The 1988 “supernatural slasher” film, Child’s Play, introduced the world to Chucky, the Good Guy doll possessed by the spirit of a deranged serial killer. I’ve watched it a number of times over the past 36 years and had always thought of it as one of my (many) guilty pleasures. But it’s not.

So what happened? My personal parameters for a guilty pleasure are twofold: bad box office, terrible reviews. A recent bit of research revealed that Child’s Play, with its miniscule production budget, did just fine at the box office, and its reviews were mostly positive. Heck, even Roger Ebert gave it a big thumbs up. The film spawned six sequels, a reboot, a TV series, and loads of merchandise, and it appears that more is on the horizon for our Good Guy friend. So much for a guilty pleasure.

YOU’LL WISH IT WAS ONLY MAKE-BELIEVE

If you watch horror movies, then you more than likely have seen this one. If not, this brief overview should give you an idea of what this film—and franchise—is all about. With the above tagline—one of many—Child’s Play opens with a cop named Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) chasing serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) down a Chicago street. Mortally wounded, Ray breaks into a toy store and, before dying, he invokes a voodoo chant to transfer his soul into a Good Guy doll.

Andy loves his Good Guy doll…at first.

Six-year-old Andy Barclay wants a Good Guy doll for his birthday. His struggling single mom, Karen (Catherine Hicks), buys one cheap off a street peddler. Yep, that Good Guy doll. Chucky makes himself known to Andy, though of course no one believes him, especially after Chucky kills Andy’s babysitter by causing her to fall out of the window of Karen’s high-rise apartment.

From there, Chucky uses the unsuspecting Andy to exact vengeance of a former colleague, which leads to the boy being institutionalized for his own protection. One by one the adults in the film will come to realize that Andy has been telling the truth. By this time Chucky has learned that the only way he can survive is to transfer his soul into the first human to whom he revealed his true identity. Yep, that’s Andy. Can his mom and the detective stop Chucky before it’s too late?

Karen, Mike, and Andy face off against the possessed Chucky.

Sounds ludicrous, ya think? But the solid cast was credited with maintaining the suspense in Child’s Play by not succumbing to what could have been portrayed as comedy. Most likely I’ll watch this film again before the Mother Ship comes for me, and I will definitely not think of it as a guilty pleasure.