Child's Play 2

Did You Know?

• The score was composed by Graeme Revell, conducted and orchestrated by Shirley Walker, and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony.
• Unlike the first film's electronic music, the sequel's score is completely orchestral with electronic elements.
• The film was bundled with Bride of Chucky on DVD in 2002.

Plot

Two years after Chucky's death, the Play Pals Corporation acquires his remains and reassembles him to reassure stockholders. A power surge electrocutes a worker and reanimates Chucky. CEO Haskell Sullivan orders his assistant Mattson to dispose of the doll. Meanwhile, eight-year-old Andy Barclay, whose mother was institutionalized for backing his claims about Chucky, is placed with foster parents Phil and Joanne Simpson.

He meets Kyle, a teenage girl also fostered by the Simpsons. Chucky uses Mattson's car phone to learn Andy's address, then suffocates Mattson with a plastic bag. Chucky infiltrates the home, destroys another Good Guy doll, and buries it. He reveals himself to Andy and begins a voodoo chant to possess him, but Kyle interrupts.

Phil throws Chucky into the basement. Chucky's nose bleeds, indicating his body is becoming human. The next day, Chucky follows Andy to school, defaces his homework, and kills teacher Mrs. Kettlewell with an air pump and yardstick. Andy escapes and tries to warn his foster parents, but Phil refuses to believe him.

Production

United Artists purchased the original Child's Play script partly because executives believed it had sequel potential. Producer David Kirschner asked Tom Holland to return as director, but Holland declined due to conflicts. John Lafia, previously turned down for lacking experience, was hired after directing The Blue Iguana. Don Mancini also returned.

Mancini and Lafia set the film at a foster home because of Lafia's experience in a large family. MGM/UA commissioned an unused screenplay from Mark Patrick Carducci that would have placed Andy in a mental institution. Pre-production began in October 1989 but was put on hold when the studio faced acquisition by Qintex, whose director intended to ban horror films. Multiple studios expressed interest, including Disney, which wanted to create a horror-themed attraction at Disney-MGM Studios.

Universal won the rights after Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy helped convince Kirschner to accept a negative pickup deal.

Novelization

Matthew J. Costello wrote a tie-in novelization that explores Andy and Chucky's perspectives and delves into Chucky's past. In the novel, Chucky had an absent father and an abusive, alcoholic dwarf mother; he strangled her at age 13 and buried her in a park. He also remembers being placed in special classes. During the factory scene, Chucky wishes he could bring Good Guy dolls to life to do his bidding, an idea partially used in Cult of Chucky.

Reception

The film opened at number one in the US with a weekend gross of $10,718,520 from 1,996 screens. It earned $28,501,605 domestically and $7.3 million internationally, for a worldwide total of $35.8 million. Evan Dickson of Bloody Disgusting wrote that the film surpasses the original by stripping away artifice while remaining an effective slasher. Variety called it a rehash of the original's few novel elements.

Gene Siskel gave it zero stars, calling it a vicious, ugly little thriller; on a worst-of-1990 show, he accused director John Lafia of prostituting himself and questioned who the film was made for. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times found the original a terrific thriller but deemed the sequel morbid and not amusing. Richard Harrington of The Washington Post said it was not as good as its progenitor but better than most movies with numbers 2 through 8 in their titles.

The film was released on VHS on April 11, 1991, on DVD in 1999, and on 4K Ultra HD by Scream! Factory on August 16, 2022, with a new scan and interviews.