to get intercepted by a young cadet named Tyler. Chucky realizes that due to the rules of magic that Tyler will work as a soul receptical, only for Andy to find out. Now, instead of just fighting for his life, Andy is forced to try and save another young boy from the clutches of the evil Chucky, and possibly survive life under military school as well.

Child’s Play 3 is directed by famed TV director Jack Bender, and despite the pedigree behind the film, it comes out feeling less like a movie and more like a made for TV show. It’s the most complex of the 3 main films though, with a rather extended and intricate plot revolving around Andy, his love life at the school, and dealing with bullying older cadets. The Chucky portion actually feels almost shoe horned in many times, and as a result the entire film is kind of boring. Which is a surprising thing as pretty much every Chucky movie in the entire franchise, no matter how good or how bad, is usually never BORING.

The kills are actually rather bland this go around, and I can’t actually remember any kills that stand out and shock the audience like the previous two movies. There’s some gore, especially with the barber, but most of the movie is your generic 1990s horror flick with a bit of a nasty bite near the end. The one thing that I will give them credit for is having Chucky actually swap out the paintball rounds in the war games guns with live ammunition and actually SHOW kids getting shot on screen. That was a gutsy move and one of the few scenes that actually elevates the tension and scare factor of the movie from ground zero.




Rating:

Rated R by the MPAA




4K Video: Video:

Just like all the others, Child’s Play 3 has gotten a nice new 4K remaster from the source materials, and it looks generally fantastic. Even though it’s only 1 year difference from Child’s Play 2, the 3rd film feels distinctly more “90s horror” if you know what I mean. There’s that ominous dark “hell red” that was so common for that era, as well as burnished mahogany tones and a general push towards red in facial tones. Grain levels are also noticeably higher than the 2nd film, but not AS heavy as the 1st, making for a very pleasing image with just some minor crush to really keep it from being super great. The detail levels are really impressive outside of a few minor soft scenes, and color saturation is superb. Being that this movie tends to take place at night the black levels are paramount, and the disc never disappoints. All in all this is another great looking 4K disc that is leagues better than the old Universal disc.







Audio:

As usual, this one gets the Atmos treatment as well as keeping the original 2.0 Stereo track in DTS-HD MA lossless. While I was kind of hovering between a 3.5 or a 4 out of 5 for the Atmos upmix on the second film, this one gets a solid 4/5 even though it also stemmed from a 2.0 stereo track. The upmix actually sounds rather robust, with a solid sense of presence in the surrounds and some hefty weight from LFE when necessary. It doesn’t feel nearly so front heavy and the hissing in the mains is nowhere in this disc. Once again, the Atmos is kind of overkill for a film based off of a 2.0 track, but it’s fairly agile and has that sense of 90s aggression that was typical of the era. Solid player all the way around.










Extras:

4K UHD Disc
• NEW Audio Commentary by director Jack Bender
• Audio Commentary by producer Robert Latham Brown


Blu-ray Disc
• NEW Audio Commentary by director Jack Bender
• NEW Ride the Frightening – an interview with writer Don Mancini
• NEW War Games – an interview with actress Perrey Reeves
• NEW Chucky Goes East – an interview with executive producer David Kirschner
• NEW Carnivals and Campouts – an interview with producer Robert Latham Brown
• NEW Midway Centurions – an interview with actor Michael Chieffo
• NEW Shear Terror – an interview with makeup artist Craig Reardon
• NEW Unholy Mountain – an interview with production designer Richard Sawyer
• Audio Commentary by producer Robert Latham Brown
• Theatrical Trailer
• TV Spot
• Additional scenes from the broadcast version

Final Score: ​

Child’s Play 3 was the last of the MOSTLY serious Chucky films before they went full on comedy in Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky. It’s not the greatest of the franchise, and honestly while it’s the most complex, it’s also the most boring out of all of them. The Scream Factory disc does sound and look great though, and has a hefty amount of extras. Fans of the series will definitely be pleased with the upgrade to 4K.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Justin Whalin, Perrey Reeves, Jeremy Sylvers, Travis Fine, Dakin Matthews
Directed By: Jack Bender
Written By: Don Mancini
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 90 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 16th, 2022

Recommendation: Cheesy Watch