With a runtime of around three hours, Tom Holland's original cut of "Child's
Play" underwent massive edits aimed at making the feature film more
entertaining and profitable. Although it is practically impossible for this
version of the film to ever be commercially released, surviving descriptions
and audiovisual fragments give us an idea of what the movie could have been.
Discarded material.
The first scene shows Detective Mike Norris, dressed in women's clothing,
leaving a bar and trying to catch Charles Lee Ray, who is inside a car with
Eddie Caputo. Charles gets out of the car to follow Mike and confront him in
an alley. The two argue, and a fight breaks out; Mike kicks Charles in the
groin, causing him to fall. After getting up, he throws a trash can at Mike
and runs away from him, leading to the chase shown in the final film. If you
look closely at the final scene, you can see Mike throwing the dress on the
ground as he chases Charles down the street.
Excerpts from this deleted scene were revealed in the documentary “Doc of
Chucky,” which premiered in 2024.
An alternate take of the voodoo chant in the toy store. Charles stands up and
holds the Good Guy doll in his left arm while pretending to look for Mike.
This is the only known deleted scene that has surfaced to date. The full scene
was included in an unreleased “making-of” mini-documentary, which was later
included on the Scream Factory Blu-ray.
Extended scene in which Andy shows Chucky the various things in his room,
including a toy train. He then comes across a photo of his late father, shows
it to Chucky, and says, “This is Mom and my dad, Bob. He died in a car
accident, but Mom and I still love him very much.”
Originally, during the explosion at Eddie Caputo's house and his death, Andy
is shown falling into a ditch just before the house explodes. Footage of this
scene was reportedly shown in an interview with Alex Vincent on Entertainment
Tonight.
A scene showing John performing a voodoo healing ritual on a sick baby while
dressed as a voodoo priest. John recites a chant in Haitian Creole while
rubbing an amulet over the baby, who appears to be healed by the ritual. John
gives the amulet to the family to keep; they pay him, and he leaves shortly
before Chucky arrives.
Karen and Mike visit the burned-down toy store after she asks him about
Charles Lee Ray. They find a pile of toys in good condition in the alley
next to the store, which explains how the street vendor found Chucky.
There was a minor subplot in which Andy befriends a young woman named Mona
during his time at the clinic. Mona later meets Chucky, who tricks her into
opening the door to Andy's room. Mona can be seen in the final scene of the
movie telling Karen that she spoke with Chucky and that he was looking for
Andy when Mike, Jack, and Karen arrive after Dr. Ardmor's death.
Dr. Ardmore places a regular Good Guy doll in Andy's room at the psychiatric
clinic to try to convince Andy that it is actually Chucky and that he isn't
alive. Andy isn't convinced, however; Dr. Ardmore admits the truth but doesn't
believe Andy's claims that Chucky will come to kill him, and he leaves,
locking Andy up once again.
The scene in which Chucky stalks Andy at the clinic was originally longer.
Chucky climbs up to Andy's window, but Andy blocks it with a table, forcing
Chucky to find another window to get in.
Just as Chucky climbs onto the chair to electrocute Dr. Ardmore, he has a
brief conversation with him:
“Is this what you use to cure your crazy patients? Shock therapy, is that
what it's called? They used it on me once, but I don't think it worked. Do
you think it'll work on you?”
This scene was found in a behind-the-scenes featurette for the movie,
although it does not feature Brad Dourif's voice.
In the original ending, after Chucky bursts into the apartment to perform
the ritual, Andy sets up a remote-controlled car with a knife attached to
it. Chucky enters the kitchen, and the car stabs him in the leg. Andy finds
Chucky and sprays drain cleaner in his face with a water gun. This causes a
chemical reaction with the plastic, causing Chucky immense pain. Part of
Chucky’s face melts, and Andy sprays a jet of liquid onto his leg.
Chucky quickly hides and attacks Andy, strangling him with a Slinky. Then
Mike goes looking for Chucky and is knocked out by him, so Karen throws
Chucky into the fireplace.
When several officers arrive, along with Jack Santos, Jack grabs the
baseball bat and hits Chucky in the head; Chucky rolls over and bites one of
the officers on the leg. Karen then shoots Chucky in the heart while saying,
“I love you. Hi-de-ho, ha ha ha.” The officers pick up the doll’s
remains while Jack tells them he was never alive and offers to buy them a
drink.
In the final cut, you can see Andy grabbing the remote-controlled car and
the remote while hiding in his closet before grabbing the baseball bat and
going after Chucky.
Lost forever.
Due to the film industry protocols of the time, which involved discarding all
unused footage, the original cut of “Child's Play” is classified as “Lost
Media” with virtually no chance of being recovered. According to Don Mancini,
the character’s creator, and Tom Holland, the film’s director, that original
footage was lost in the archives of MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) decades ago.
Despite their statements, several online users claim to have seen a VHS copy,
or a television broadcast, of the film with the scenes included.
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