Almost everything gets a sequel today, of course, even when nobody really wants one. And at time of writing, Child's Play is up to its fifth installment. MGM/UA, producers of the original Child's Play, nixed this first follow-up on nebulous moral grounds, whereupon Universal eagerly snapped up the rights and hired John Lafia, screenwriter of the first film, to do his best with the warmed-over elements of a movie that wasn't exactly a paragon of originality in the first place.
For there is nothing quite as depressing as a well-made but worthless movie, and this expensive item is a prime example of that beast. This is a movie, one suspects, made not because someone with an idea really wanted to do it, but because an accountant looked at the ledger and saw a gap in the market.
Lafia made The Blue Iguana - a small, personal film noir flop - as his first film, and presumably felt the need to re-establish his commercial prospects by turning in a thoroughly professional job. Alex Vincent is a kid, and probably didn't have a choice about doing this follow-up to his debut picture. And Jenny Agutter, last seen unbilled in Darkman before this turkey, must have been wondering whatever happened to that promising career she used to have, reduced here to being killed with a sewing machine well before the climax.
