Deadly Friend (1986)
Directed by Wes Craven
Wes Craven, one of the “Masters of Horror” and director of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream made this movie. Man, this is a far, far stretch from those two films lol. Based on the 1985 Diana Henstell novel called “Friend”, Deadly Friend is an interesting film. Let’s check it out!
Deadly Friend is about a teenage boy named Paul (Matthew Laborteaux) and his friend robot BB moving to a new town with his mother. BB is an extremely advanced robot that has the ability to show emotion and critical thinking. Next door is Samantha (Kristy Swanson), the beautiful blonde girl of Paul’s dreams. The two develop a close friendship even though Sam’s father is an abusive asshole. One night, Sam’s father smacks her up good and she falls down the stairs, slamming her head into the wall and breaking her neck. Sam gets put on life support and they decide to pull the plug. Paul, unable to deal with the loss of his somewhat girlfriend steals her body and implants BB’s brain and robotics. Now Sam is out for revenge! Can Paul control his robo-girlfriend or will she take out the whole town?
Oh man, with a plot like that how could this not be gold?! The acting, well the acting…it is, yeah…well it is crap. I mean I love Kristy Swanson as much as the next person but she walks around like the Frankenstein Monster most of the movie and it is hilarious. She’s so charming before she becomes robotic, or is she a cyborg? Technically someone that his half robot, half human is a cyborg right? Idk what the fuck I’m talking about. Anyway…Paul is kind of a moron, even if he is a genius. I mean cmon man, you’re stealing a girl’s body from the hospital so you can make her a robot? What do you plan on doing with her? Yeah probably a sex doll, you almost have to instantly think that. How couldn’t you? Or maybe I’m just messed up. No one does a great job in this, but look what they had to work with seriously.
The special effects are decent, BB is cool, kind of a sassy robot. Man if BB and Jinx from Space Camp had a few beers and hung out with R2D2, that would be comedy cold I tells ya! The blood is fairly decent and you have to dig the head explosion. Yeah that explosion is a classic Twitter GIF. Gotta love seeing old lady Fratelli from the Goonies getting her melon smashed with a basketball by Kristy Swanson! I never thought I’d say that line, but man I’m happy I can! The ending also has a pretty terrific effect of robo Swanson ripping out of her skin. Also a classic WTF GIF on twitter!
In the introduction, I said “Master of Horror” in quotes about Wes Craven. Yeah, quotes. Why is Craven considered a Master of Horror? He created: The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Last House on the Left, and Scream. Which of those are really popular? A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream, so yeah I guess he has a decent track record, but the difference between his awful movies and his great movies is so vast my lord. Lets take this, this movie is shit. It is the good kind of shit, where it is hilarious but shit nonetheless. Also something like Shocker, which I hated but some people love. Another is My Soul to Take, KMN. I wasted my time on that piece of garbage. I think Craven gets too much credit in the horror community, honestly. A Nightmare on Elm Street is amazing, you all know that is my favorite horror movie ever and I’ll always love it, but he has so many shitty movies. Scream? Scream I think is one of the most overrated horror movies ever, right up there with The Evil Dead for me. Yeah I know, I’m an idiot…I’ve heard the backlash before. Neither of those movies connects with me. I just don’t get the love. Scream is decent, hell it brought back the slasher genre and for that I respect it, but it isn’t a masterpiece and many of its predecessors are better. Looking at you The Prowler!
There isn’t much I can say about this movie. Is it good? Meh, not really. Is it bad? Yes. It isn’t unwatchable though. I was entertained, hell I laughed during this. The idea of a robot being made by a teenage boy is hilarious, let alone a robot able to think and emote feelings is way out there. I’m a Kristy Swanson fan, but man she didn’t have much to work with here haha. I also tend to love movies involving robots, just cracks me up. If you like ridiculous 80s movies, then watch this. I did have a good time with it, not sure how many times I’ll watch it and I can’t rate it anything higher than a C-, but it is entertaining.
