Deleted Scenes From Child's Play You Never Got To See
What is it about "Child's Play"? The series has run for over 30 years and might run forever on no batteries at all — just like the Good Guys doll that first gave killer Charles Lee Ray new life in 1988's "Child's Play." Including that first film, the franchise now boasts seven movies, one remake film, and three seasons of a hit TV show named for the doll who likes to hug — Chucky himself.
"One of the things that has kept the franchise alive and thriving for so long is that we've reinvented it in different ways," creator Don Mancini told Post Mortem with Mick Garris (via JoBlo). Over time, "Child's Play" has taken Chucky from a solo serial killer to a gruesome twosome, and later a family man — plus, you know, a "Cult of Chucky" leader.
The series has leaned hard into horror, comedy, and even heartwarming moments. All of that reinvention has paid off, with a rabid fanbase that, like Chucky's swear jar tab, seems to grow every day. Mancini has often spoken in interviews about ideas and scenes that got cut from one movie only to rise again in some other installment of the series, which made us curious about what else got slashed. Quick, look around to make sure you're not being tailed by a killer doll, then read on for some deleted scenes from the "Child's Play" movies you never got to see.
Life's a drag
"Child's Play" starts right in the thick of the action, following Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) on a high-speed foot chase through Chicago and into a toy store as he tries to stop killer Charles Lee Ray from claiming his next victim. But if the movie kept its very first deleted scene, Norris would have been dressed to kill. Literally.
Don Mancini's original draft of the script featured Detective Norris pulling a fast one on everyone's favorite long-haired pre-killer-doll killer. In the original screenplay, Norris tricks Ray into chasing a new target: a beautiful woman in a dress. But right when Ray gets within killing distance, Norris reveals that the woman was actually himself in a dress the whole time.
He taunts Ray with an "Am I pretty enough for you?" Then Ray takes off running, Norris takes off the dress, and we're off to the voodoo-spell-in-a-toy-store races. The scene was clearly filmed and cut for time, because the very opening shot of "Child's Play" features Norris tossing a piece of clothing aside while chasing Ray down. We're heartbroken this particular drag race was cut for time, because Chris Sarandon, like Chucky, was born to serve looks — even if he's a hum-drum detective and not a scenery-chewing prince or vampire in this film.
An alternate voice for Chucky
It's hard to imagine the iconic voice of Chucky without calling to mind the rich rasp of Brad Dourif, the actor who has played Charles Lee Ray — and voiced Chucky — for the last three decades and counting. It's hard — yet hilarious — to imagine the alternative: Chucky as voiced by the equally iconic Jessica Walter.
Did we mention that the first "Child's Play" film had a bit of a plagued production? In addition to shooting the movie in the dead of Chicago winter, there were also plenty of creative differences between original writer Don Mancini and director Tom Holland (no, not that Tom Holland). They recorded audio with Dourif, but Holland opted for another actor to voice Chucky in doll form.
"Tom Holland's brilliant idea was that since a woman — Mercedes McCambridge — had so successfully provided the voice of Satan in 'The Exorcist', then it was only logical that a woman should provide the voice of Chucky," Mancini explained to Bloody Disgusting (via MovieWeb). Walter was eventually cut and replaced with Dourif yet again. Our kingdom for a clip of Walter, aka Lucille Bluth from "Arrested Development," saying she's our friend til the end. What could a clip like that cost? Ten dollars?
The kid doesn't stay in the picture
The first "Child's Play" film was full of behind-the-scenes disagreements, with one key argument being over how much Chucky should be seen. Producer David Kirschner (of the "American Tail" films and "The Pagemaster") pushed for the doll to be revealed as late as possible and used sparingly like the shark in "Jaws." However, director Tom Holland found showing the evil doll to be, well, kind of the whole point of the evil doll movie.
"I felt he kept showing too much of the doll. I wanted to be gentlemanly about it and kept whispering in his ear, and he was getting fed up with me," Kirschner explained in Mental Floss's oral history of the film. "There was a disagreement as to tone," Holland countered in the same piece, adding, "David made movies for children."
When the director's cut of the film came in at a long two hours, Holland's Chucky-tastic vision got chopped down to size a bit. About 20 minutes were ultimately cut, including a scene where Andy makes a friend at the clinic and then Chucky plays the girl against Andy. While the little girl is still in the final film, it's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.
Voodoos and don'ts
You couldn't swing a dead cat (or a child's doll) in '80s horror without hitting some misguided "voodoo" spells. The entire "Child's Play" series keeps plenty of "voodoo" in the mix, but one scene featuring Dr. Death doing a voodoo healing spell (in complete witchy wear) was cut for time.
It's a shame, too, because Dr. Death — aka John Bishop, as performed by Ray Oliver — brings a true slice of horror movie gravitas to "Child's Play." The betrayal he displays when he learns that Chucky was planning to use the magic John taught him for evil — like, major evil — is painfully true. However, we have to wonder how poor John didn't see this coming when Charles Lee Ray showed up for his first voodoo class. If Ray brought an apple for his teacher, surely it would be poisoned.
Another alternate voodoo scene was cut from the opening of the film. It features Ray raising a Good Guy doll to the sky as he chants in terrifying tones. Many deleted scenes and alternate scenes are lost to time, but this scene has footage that still exists (not just production stills) and is sometimes considered the one "true" deleted "Child's Play" scene.
Sad dad stuff
Young Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) leads a heartbreaking life up until the events of "Child's Play" — and then the movie attempts to grind the remaining bits of his sweet heart to dust. No one believes that his doll is talking to him, and all manner of adults try to restrain him or talk down to him until his mom finally comes around.
What makes it all the more heartbreaking is that for the first good chunk of "Child's Play," Andy thinks his Good Guy doll is exactly what a Good Guy doll should be: a child-sized best buddy who loves to hug and will be his friend to the end. Seriously, a rewatch of this (or a fresh viewing if you've never seen it) will have you reaching for a tissue just as often as it will have you jumping and screaming.
One scene cut for time in "Child's Play" featured a tender moment where Andy shows Chucky (in cute, quiet Good Guy mode) a photo of his dad and the train set he left him before he (presumably) died. A child bonding with his secretly killer doll over his grief about a lost loved one, only for that killer doll to eventually cause the child's mother to be institutionalized for believing him? Pass the tissues, please.
Race to the finish
The original scripted ending to "Child's Play" featured Andy finally letting loose on Chucky in high style: attacking him with a knife taped to a remote-controlled car toy, face-melting Chucky with a squirt-gun full of Drano, then grabbing a baseball bat to finish the job. Kevin McCallister would be proud.
However, the dictates of budget, time, and whatever was considered good taste when it came to watching a tiny child murder a doll in the late '80s conspired to keep such a glorious scene from "Child's Play" fans. Instead, the final film shows Andy mostly just watching as the grownups in his life battle Chucky to the glorious (if temporary) death. It's a shame to not see Andy able to fight back against the anything but Good Guy who has so beset his life, but hey — it's good when some of the grownups finally have his back.
Andy's mom, Karen, traps Chucky in the fireplace, and then Andy lights a match, saying, "This is the end, friend." But even as Chucky burns and Detective Norris and his partner show up to "help" in the loosest sense of the word, audiences then and now know that with Chucky, the end is never, ever in sight.
The true leads of Child's Play 2
1990 saw Don Mancini's formal return to "Child's Play" as the writer of "Child's Play 2." The writer's strike, UCLA classes, and rumored directorial drama that had kept him off-set throughout most of the production of the first "Child's Play" was all over by the second production, but the "Child's Play 2" deleted scenes were just beginning.
Scenes were always being cut for budget or time in the "Child's Play" franchise, but plenty of scenes cut for movie runtimes would be edited out of theater prints and then put back in for TV broadcast. Such was the case with a major foster parent subplot in "Child's Play 2." Andy Barclay's mom has been institutionalized for insisting a killer doll tried to kill, well, her, her son, and a fair number of Chicagoans. Andy is being fostered by the Simpson family, along with his foster sister Kyle. Chucky is still on the hunt for Andy and stops at nothing to seek him out in his new life with his new parents.
Joanne and Phil Simpson get very little screentime in the theatrical cut, but a bunch of their scenes are "un-deleted" in the TV cut of the film, proving that Andy's foster parents were slated for much more story and screentime. The actors even got second and third billing on the poster after Alex Vincent. Sadly, most of the context for the Simpsons' theatrical story ended up like so many lives in "Child's Play" — cut to shreds.
The unbearable radness of Kyle
Kyle (Christine Elise) is Andy's tough, cool foster sister in "Child's Play 2." Two things she's always gonna do are smoke cigarettes and have a bad attitude. But while she starts the film seemingly over the idea of family — and definitely not into hanging out with Andy — she ends it on Andy's side and intensely against Chucky.
Charles Lee Ray is hunting for Andy, and he kills Kyle's foster parents in the process. When Kyle sees Joanne killed by a sewing-machine-assisted Chucky, she's done being the too-cool teenager and all in on being the vengeful one who will stop at nothing to protect Andy.
However, early cuts of "Child's Play 2" clocked in around 3 hours, and a bunch of Kyle goodness was cut for time. Even though Kyle pops up again in "Cult of Chucky" and the "Chucky" TV series, we wish we could have seen more of her cut work in "Child's Play 2" — like when she stares Andy down, gets in a well-timed car accident to terrorize Chucky, or sweetly talks Andy through a scary situation before the film's final showdown. We'd also take an additional hour of Beth Grant scenes while we're at it, please and thank you.
Napoleon complex
Poor Andy Barclay just can't catch a break. By "Child's Play 3," he's sent away to a strict military school full of harsh teachers and students and only a few warm-hearted exceptions to that rule. Of course, Chucky doesn't care if Andy's surrounded by friends or foes — he'll kill them all just to get to Andy.
"Child's Play 3" continues the grand franchise tradition of slashing out a bunch of scenes for time in the theatrical version, only to restore them for the TV broadcast — which ultimately still hides these scenes from the world since the theatrical cuts are what stream now and (maybe) forever online. One key, thematic deleted scene that suffered this fate in "Child's Play 3" is a classroom scene with seemingly the one kind teacher at Kent Military Academy.
The teacher (Lois Foraker) is discussing Napoleon's failure at Waterloo with the class and reminds them it was truly Napoleon who defeated himself by being cocky about his own prowess: "That, ladies and gentlemen, is the cardinal sin in warfare — never underestimate the enemy." The scene clearly sparks a good idea in Andy, even if it's trapped forever in the deleted scene vortex. It's especially a shame that we don't get any good Napoleon complex jokes at Chucky's expense.
Debbie Carrington's Seed of Chucky scene
As the "Child's Play" franchise went on, deleted scenes usually got less fun, easier to find, and a lot more about stunting for the gag reel than being lost pieces of slasher cinema. There's a key scene from 2004's "Seed of Chucky," however, that gloriously fits the true deleted scene bill.
"Seed of Chucky" is a gloriously campy and comedic installment in the "Child's Play" franchise. It stars many puppets, Jennifer Tilly as Tiffany, and even John Waters. It's a meta-exploration of Chucky and the filmmaking behind him. Plus, Chucky and Tiffany have a non-murderous child in the movie. Drama!
In the deleted scene, Debbie Carrington plays the Tiffany doll's stunt double. Neither she nor Tiffany likes sharing the spotlight, and Tiffany tries to talk herself out of killing Debbie, even though she wants to. Mancini speaks on the DVD commentary about how the deleted scene was meant to set up Debbie's later kill, which they never shot. Mancini is known for bringing many cast members back throughout the franchise, especially for guest roles on the "Chucky" TV show. However, Carrington passed away in 2018. She was a renowned actor and stuntperson who appeared in "Dexter" and "Total Recall," among other films and shows.
Another curse in Curse of Chucky
Brad Dourif and his actor daughter Fiona Dourif started working with each other (and sometimes as each other) in 2013's "Curse of Chucky." The film, written and directed by Don Mancini, was the first direct-to-video installment in the franchise — a well-received reboot that took the energy of Chucky from the original "Child's Play" and ran (with scissors) with it.
Chucky targets the family of Nica Pierce (Fiona Dourif), the daughter of Sarah Pierce (Chantal Quesnel), a woman he was obsessed with back in his Charles Lee Ray youth. Nica takes on a similar role to young Andy in the first "Child's Play" film and survives Chucky's reign of terror on her family. She learns that, as Charles Lee Ray, Chucky killed her father.
In a deleted flashback, we see the scene dramatized with Ray offering a friendly ride to Nica's dad. He resists at first but ultimately decides to trust his neighbor — oops! There's also a brutal deleted scene between Officer Stanton and Nica where he blames her for the deaths of her family, mocks her disability, and calls to mind ancient punishments for her. Nica, much like Andy and Kyle before her, holds her own, even if this scene didn't make the final cut. When it comes to "Child's Play," after all, the "final" cut is always relative.