Designer of Chucky in Child’s Play Reboot Details the Approach to Reinventing the Killer Doll

In 1988, horror fans were introduced to the killer Charles Lee Ray in Child’s Play, who used his final moments after being fatally injured by the police to inject his spirit into the body of a Good Guy doll. The murderer’s spirit, now going by “Chucky,” continued his reign of terror over the course of seven films in the series. After suffering all manner of grave injuries, Chucky kept coming back to life time and time again in his recognizable form, the on-screen appearance of which was largely crafted by practical effects. MastersFX was the team responsible for reimagining the character for the upcoming Child’s Play reboot, with designer Todd Masters revealing his approaching to crafting the character’s new look.

“Any time you’re faced with a remake or a redo, or even the slightest redesign, you’re always going to be dealing with an uphill battle,” Masters shared with Horror Geek Life. “People are going to have their fixed-in memories. Images, especially horror images, or any type of effect that draws emotion, really does kind of burn into the mind. People take ownership of your stuff. Which is what you want them to do. You want them to be emotional about designs. Everybody loves Chucky.”

He continued, “So, when I first heard about the project, I was a little reluctant. I had been on Chucky movies in the past, but it was always the same doll design. When I heard that they wanted to redesign it, I thought, ‘Well, this is just how it goes.’ Everyone wants to keep remaking and revising. The ‘What worked once might work again’ type of stuff. So, it’s inevitable that we’re going to hit some of this stuff. We redid Predator, we’ve redone a bunch of stuff over the years. It’s kind of funny that a lot of these movies are from when I first started in the business. A lot of these ’80s remakes I actually touched way back when. So, it was kind of interesting when Chucky came along.”

Chucky’s look isn’t the only thing that will be different in the new film, as his origin will no longer be rooted in voodoo and instead in malfunctioning artificial intelligence.

“The big thing with the script was that it really isn’t the same movie and there’s a reason, a real story reason, that he looks different,” Masters admitted. “That kind of got me interested in it in a different way. It wasn’t like we were trying to take the original design and soften here and round there and do things like that. It is a totally different thing. I think people will understand that when they see it.”

The new Child’s Play lands in theaters on June 21st.

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