Wanna play? - No, not really!

Child's Play (1988)
Just by looking at the picture on the left I'm getting so many memories, most of them scary, and who wouldn't be scared after watching Child's Play with just four or five years old? I know I was! Granted, it might be a silly movie to others, but to me, it was more than that. I wasn't even born when the movie came out but I still watched it a couple of years later and liked it, and hated it at the same time. 

The Tom Holland movie is about a single mother who gives her son a beloved doll for his birthday, only to discover that it is possessed with the soul of a serial killer. But what's that all about? Now that I think back, I wonder how could I like a movie like that? However, since the new version came out on September 24th, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss it.


This particular diabolical doll was an inspiration for several crimes, one of which is considered to be the worst massacre by a single person in Australia. Port Arthur, Tasmania, a highly touristic town in Australia, soon became the place where many tourist died at the hand of Martin Bryant (28). He entered the Broad Arrow cafe on April, 28 of 1996 and had a meal. But, before leaving the cafe, he had something other than buying souvenirs in mind. He took out an AR15 semi-automatic rifle and started shooting people. He killed 35 people in total and injured 21 more. Details on the events of that day here.



Martin was a schizophrenic and was obsessed with the doll in every sense. He loved the childish features of the Chucky and the fact that he could fight for himself and kill many people with no remorse. He felt he was Chucky and that he was also possessed with an evil spirit. Despite his mental illness, Bryant was still found fit to stand trial and he received 35 life sentences for the people he killed and another 1035 years for other crimes committed.

Suzanne Jane Capper (16)
Bryant wasn't the only one inspired by the movie. Suzanne Capper was tortured and killed by five people. On December, 1992, Bernadette McNeilly, Jean Powell, Glyn Powell, Jeffrey Leigh, Anthony Michael Dudson, and Clifford Pook kidnapped 16 year old Capper and tortured her four hours and hours, burning her, and throwing her down hill to kill her. However, Capper survived, and even though she was extremely  burnt, she walked for hours until she was found next day at 6:00 a.m. She managed to identify her attackers and communicate in detail everything they did to her. 

She was tied up and forced to listen to a tape with the remix "Hi, I'm Chucky (Wanna Play)" by 150 Volts over and over again. Every time McNeilly came to torture her, she would say "Chucky wants to play," ultimately causing Capper to be terrified to hear those words. All the attackers were captured and sentenced to life in prison (McNeilly, Jean and Glyn Powell), 12 and 15 years in prison (Leigh and Pook, respectively), and lastly, Dudson was sentenced to be detained indefinitely. For more information recommend reading "Murder of Suzanne Capper" by Jesse Russell and Ronald Cohn (Editor)Get it here!







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