The first film collapsed into its own ridiculousness, but to the contrary this second film takes the basic elements and makes a much better film out of them. It has no pretensions other than the basic exploitativeness of an Elm Street copycat or sequel, but as such it is a reasonable entry. The first killing scene where Chucky comes to life in the lab and blasts a technician with electricity is pretty silly but thereafter the film improves considerably. Particularly good are the scenes where Alex Vincent pursues Chucky through a darkened cellar and Christine Elise hunts it in a bedroom, where director John Lafia does a fine job in milking the scenes for tension and suspense. The climax with Chucky pursuing people through the factory and being variously impaled in a stamping press, melted with hot wax and finally blown up with an oxygen pump, is highly entertaining. Kevin Yagher creates a much more versatile and convincing Chucky doll this time around. One scene, a full body shot filmed from a low angle with Chucky advancing on the schoolteacher while smacking a ruler into its hand, holds quite a menacing charge.

The script is wholly routine but should be noted for its eminently plausible means for reviving the doll and getting around the first film’s lead actresses absence – the doll is being rebuilt in the toy factory in an attempt to understand why it went berserk, while she has been committed to an asylum because her story has been disbelieved.

The subsequent sequels were Child’s Play 3 (1991), Bride of Chucky (1998) and Seed of Chucky (2004). Director John Lafia co-wrote the original Child’s Play and later went onto direct the ludicrous killer dog film Man’s Best Friend (1993).