First trailer for the Child's Play reboot comes with a cryptic, clue-filled website
Not to be confused with the Child’s Play TV show from the original creators, or that other movie about toys come to life that’s opening on the same day, the movie we’re here to discuss is a reboot of Child’s Play that looks much more beholden to its source material than we originally thought. Sure, as the above trailer shows, the doll now scans its owners with a sickly red light before playtime, but he’s still donning stripes, overalls, a mop of stringy red hair, and a dang butcher knife.
He’s also named Chucky, not Buddi, as early glimpses of the film led us to believe. Buddi, it appears, is the toy’s branding, which comes from a futuristic corporation called Kaslan. This tech company is featured heavily in the trailer, which hits some pretty familiar beats as it introduces Aubrey Plaza’s put-upon mother and Brian Tyree Henry’s befuddled detective, but, interestingly, there’s more to see on an accompanying website for the fictional company.
For example, CEO Henry Kaslan (played here by Tim Matheson) appears with a video announcing the creation of Buddi. “We set out to develop the greatest and most interactive toy on the market, but in doing so we did created something far more special,” he begins. “Every child is important to us and every child deserves a companion, a friend that will never let you down. It’s my great honor to introduce you to our most innovative product to date: Buddi. He’s more than a toy, he’s your best friend.”
What the Child’s Play reboot presupposes is, maybe he’s not?
Anyways, a cursory click-through of the Kaslan site reveals the company to be specialists in cloud-based, interactive products, from Roomba-like vacuums to Echo-like digital assistants. As such, expect techno-horror concerns to dwarf any supernatural (or voodoo-based) ones in this reboot.
Still, they’ve got a big-ass mountain to climb without the legendary Brad Dourif voicing the killer doll. Nevertheless, director Lars Klevberg Child’s Play beep-boops its way into theaters on June 21