Top 10 original titles for popular horror movies
By Jeremy Dick
Credit: MGM/UA
3. Batteries Not Included (Child’s Play)
When writing the original Chucky movie, screenwriter Don Mancini knew he was doing a story about a killer doll. However, the title wasn’t something that came through right away. Remember the scene where Andy’s mother discovers there’s no batteries inside Chucky, yet he’s still moving around? That could have been the reason for the film’s original title, Batteries Not Included.
Mancini was sold on the title, however, there was apparently a problem. 80s kids should already be realizing by now what that issue was. Steven Spielberg was already working on a science fiction movie using that same name, a family film with cute little robots. Because you can’t share the name of a horror movie with a family film coming out at the same time, Mancini and director Tom Holland needed to come up with something else.
You don’t want to get your killer doll story confused with this movie.
In the original script, the Good Guy dolls were supposed to “bleed” after taking damage. This leads to a scene in which Andy would share his blood with the Chucky doll, making them “blood brothers”. Because of this, Mancini then started to call the movie Blood Buddy. However, the idea of having Chucky and Andy become blood brothers was scrapped, prompting another name change.
At some point, Child’s Play was bestowed upon the film. Obviously the franchise couldn’t have asked for a better title than that, and the name stuck. Even though, since then, the series has pretty much dropped the Child’s Play moniker for the “of Chucky” theme (Bride, Seed, Curse, and now Cult of Chucky).