DID YOU KNOW?
1. Chucky's real name, Charles Lee Ray, is derived from the names of notorious killers Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray.
2. In the scene where Chucky runs behind Maggie in the hallway, Chucky was actually played by Alex Vincent's younger sister.
3. The Chucky films have always been accused of inspiring violence in children. One case linked to the series was a gang in Manchester kidnapping and murdering a 16-year-old girl. While they tortured her, they forced her to listen to recordings of the gang leader repeating the catchphrase "I'm Chucky, wanna play?" Director Tom Holland has always defended the first film from these accusations, stating that viewers of horror movies could only be influenced by their content if they were unbalanced to begin with.
4. An original plot idea was to have life-like Good Guy dolls that had blood and latex skin. If the kids tore the latex skin, they could go out and buy Official Good Guy bandages. In a blood-brother pact, Andy cut his own hand and mixed his blood with Chucky's, thus causing him to come alive and become human.
5. All of Brad Dourif's voiceover work for Chucky was recorded in advance so they could match up Chucky's mouth with the words. Because of this, Dourif rarely ever appeared on set during the doll scenes. Instead, recordings of his voice would be played back for Alex Vincent to go by.
6. Catherine Hicks (Karen) and Kevin Yagher (Chucky's creator) met on set and were married a year later.
7. During the initial release, a crowd of protesters formed around the entrance to MGM, calling for a ban on the film. They claimed it would incite violence in children. Local news reporters were broadcasting live from the scene, and producer David Kirschner was watching, disturbed by what he saw. Jeffrey Hilton, who worked with Kirschner at MGM, said he could defuse the situation in ten minutes. Hilton went down and spoke to the ringleader and then the group disbanded, much to the chagrin of the newscasters. To this day, Hilton never specified whether it was threats or diplomacy that saved the day.
8. Original writer Don Mancini stated in an interview that his original script toyed with the audience a bit longer, making them wonder if young Andy was the killer rather than Chucky. This idea was later used by Kevin Tenney in 'Pinocchio's Revenge' (1996).
9. In an interview, Don Mancini said in the original script, the film was at first a satire on toy marketing and merchandising for children, before the idea morphed into a horror film instead.
10. Working titles for the film included 'Batteries Not Included' and 'Blood Buddy', which seems to confirm the widely believed notion that the film was inspired by Hasbro's My Buddy toy doll, which also dressed in denim overalls and a striped shirt. The title 'Child's Play' was settled on after it became known Steven Spielberg was already making a movie titled 'Batteries Not Included'.
11. Maggie's death scene originally had her being electrocuted while taking a bath. Though scrapped from this film, it was later used as Tiffany's death in 'Bride Of Chucky' (1998).
12. The film was released on the same date (November 9, 1988) as the opening scene, when Charles Lee Ray transfers his soul into the doll.
13. The first draft of the script was completed in the summer of 1985 and referenced Chucky as Buddy whom came to life after mixing blood with Andy and killed all those against Andy (babysitter, teacher), manifesting Andy's loneliness and isolation from an overworked mother and absent father. In addition to being a more psychologically driven horror film, 'Buddy' also only came alive at night when Andy was asleep.
14. Chucky, after being possessed by the soul of Charles Lee Ray, isn't actually shown speaking anything until approximately forty-five minutes into the film, just about half of the movie's run-time.
15. John Lithgow was considered to play Charles Lee Ray and voice Chucky, but producers became sold on Brad Dourif and went with him instead.
16. One of the inspirations for the Good Guys dolls was the interactive doll, Corky. Corky's voice actor Edan Gross was even used as Chucky's "normal" voice.
17. Composer Joe Renzetti and singer/songwriter Simon Stokes recorded an ending credits theme song about Chucky that wasn't used in the final finished film because studio executives thought it made Chucky seem less scary. The song can be heard in one of the trailers for the film (and in the Music section of this site).
18. The Good Guys animated sequence that Andy watches on TV was produced by the animation company Ruby-Spears.
19. The toy store used in the opening scene was actually a Chinese restaurant that closed down in Chicago on the corner of Wabash and Van Buren. Detective Norris even correctly says the name of the street corner when calling for backup in the film.
20. Don Mancini has stated that around 50 percent of the finished film retains the concepts of his original script. New elements introduced by other writers included the voodoo mythology angle and the character of Eddie Caputo.
21. Don Mancini and John Lafia were barred from the set after threatening to sue Tom Holland over a writing credit dispute.
22. According to Don Mancini, the original idea for Chucky was that he was not possessed by the soul of a cold-blooded serial killer, but was part of Andy's rage. Chucky was going after the people that were Andy's enemies. Don would later use it for 'Child's Play 2' (1990).
23. MGM/United Artists disowned the film after its release because of qualms with the film's subject matter. Universal then bought the rights for the sequels, and still owns it today.
24. Eddie Caputo has no lines of actual dialogue in the film.
25. This film continues a theme in Tom Holland's films of people seeing something supernatural, but they can't get anyone else to believe them, such as 'Scream For Help' (1984), 'Cloak & Dagger' (1984), and 'Fright Night' (1985).
26. A concept abandoned in the film showed that one sign of Chucky turning more human was that the doll would grow stubble like Charles Lee Ray had when he was human.
27. Jessica Walter, who'd played the stalker in 'Play Misty For Me' (1971) recorded lines as the voice of Chucky, but her audio was unused.
28. Writer Howard Franklin contributed to the screenplay, but remains uncredited in the final film.
29. Joseph Ruben was on the shortlist to direct the film at one point, but Tom Holland ended up getting the nod.
30. Robert Hy Gorman also auditioned for the role of Andy, which ultimately went to Alex Vincent.
31. The band the Geto Boys sampled various lines from the film in their 1991 song 'Chuckie'.
32. The voice of the costumed host of the Good Guys TV program is actually director Tom Holland.
Know any assorted facts that we don't have here? E-mail them to us at: lairofhorror@yahoo.com and you will get credit for them.
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