Nato – Child’s Play
Ok, this one I can’t really explain. My fear of the red-haired devil doll named Chucky is no longer relevant, but when I was younger, no horror film character mortified me more. I’m not talking like “look away from the screen, cover your eyes” type heebie-jeebies either. I’m talking a physically paralyzing fear that overtook my entire body, causing bouts of mild hyperventilation in the pussified version of myself (quiet peanut gallery).
Now, this was at a young stage where I wasn’t yet the die-hard horror lover and didn’t appreciate the genre as I do now, but had still seen moments of Freddy, Michael, Jason, and even that little green bastard Leprechaun with no torment. But damn you Dom Mancini and Tom Holland for taking childhood innocence and creating a horrifying murderer out of a possessed Frankenstein-like “Good Guy” doll voiced by Brad Dourif, because for some reason you exposed one of my innermost fears. A fear I never even knew existed. A fear so irrational and stupid, I feel like a jabroni telling it now, but it’s all true.
Movies like Dead Silence tried to mimic the same evil doll horror, but couldn’t even muster a spook (partly because Dead Silence was a steaming pile of garbage not worth anyone’s time). Chucky stands as the one slasher villain to earn his status amongst horror infamy, for me at least, and ranks #1 on the list of “people” I least wanted (want) to see in my nightmares.