Child's Play: The Don Mancini Cut

This edit of Child's Play stands for everything fan-editing should aspire to be. It has a straightforward premise, some historical context, and is executed to great effect. The simple action of removing/moving explicit references to Chucky's origins until the "big reveal" at the midpoint turns the story on its head in a brand new way.

It heightens the drama of detective Norris' suspicion of Andy, elevates his mother Karen's unraveling sanity, and imbues Andy's performance with a sinister air that makes for a incredible film even if Charles Lee Ray was omitted entirely.

There's a particularly chilling look Andy gives the camera before he and Chucky visit Eddie Caputo that completely sells the ambiguity of whether or not Chucky is alive or a projection of Andy's murderous psychopathy. Even after the big reveal to Karen, the rabbit hole in which she descends in search of answers remains equally ambiguous as her own sanity remains in question. This section reminded me of the psychological horror aspects of the first Candyman.

I haven't seen too many edits that have made something feel so new whilst doing relatively little to the source. The edit excels in exponentially escalating the action, elevating the big reveals, and increasing the ambiguity to keep us guessing until the end.

An excellent restoration of the movie to its original intentions. Not only does the mystery add to the film in terms of making its young hero seem like a sinister Omen-style kid for the most part, but choices like his "Good Guys" sneakers make more sense in this new context. Also, the magic spell-casting Brad Dourif feels less jarring now coming in the movie where it does now (in flashback) rather than dropping fantasy coldly into the first act as setup that the audience hasn't been adequately prepared for.

Not only a fantastic edit of an already good movie, the comparison between this and the theatrical cut could serve as very useful instruction for aspiring screenwriters in terms of structure, ambiguity and the kind of things that can go wrong when studio notes start interfering with the final product. Great work, and congrats on the well-deserved award.

Just wow...

This is the first fan edit I have watched and I am blown away. Child's play is one of my all time favourite series and as soon as I saw that this I knew I had to have it!

This cut's intention is to make the first part of the movie more ambiguous and gets us asking the question... is the doll really doing this? Or is Andy doing these killings and blaming it on the doll? All the references to chucky being alive have been removed, from looking at the TV, to looking at his mother outside the bedroom door, and it really does add an interesting spin on this movie. A movie that I have seen quite a fair bit suddenly felt fresh and revitalised because it felt so different to the original!

Hands down to Dwight Fry for pulling this off. An amazing edit of one of my all time favourite movies, and I will be 100% adding this version to my annual watch list of the Chucky Franchise!

I am so glad that this was the first fan edit that I watched, it really has shown me how much time and love you editors put into these projects, and I cannot wait to see more!

This is an excellent edit.. Absolutely worth watching. I'll be scaring the shit out of my kids with it this Halloween

This edit was nothing but amazing. Every single aspect was great. No issues at all.