CHILD'S PLAY (1988) BLU-RAY/UHD REVIEW

Child’s Play (1988) d. Tom Holland (USA) (87 min)

After Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif), the notorious Lakeside Strangler, is cornered and shot in a Chicago toy store, he uses his dying breaths and voodoo mystic abilities to transport his soul into that of a Good Guy doll, the red-headed, freckled, talking sensation on every kid’s birthday wish list. Young Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) is one such lonely youngster, hoping that his newly widowed mother Karen (Catherine Hicks) can somehow come up with the funds to buy him his very own “friend to the end” to ease the pain of his father’s death. She manages to secure a deal with a back-alley peddler, not knowing that the doll in question is in fact harboring the serial killer’s spirit, and equally ignorant of “Chucky’s” plans to inhabit Andy’s body! Mysterious deaths begin to surround the young lad, arousing the suspicions of Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon), the level-headed detective assigned to the case. Will anyone believe Andy’s story or will he become the vehicle for Chucky’s future crimes?

THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA (1989) Blu-ray Review

The Phantom of the Opera (1989) d. Dwight H. Little (USA)

Aspiring young soprano Christine Day (Jill Schoelen) auditions for a new opera production with a strange and unusual composition discovered by her friend in a dusty music library, "Don Juan Triumphant." Courtesy of an errant sandbag nearly clocking her onstage, Christine is transported into a dream (or is it a memory?) of a previous life in London, one where she is the object of a mysterious and malicious figure's affections. Said figure being the resident "theatre ghost," Erik Destler (Robert Englund), an ambitious composer who has sold his soul to the devil in exchange for musical magnificence. (There's also the added bonus of Satan having horribly disfigured Destler's visage, so that his music is all that anyone can ever love.) Erik hides in the shadows, coaching Christine through her windows at night and eliminating anyone who threatens her ascension to fame and fortune. The unwitting starlet finds herself at the center of a spate of bloody murders, wondering at what price her success...and when will her benefactor come to collect?