This Day in Horror: CHILD’S PLAY Premiered in theaters

On this day in 1988: Child’s Play was released in theaters. Two years later, on the same date, Child’s Play 2 was released.

Child’s Play told the tale of a young boy, Andy, whose mother gifts him a doll. Unbeknownst to either of them, the doll is inhabited by the soul of a serial killer, and continues his rampage in the form of a doll.

Screenwriter Don Mancini was inspired to write Child’s Play from a combination of consumerism, Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, Trilogy of Terror, and the episode of Twilight Zone called “Living Doll.” In his original script, Blood Buddy, the doll was filled with fake blood, allowing it to bleed if played with roughly. The Chucky doll would have come to life if its blood mixed with Andy’s.

Fun fact: The serial killer, Charles Lee Ray, whose soul inhabits the Chucky doll, was named after three notorious real-life killers: Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray.

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