Semiotics Child's Play 1988 vs Child's Play 2019

Child’s Play- Horror over time

There is a huge difference in the horror genre that was seen in the 1980s then what is seen today. In Child’s Play 1988 you see a lot of voodoo that is used, but in 2019 you see that technology could be the next big thing to fear.

Child’s Play 1988                                                                                                     Child’s Play 2019

          

 Adaptation: The difference between these two movies are how we view horror, and what we would see like a logical thing to be afraid of. The main ideas that both movies deal with is consumerism and the need for an attachment. Both movies also include new topics because each movie talks about the things that were the hot topic at the time.

Ideology: Child’s Play deals with the idea consumerism. In 1988, when Reagan came into to Office there was a bigger hit on the way people spent money. He wanted to remind Americans that there is an assortment of good and services out there for them to buy. Then Madonna came out with a song called “Material Girl’ where she sings “We are living in a material world, and I am a material girl,”. The 1980s was a time where shopping turned into Americans’ favorite leisure activity. Moving to 2019, consumerism is at an all time low. This means that millennials are trying to spend less money. For example, although we try to get the newest, we tend to hand on the phone for as long as possible. We only try to replace things we they are close to the point that they won’t work.

Genre: For Child’s Play 1988 and 2019 the genres are horror and comedy. The reason for this is because most scenes in the movies are mostly just jump scares. The 1988 version of the movie has less humor, but a few scenes goes along with how violence was displayed in 1988. In the 2019 version has less horror and more humor. In the 2019 version you get comments like “Hobbit motherfucker”, and “This is for Tupac”. In both movies they have the same genre.

Social History: The movie that Child’s Play is based off another movie that was made in 1975 called Trilogy of Horror.  Trilogy of Horror goes over 3 different all about women that are being tormented. The last one to play deals with a woman getting tormented in her own apartment by an African tribal doll. Chucky which is an American doll who torments a single mother and her son. *a man comes to the rescue*.  Charles Lee Ray was the name of the serial killer who put himself inside the Good Guy doll. His name is a combination of Charles Manson, Lee Harvey Oswald, and James Earl Ray. Charles Manson was convicted along with three other girls for killing roughly 35 people. Lee Harvey Oswald was accused of assassinating John F Kennedy. James Earl Ray was convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Child’s Play 2019 was based off the original Child’s Play, but the doll was based off the Furby toys and Robosapiens. Robosapiens were robots that were created so they can be easily hacked. So, if someone really wanted to create a killer doll they could.

Semiotics: The Pragmatic relationship would be changing the characters around and some of lines from original to the remake. The articulation that connects both movies is the words “This is the end, friend” Although in each movie a different character says it you still get the same effect. With Andy saying “This is the end, friend” you know that he is done with the toy and wants all of this behind him. With Mike saying “This is the end” you know that Mike is done with the doll stuff and wants all of this behind him. Each character conveys a different feeling, but the words have the same feel to them. The Syntagmatic relationship would be the relationship that Chucky shares between each character. Since Chucky creates a relationship with Andy by opening up to him and keeping him safe until Chucky needs him for something. Chucky takes him to an unsafe place but instead of using Andy as bait he waits until Andy is distracted and then runs into the house. The mom doesn’t matter as much because right when the mom tries to interfere with Chucky’s plan, and he goes berserk. If the mom would have left Chucky alone, and just took Andy’s words as a form of his own imagination she might have been left alone. Andy would have lost his soul, and his body would have been inhabited by Charles Lee Ray soul. This would have changed the course of the first movie by providing Chucky with the ability to go on with his life. The new movie would have change if Andy would have not made any friends. From the point Chucky had to share him was the point that Chucky started to kill. If Andy was a girl brings in the idea would Chucky have learned all killer type things he learned when he was under the care of Andy. Chucky shares a relationship with everybody in the movie through Andy. If Andy didn’t associate himself with them Chucky would have been perfectly fine. But Andy made friends and started acting which brought out the mom giving him a little more attention and the detective’s attention.