Child's Play

"I see a trademark." Stretched out to around 90 minutes with adverts "Child's Play" is an episode from the 1984 TV series "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense". And a good one it is too! A married couple and their young daughter wake up at 04:10 am to find themselves trapped inside their modern home, all of the doors and windows have been sealed with a hard mysterious substance that they cannot penetrate. Furthermore the temperature inside is rising, the couple are losing their memories, a strange symbol is appearing everywhere (including as a tattoo on the man's arm), a green slime is oozing down the chimney and time has stood still. In lesser hands this episode may have felt stretched out at 75 minutes in length but director Val Guest maintains the claustrophobia, tension and mystery throughout. Small cast but well acted. There is a clue in the title but never in a million years did I see the twist at the end coming. And there's not a Good Guy doll in sight!

British TV movie, made by Hammer Films for their second series "Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense", does a good job slowly building up the characters' fear without making it feel like things are moving at a snail's pace. Nearly all of its 70 minute run time is spent on the characters attempting various methods of escape and theorizing on who (or what) has trapped them and why.

Other occurrences soon indicate their predicament is even stranger than it appears, such as a mysterious slime oozing into one area of the house, characters suddenly losing feeling/use of a limb for no apparent reason, and total memory loss of major life events.

Always the pessimist, I fully expected the coda to all this to drop the ball. All I'll say is that it definitely does not. If you want to see something a little different and actually driven by its story (something increasingly rare) this is well worth checking out and a perfect example of how horror can best utilize the made-for-TV format.

When I watched Child's Play I thought it had a Twilight Zone type feel to it. The ending looked very familiar, now it might because I would had watched this episode back in 1984 or 85.

It turns out that the story was based on the Twilight Zone episode 'Six Characters in Search of an Exit.'

The Preston family wake up to discover that their house is walled in. There is no escape. The house is getting warmer and there is gunge in one of the rooms.

They are trapped, with no way to break out. Time is stuck and there is this corporate logo everywhere.

It is an episode where it all makes sense at the end. The title of the story is an obvious clue.

The big problem is that the story was too long and too cheesy. It would have worked more effectively in the shorter format.

A made-for-TV movie that is simply better than 95% of fantasy and horror works we can see in movie theaters.The story progresses slowly but inexorably and fear never leaves the viewer.It might have had a big influence on "cube" and it might possibly be better,because it deals with every day life and features an ending you'll never guess!Close to the fifties great works such as "the incredible shrinking man" ,"child's play " is absolutely brilliant.

And at a time when "unexpected ends" often come at the most awkward moment,this ending will leave you on the edge of your seat.At once simple and terrifying.

This episode along with the last one in the series are the two with the most The Twilight Zone vibe of the whole series. This episode opens with an amazing idea, it evolves very well and culminates in a non-trivial ending even if it can be guessed by more or less half of the episode. The whole episode is very entertaining and manages to be truly wonderful and with the right rhythms that give it the perfect atmosphere. Too bad, however, that there is the classic nuisance child who makes the episode slightly more difficult to bear. Even the final part is very beautiful even if it consists of a very classic didactic explanation that spoils the atmosphere a little.