10 Most Shocking And Strange Facts About Famous Horror Movies
8. For Once Chucky Wasn't To Blame
England 1993 and a horrific child murder has shocked and horrified the nation. Two boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both aged just 10 had tortured and murdered two year old James Bulger after abducting him from his mother's side at a supermarket.
The senseless, sadistic crime dominated the news for months, continuing into the trial where the judge suggested that exposure to violent videos might have inspired the boys' actions. This wasn't long after the "Video Nasty" panic of the eighties which saw various horror movies banned and their distributors taken to court.
Headed by "moral campaigner" Mary Whitehouse the tabloid-fuelled movement whipped up hysteria claiming that movies such as The Evil Dead and The Exorcist would corrupt young minds, leading to deviant behaviour and violence. In the case of the Bulger killing and Child's Play 3, many saw proof of what Whitehouse had warned.
Police investigation into the video rental history of both boys' parents found that Child's Play 3 had been rented by Venables' father. At the climax of that movie the possessed killer doll, Chucky, dies near a railway track (actually a ghost train) and had earlier been struck with a paintball pellet. For some the similarities to the Bulger killing were all too obvious. Bulger had also died on a railway track and was also spattered with paint.
But that was where the similarities ended and detectives handling the case found it unlikely the movie had even been seen by Venables, since he was not living with his father at the time of the rental. Later psychiatric reports also confirmed that Venables disliked horror films, however the tabloid media overlooked this and still proudly offered up the movie as a scapegoat rather than explore the more disturbing truths about the case.
Despite the Daily Mirror's triumphant headlines claiming credit for having the movie banned in the UK, Child's Play 3 was never officially banned and only voluntarily dropped from video stores, making it a rare VHS. Nowadays the movie can be freely purchased on Blu Ray and DVD.