Additionally, Alan Wilder appears as Walter Criswell and Edan Gross portrays a young boy in a commercial promoting the dolls.

[17] He was also influenced by the Cabbage Patch Kids, Trilogy of Terror, Magic, Poltergeist, the character of Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Twilight Zone episode "Living Doll".

Kirschner wanted to make a film about a killer doll after reading The Dollhouse Murders and to branch out from children's entertainment after producing An American Tail (1985).

[21][16] Kirschner sent Mancini's second draft and his drawings of the doll to major studios, and attracted more interest due to the success of An American Tail and his links with Steven Spielberg.

The doll would have represented Andy's subconscious rage caused by his parents' divorce and his single mother's frequent absence from home, and would have targeted his enemies.

[2] Although Kirschner enjoyed Mancini's script, he demanded extensive rewrites because he feared that having the doll be a manifestation of Andy's subconscious anger would make the protagonist too unsympathetic to audiences.

Holland's screenplay moved the setting from a middle-class suburban home to a working-class urban apartment in either Chicago or New York City, changed Karen Barclay from an advertising executive to a department store clerk, and identified that Charles Lee Ray had transferred his soul to the doll via Voodoo magic with help from Damballa.

Holland argued that his final rewrite was so extensive that it was completely original from earlier drafts of the film and attempted to claim sole credit.

Despite his lack of acting experience compared with the other two finalists, Alex Vincent was cast as Andy Barclay in his second audition after he convincingly pretended to forget his lines in order to avoid cursing in front of his mother.

[33] Initially the voice of Chucky's doll form was intended to be a simple electronic overlay similar to ordinary toys with sound chips.

After negative test screenings, Lafia and Holland decided to recast the role only to find Dourif was still unavailable due to his involvement in Spontaneous Combustion.

MGM/UA executives attempted to convince Kirschner to move the film's setting to California to cut costs, but he declined after becoming dissatisfied with scouting trips to Oakland and San Francisco.

[40] The on-location filming was conducted in the winter with a wind chill reaching as low as −50 °F (−46 °C), forcing the production to rent entire rooms and park running station wagons near shooting locations as warming centers.

Kirschner initially hired Chris Walas to handle the puppetry for the film after his work on Gremlins (1984), but he quit in order to direct The Fly II (1989).

For some scenes Holland used short-statured actors and children such as Ed Gale and Alex Vincent's sister Ashley with forced perspective sets.

Holland, who had repeatedly clashed with Kirschner over Chucky's amount of time on screen and the film's tone during shooting, objected to the cuts and left the production.

[16] The cut footage, shown only in production stills and the film's script, would have featured Charles Lee Ray stalking a drunk woman as a human only to discover it to be Mike Norris on an undercover sting operation, Andy showing Chucky around his room and finding a photograph of his deceased father, John healing an infant through a voodoo ritual, and Chucky unsuccessfully trying to break into Andy's room at the mental hospital and tricking a mentally-ill girl named Mona into carrying him into the ward.

[49] The script also featured an alternate ending in which Chucky is stabbed by Andy with a knife mounted on a radio-controlled car and has his face and legs melted with a squirt gun filled with Drano in addition to being lit on fire and shot repeatedly by Mike and Karen.

[52] Although Kirk Kerkorian terminated MGM/UA's production agreement with Kirschner during his acquisition of the studio, it agreed to release Child's Play after the recut of the film received positive test screenings in Southern California.

[1] The film was heavily promoted for three weeks before release through television spots emphasizing audience reactions directed towards 12-to-20-year-olds and intended to "position Chucky as the new terror icon".

Critics, who had previously been dismissive of the genre, lauded the film for its distinctive villain, unsettling puppetry work, concise storytelling and death scenes.

The site's critics consensus reads, "Child's Play occasionally stumbles across its tonal tightrope of comedy and horror, but its genuinely creepy monster and some deft direction by Tom Holland makes this chiller stand out on the shelf.

"[4] Caryn James of The New York Times praised it as "a clever, playful thriller," adding, "It's the deft wit and swift editing that keeps us off guard, no matter how predictable the plot.

"[65] Variety called the film a "near-miss", commending Tom Holland's "impressive technical skill" and the actors for keeping "straight faces during these outlandish proceedings," but finding that "the novelty is not buttressed by an interesting story to go along with the gimmick.

"[66] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Scary, yet darkly funny, this thriller of the supernatural from the director of the terrific 'Fright Night' moves with the speed of a bullet train and with style to burn.

"[69] Philip Strick of The Monthly Film Bulletin found the plot contrived with "ludicrous supernatural gobbledygook" but thought that Holland handled the action sequences well.

During the initial release, a large crowd of protesters formed at the main entrance of MGM calling for a ban on the film because, they claimed, it would incite violence in children.

In the commercial, Chucky "comes to life and begins killing, pursuing an off-screen victim, committing aggressive acts and speaking in a threatening manner".

ABC and CBS pulled the commercial from prime time because viewers (especially parents) began complaining about it being too frightening, thus it only aired at late hours.

The film starred Gabriel Bateman as Andy Barclay and Aubrey Plaza as his mother Karen while Mark Hamill provided the voice for Chucky.