Child's Play 3 is fascinating not just because of the extremity of its badness, but because its badness suggests a fascinating story of production catastrophes taking place right outside the frame. Though the product of director Jack Bender and series creator/writer Don Mancini, this movie looks like it was shot by a variety of directors and written by a plethora of writers, with a budget, and vision that fluctuates from scene to scene. The story opens with a carefully structured, drawn-out sequence where Chucky (voice of Brad Dourif) stalks and kills the CEO of Play Pals Toys in his high-rise office. What does this have to do with the rest of the movie? Nothing! From there, Chucky tracks down his good-guy buddy Andy Justin Whalin at a military academy. The school's population fluctuates from a handful of students to a couple classrooms worth and provides plenty of opportunities to sleazily revel in the grotesque murder of young children. (Some so stupid they might be better off dead.) Eventually the kids are packed off for a simulated war game in the woods, curiously free of adult supervision, and accidentally outfitted with real weapons. (A long story, but they really shouldn't have those on campus anyway.) Once this gambit becomes tiresome, the kids stumble upon a carnival, for the most tired of horror movie tropes, a fun house-set finale. Will spooky laughing clowns pop up out of nowhere? You bet they will. Child's Play 3, sandwiched between the series' successful second installment and Ronny Yu's 1998 campy re-imagining, belongs to a tradition of long since overworked horror movies franchises that, while utterly forgettable, are entertaining in their own gut-bucket nonsensical fashion.