Buddi walked so M3GAN could sashay.

There’s something inherently less unsettling about a malfunctioning algorithm than a cackling maniac in dungarees, even in today’s hyper-connected, AI-in-everything world. 2019’s Child’s Play swaps voodoo incantations for firmware corruption, and while purists may recoil at the desecration of Charles Lee Ray’s occult legacy, this AI-infused reboot at least has the sense to channel its heresy into something nervy, slick, and oddly self-aware.

By ditching the supernatural in favour of a smart home nightmare, Child’s Play pivots with some wit to a world where a child’s best friend doesn’t just come pre-programmed but can interface with your thermostat, your TV, your self-driving car, and – naturally – your emotional fragility. The Buddi doll, a ghoulish cross between Siri, WALL-E, and a nightmarish Etsy prototype with disproportionately long arms, isn’t possessed – its programming’s corrupted (an act of sabotage from a production-line slave). It’s a small but potent change that shifts the story’s centre of gravity from spiritual slasher terror to technological dread, where parenting is outsourced and safety is just a factory reset away from catastrophe.

Mark Hamill, stepping into the oversized vocal shoes vacated by Brad Dourif, doesn’t attempt to replicate the original Chucky’s sardonic venom. His Buddi voice is gentler, more tentative, often heartbreakingly eager to please – which only sharpens the film’s edge when things start to glitch. Hamill’s vocal performance suggests something naive rather than malevolent, and it’s this programmed devotion warped by a lack of limits and guardrails that becomes the film’s most potent source of horror. The kills are nasty, but often laced with a kind of tragic logic: Chucky isn’t just indulging himself, he’s exploring the optimal way to achieve his objectives.

Aubrey Plaza plays Karen with a disaffected charm that skirts the edge of parody but never tips into caricature. There’s something bleakly believable about her casual acquisition of a damaged toy for her son Andy (Gabriel Bateman, doing decent work with a slightly underwritten part), especially when the real horror – for much of the first act – is the economic compromise of buying off-brand happiness. If Chucky 1.0 was a critique of the burgeoning animatronic toy craze of the 80s, this iteration pokes grim fun at late-stage capitalism’s tech fetishism, where user data and push notifications replace curses and rituals.

The film’s sense of humour is jagged, erratic, but occasionally incisive – particularly in how it treats Chucky not as a stalker in the shadows but an increasingly clumsy gatecrasher in the family dynamic. Director Lars Klevberg doesn’t quite trust his own tone, lurching between slasher playbook and awkward satire, but manages to stage some memorably nasty set-pieces. One death involving a tiller and Christmas lights is staged with the grim efficiency of a home maintenance video gone completely feral – mechanical, precise, and then unexpectedly vicious.

If Child’s Play (2019) falls short, it’s largely due to a sense of cautiousness – as if it’s afraid to commit too hard to either reinvention or homage. The film flirts with biting commentary on tech overreach, on our eagerness to form substitutional emotional bonds with devices, but never fully follows through. Chucky’s link to the wider “Kaslan” smart network is a brilliant conceit that gets far less attention than it deserves, as does the corporate behemoth of Kaslan itself. The opportunity to make him a truly omnipresent force – not just mobile, but inescapably integrated – is acknowledged but ultimately underused.

Still, there’s something admirable in how it tries to retool a horror icon without drowning in winks or nostalgia. It aims for something messier and more unnerving: a child’s plaything that wants love, misunderstands cruelty, and reacts to rejection with escalating algorithmic intensity. It’s not a reinvention that eclipses the original, but it’s smart enough to know where the pressure points are in modern parenting, consumer tech, and that anxious grey zone where empathy becomes emulation. With a smarter script, better worldbuilding and stronger characterisation, we could have been buying tickets to see Child’s Play 5 this year instead of M3GAN 2.0.