Child's Play

Child's Play is a 1988 American supernatural slasher film directed by Tom Holland, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Don Mancini and John Lafia, and based on a story by Mancini. It is the first film in the Child's Play series and the first installment to feature the character Chucky. It stars Catherine Hicks and Chris Sarandon with Brad Dourif as Chucky. Its plot follows a widowed mother who gives a doll to her son, unaware that the doll is possessed by the soul of a serial killer. Child's Play was released in the United States on November 9, 1988, by MGM/UA Communications Co. It grossed more than $44 million against a production budget of $9 million. Along with the film gaining a cult following, the box office success spawned a media franchise that includes a series of seven sequels (one of them being a television series), merchandise, comic books, and a reboot film of the same name released in June 2019. Child's Play was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, although the rights to the series were sold to Universal Pictures in 1990, beginning with the sequel Child's Play 2. MGM retained the rights to the first film and, as such, distributed the 2019 reboot. Plot Detective Mike Norris chases fugitive serial killer, Charles Lee Ray, through the streets of Chicago and into a toy store, after Ray is abandoned by his accomplice, Eddie Caputo. Shot by Norris and dying, Ray performs a voodoo chant to transfer his soul to one of the Good Guy-brand talking dolls. The store is struck by lightning and explodes, and Norris finds Ray's lifeless body next to the doll.