'Child's Play 2' is a tough movie to review. It is well directed, well acted, and hits all the targets. On the other hand it is a movie I felt unclean watching. The idea of Chucky has lost what ever originality it had in the original film. Instead we get a genuinely evil character torturing a poor little boy for the film. I honestly think you'd have to be mentally ill to find entertainment in 'Child's Play 2'.<br /><br />I liked the original 'Child's Play' a great deal, and I even enjoy 'Bride of Chucky' a lot for it's camp entertainment value. I will say though that I absolutely hate Chucky as a character. It's no fault to Brad Dourif who is an excellent actor and gives some very good vocal work as Chucky. If anything Dourif makes me hate Chucky for all the right reasons. The problem I see with this picture is that it is staged so that Chucky is always the vocal point of everything. Alex Vincent isn't the main character of the picture. We are in a sense encouraged to follow Chucky and still despise him at the same time. It doesn't work.<br /><br />Many fans praise this film for it's black humor. I think this is actually one of the worst things about the film. Don Mancini has written a script that takes this little terror with utmost sincerity. Any joke involving Chucky isn't tongue in cheek, the viciousness is still there. Where as in the superior 'Bride of Chucky' Mancini recognizes the scenario as being very stupid and he plays off that for some brilliant jokes. I think I have to credit Mancini for why this film is terrible. He has written a grim hopeless opus for black souls. It isn't easy for me to do this. I've liked plenty of horror films that have been considered dark and too ugly by mainstream critics. It's a testament to Brad Dourif for taking Mancini's script and bringing it to this level.<br /><br />I think the biggest problem with the script is that Andy is completely alone in his battle with Chucky. Conceptually Mancini is ripping off his original 'Child's Play' to the keel. No one believes little Andy until the bodies pile up. This story is tiresome and unoriginal. Mancini recycles it over and over again but through different lenses. In my opinion he's a lazy screenwriter who struck gold with this character. The concept of a killer doll isn't original enough to recycle the same stories for this killer doll to inhabit. I wish Mancini put more time into his stories than he did into creating this little terror. I'm not praising Mancini in anyway for making Chucky so evil. Mancini was given a tremendous gift in having Brad Dourif respect him and take this role. If a lesser actor took it this character would have died off after the original film.<br /><br />In a sense I have to award Alex Vincent and Brad Dourif praise. They have taken these characters to the utmost degree. I feared for little Andy, and despised little Chucky.<br /><br />Director John Lafia is very good at creating pure horror, not suspense, not fear, but actual horror. He has given us a horrendous situation. To his credit he does it really well. The thing is thought that audiences don't like horror, they like simulated fear. 'Child's Play 2' in all it's silliness has genuine horror. Some sequences are genuinely hard to sit through because of Lafia's staging. He takes Mancini's awful script and really brings out the most in it. I think Tom Holland knew how to better frame this concept. He knew that audiences were attracted to the concept and not the character of Chucky. I could have fun with the original 'Child's Play'. I can't have fun here, not when there are real monsters in the world.