Child's Play 3

CHILD’S PLAY 3

With a plot that takes place eight years after the events of the previous installment, Child’s Play 3 finds Andy Barclay (now a teenager) attending military school.  In a prologue, Chucky comes back to life when the company that produces the Good Guys dolls fires up its old cobwebbed factory and some of Chucky’s blood gets into a vat of plastic being used for the first batch.  The soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray ends up in the first new doll off the assembly line, which winds up in the hands of the company’s CEO.  Chucky kills the corporate president and then somehow mails himself to Andy’s military school (presumably he coerced someone into wrapping him up and addressing the parcel).  A kid named Tyler intercepts the package and steals the doll.  Chucky realizes that he’s now in a new body and is free to try to transfer his soul into a fresh victim, and he sets his sights on young Tyler as a potential host.  He also wants to kill Andy as revenge for the events depicted in the first two films.  Mayhem ensues as Andy comes face-to-face with his old nemesis. 

Child’s Play 3 is a watchable sequel that boasts some memorable death scenes.  The school’s barber meets a particularly brutal end at the hands of Chucky.  The finale takes place in a carnival spook house, and the interior sets thereof feature some visually arresting designs and props.  This entry in the franchise features more humor than the previous two installments and ends up being the weakest link in the series thus far.  Perhaps the laws of diminishing returns have set in as this third film about a killer doll gets underway.  It’s an entertaining yarn, but it’s not as engaging as parts one and two.