Everywhere you look now, you see AI. It’s in our phones. Our cars. Even our goddamn emails. Not because it produces anything of quality, but because companies see it as the next big growth trend in a capitalist market that’s obsessed with never-ending expansion. James Cameron’s The Terminator warned about the dangers of AI way back in 1984, decades before most gave even a passing thought about artificial intelligence. In 2022, Blumhouse’s hit horror movie, M3GAN, pontificated on our apparent rush to toss AI into everything, including our children’s toys. But there’s another film that beat it to the AI-toy-gone-rogue punch…one that Stephen King himself approves of.
That movie is the Child’s Play reboot from 2019. Mixed reviews and a fanbase loyal to the original Chucky would have you think otherwise, but I found it to be a worthy buddy film to the series that hasn’t received the appreciation it deserves. It’s about time more viewers make friends with it now that it’s streaming on HBO Max.
What’s Child’s Play (2019) About?
Similar to Tom Holland’s 1988 original, struggling single-mother Karen (Aubrey Plaza) is in search of the perfect birthday gift for her son, Andy (Gabriel Bateman). She believes she’s found it when she comes across a damaged Buddi doll, the hot new toy with AI capabilities meant to sub for a child’s best friend. Dubbed Chucky (voiced by none other than Mark Hamill), the doll and Andy hit it off, becoming inseparable. That is, until an error in Chucky’s programming convinces him to kill anyone who would dare come between them.
Chucky 2.0
At the time, I found Tyler Burton Smith’s script to be a clever twist on the Child’s Play franchise. Looking back on it now, it was damn near prophetic.
Thanks to Chucky’s AI programming, his reign of terror is brought to a whole new level. Toy company Kaslan gives the Buddi dolls the ability to tap into all of the electronics we’ve stuffed our homes with. Why? Who knows! But it does open the door for maximum chaos. Chucky is able to control everything from Kaslan cars to security footage and even other Buddi dolls, leading to one outrageous (and gory) finale.
While Klevberg’s Child’s Play may not be as scary as the OG, it does deliver on the silliness. We’re talking about a movie where the killer doll literally has an “evil” switch…more or less. And you can’t watch this film without getting the hilariously creepy “Buddi song” stuck in your head. In a post about the film from 2019, Stephen King called it “pretty funny”. For Dread, Bee Delores recently wrote a defense of it, saying it’s “exactly how a remake should work”. Opinions on that statement are, however, varied.
Here’s What Others Are Saying
Yep. I went in with vitriol and immensely lowered expectations and was rather pleasantly surprised. Like you said, it’s its own unique take on the source material.
And Aubrey Plaza is excellent as always.
— Jason Bacon (@blackmarketwit) August 21, 2025
it was a fun and entertaining movie it just wasn’t chucky – it took away what makes chucky so great – he’s a person with a distinctive personality – this chucky was just a robot with a pretty robotic personality which worked but wasn’t chucky
— The Cranky Critic (@Bluphoenicks1) August 20, 2025
This movie was trash and had child’s play slapped onto the title for an extra buck.
— Dr. Phibes (@Dr_Phibes_) August 20, 2025
Personally, I side with Mr. King and Bee. Klevberg’s Child’s Play does what any remake should by retaining core ideas/themes from the original and repackaging them in a fresh new box. I’ll take that any day over a plastic remake that doesn’t take risks. Consider me a friend till the end of the Child’s Play reboot.
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