Child's Play is a 1988 American supernatural slasher film directed and co-written by Tom Holland and produced by David Kirschner from a story by Don Mancini. It is the first film in the Child's Play franchise and the first installment to feature the character Chucky. It stars Catherine Hicks, Dinah Manoff, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, and Brad Dourif. Hicks plays a widowed mother who gives her son a doll for his birthday, unaware that the doll is possessed by the soul of an infamous serial killer.