Deadly Friend

1986 "There's no one alive who'll play with the girl next door."
5.5| 1h31m| R| en| More Info
Released: 10 October 1986 Released
Producted By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

When tragedy strikes his remarkable robot and the beautiful girl next door, lonely teenage genius Paul tries to save them by pushing technology beyond its known limits into a terrifying new realm.

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Director

Wes Craven

Production Companies

Warner Bros. Pictures

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Deadly Friend Audience Reviews

Console best movie i've ever seen.
CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
Anonymous Andy (Minus_The_Beer) Wes Craven directed a lot of films in his storied career, and "Deadly Friend" was definitely one of them. Hot on the heels of Craven's previous success with "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Deadly Friend" was originally intended to be the seasoned horror director's break away from genre conventions. Conceived as a teen coming-of-age story with a sci-fi twist, the film quickly spun out of control when it was decided by the studio that it needed more scenes of graphic violence and surreal dream sequences in the same vein as "Elm Street," culminating in an ending so stupid, it could only have been dreamed up by a braindead studio exec (spoiler alert: it was).Paul (Matthew Laborteaux), a young genius with a penchant for neural science, is the new kid in town. Together with his single mother (Anne Twomey) and his robot companion (the scene stealing, anti-R2- D2, BB), he adapts quickly to life in his new town, drawing the ire of some really dull bullies, making friends with a spaz (Michael Sharrett) and sparking up a potential romance with the lovely girl next door, (Kristy Swanson). His luck soon takes a turn for the worse as his best friend is terminated at the hands of Mama Fratelli from "The Goonies," while an unfortunate accident similarly leaves his prospects for love in dire straits. When one door closes, another opens, and before long, his young love is resurrected and not quite acting herself, lashing out at her abusive father and playing pickup games of basketball that go a little too far (culminating in the most memorable and laugh-out-loud moment of the entire film).Packed with an oddball sense of humor and some pretty gnarly if not somewhat out of place gore effects, "Deadly Friend" is a film any '80s horror fan should see at least once. While not a high point in Wes Craven's career (the director all but disowned it), it moves with a fine pace and is underlined by a gorgeous score from "Elm Street" composer Charles Bernstein. The leads are likable, the plot is silly and the basketball scene is worth the price of admission alone. It's a heavily compromised film and it shows in the final product, but the seeds of what could have been (and what Joe Bob Briggs sells as "A 'Breakfast Club' version of 'The Bride of Frankenstein' on the back of the DVD) are definitely there. "Deadly Friend" is worth catching up with if only for sheer entertainment value alone.
BA_Harrison Deadly Friend, a Frankenstein inspired tale in which dead teenager Samantha (Kristy Swanson) is brought back to life by the insertion of an artificial intelligence microchip into her brain, must be one of the dumbest movies in Wes Craven's erratic career, but to be fair, it might not be ALL his fault: studio intervention apparently altered Craven's original vision—a twisted love story between Sam and the genius boy next door—by forcing the director to add in extra scenes of gore and pointless dream sequences.The result is a real howler, a film that features a cute Johnny 5 style robot that makes stupid noises, includes one of the most ridiculous horror movie deaths ever (a super-splattery decapitation by basketball), suffers from a truly awful performance from attractive young star Swanson, and closes with the silliest shock ending since…well, since Wes Craven's A Nightmare On Elm Street, actually. The funny thing is that it all proves reasonably entertaining—albeit for all the wrong reasons.5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for IMDb.
Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW) Being a genius can be a plus, and/or it can be a minus. For this movie, it goes both ways. "Deadly Friend" is one horror classic in the making. In this here sci-fi/horror, you got a young genius name Paul (Matthew Laborteaux, "Little House on the Prairie") who have a robot friend named BB. He lives with his single mother (Anne Twomey) who relocated to a small town where Paul can study neurology. Next door there's a girl named Sam (Kristy Swanson) who lives with her drunken, abusive father. Other than that there's a reclusive old woman (Anne Ramsey, 1929-88), who keeps her house locked tighter than Fort Knox. After befriending Sam and Tom, all three have a great time. Until when the mean Elvira take her shotgun to BB, and blow him away, after she refuses to return the basketball. Later, Sam is attacked by her monster of a father, and is left brain dead. When they bring Sam's body out of the hospital, Paul takes BB's chip and put it in her brain. When she is revived, Paul wanted to further study more on artificial intelligence. However, the side effect happens when memories from BB and Sam merges, the inevitable happens. When BB had a disdain of both Sam's father and Elvira the recluse, the rage ensures. Sam confronts and kills her abusive father, and after entering Elvira's house, Sam grabbed the basketball, and crushed her head with it. Paul couldn't believe this is happening he wanted to help a friend, but the consequences follows along when you turn it into a killing machine. This movie could have gone further, it could have had more to the plot. It's too subtle. 2 out of 5 stars.
Lucien Lessard An brilliant but lonely teenager Paul (Matthew Laborteaux) and his mother (Anne Twomey) moved in a small town for Paul's education at College. Paul becomes close friends with an abused neighbor named Sam (Kristy Swanson) and a neighborhood teen named Tom (Michael Sharrett). Both kids are impressive with Paul's robot named BB (Voiced by Charles Fletcher). Paul's life turns upside down, when BB got destroyed by a paranoid old lady (Anne Rasmey) and Sam's father (Richard Marcus) accidentally killed his daughter by pushing her down the stairs. When the doctors can't save Sam. Paul decides to save Sam by using Artificial Intelligence Marco-chip brain from BB to put on Sam's brain. Which the operation turns out to be a success but Sam also shares the memories of BB. Now both minds are going to have their personal revenge.Directed by Wes Craven (Scream Trilogy, Music of the Heart, Red Eye) made an entertaining although very flawed horror film. Which is based on a novel by Diana Henstell titled "Friend". Reportely director Craven and Oscar-Winning screenwriter:Bruce Joel Rubin (Ghost, Jacob's Ladder, My Life) were unhappy with the final product of the feature. Craven said that the studio wanted to be more like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" type scares. Which Craven wanted to do something completely different. Only actress Swanson is somewhat proud of the feature, especially in the infamous sequence... where she's beheaded her nasty neighbor with a Basketball! DVD has an fine anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) transfer and an decent Dolby 2.0 Mono Sound. DVD's only special feature is the original theatrical trailer. "Deadly Friend" is actually one of the few movies of Craven that actually offers more Heart than expected. What nearly ruined the impact of the picture is the silly, outrageous conclusion. Warner Bros probably forced Craven to filmed that ending. What most of Craven's endings in movies were always satisfying, which this one isn't. Overall... for a horror film is pretty entertaining. This is worth a look but this certainly deserved to be remade. (*** 1/2 out of *****).