Bounding Into Halloween Celebrates Second Films In A Series On The Second Day With ‘Child’s Play 2’ And ‘Critters 2: The Main Course’
It is day two of the horrorthon, and we are giving a salute to the immediate sequels of classics that fell short of their predecessors, but they’re still entertaining enough to qualify for repeat viewing. As with such worthy franchise entries like Predator 2, Candyman 2, Aliens (COPE), and even last night’s Halloween II, they might not rise to the same levels as the first films, but they’re still miles above Troll 2…
Child’s Play 2 (1990)
It has been two years since the immolated Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) caught a slug to the heart before he could posses the body of young Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent), and free his wicked soul from the purgatory of being a diminutive plastic freak. Andy may have survived the attack, but life did not get easier for him, or his mother (Catherine Hicks).
After being thrown under the bus by the two cops who witnessed the killer doll in action, mom gets thrown in a padded room for making such unbelievable claims, and Andy is gently placed in an orphanage. They never say what story the cops ran with to explain the six murders from the first Child’s Play (1988), but you might as well try to keep your disbelief suspended for what comes next.
Manufacturer of the Good Guy dolls, the Play Pals Corporation, took a hit when the media had a field day about a crazy story that involved their product going berserk, and murdering people. Regardless of how preposterous it would be to blame them, their stockholders started to get twitchy.
That’s when the company (with a very suspect name) managed to acquire the remains (aka crime evidence) of the overcooked, bullet-ridden Chucky doll in order to reassemble it, and show their financial benefactors that they’re not in the business of producing toys that kill. Unfortunately, an unexplained power surge fatally electrocutes an assembly worker while he’s installing the doll’s eyeballs, and Chucky is resurrected.
While this is happening, Andy gets adopted by Beef from Phantom of the Paradise (Gerrit Graham), and Jessica 6 from Logan’s Run (Jenny Agutter). They bring him back to their home with fellow adoptee (Christine Elise), and a Good Guy Doll named Tommy. The milquetoast couple are patient with the traumatized boy, but then Chucky arrives to replace Tommy, and death follows. Seeing as how dolls aren’t alive, who else could they blame?
Even though it’s not better than the first movie, it’s certainly a lot bigger in scale, and the final sequence in the toy factory is a prime example. It doesn’t take itself as seriously, but trying to repeat that while going into the 90s probably wouldn’t have ended well. At this point in the series, horror fans were already rooting for Chucky (especially in the classroom), and Brad Dourif brought more rage to this performance that was never repeated afterward.
Child’s Play 2 is available to rent on Prime.
Critters 2: The Main Course (1988)
Just like the last feature, this one takes place two years after the events of the first movie. Town drunkard turned intergalactic bounty hunter, Charlie McFadden (Don Keith Opper), returns home to the fictional city of Grover’s Bend, Kansas, after the High Council tells him that not all of the carnivorous furry aliens (or “The Krites”) were killed off, and the eggs that were left behind have hatched, and they want the local residents for their first meal.
The survivors who didn’t leave the planet gained a level of notoriety from what happened in Critters (1986). Brad (Scott Grimes) comes back to visit his grandmother for the Easter holiday, and everybody knows who he is, but that becomes less of a problem when Charlie returns to Earth with Ug (Terrence Mann), a new bounty hunter (briefly played by the late Roxanne Kernohan), and some very bad news. Let’s just say that the Easter Bunny isn’t going to make it.
Some out there may turn their long noses down at this above average capitalization on better films like Gremlins (1984), but that’s only because they miss the point of a creature features. The Krites aren’t the most intimidating predators in the wild, but they look better this time around, and the budget was only an extra million dollars. It also has one of the greatest moments in B-movie history when the Krites assemble into a giant munch ball, and roll after the fleeing townsfolk. Tasteful? No. Amusing? Absolutely.
Critters 2: The Main Course can be reserved over on Prime, but sample the trailer first.
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