Deadly Friend (1986)


After the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street Wes Craven was feeling the need to step back a bit from the violent horror films he had become known for.  For that reason he began working with screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin on an adaptation of Diana Henstell's novel Friend.  Although the general concept remained the same as the movie we got it was supposed to emphasize the love story between the main characters as well as point up how bad adults could be, effectively making many of them the true villains of the film.  This was conceived as a PG-rated movie that would have some dark sci-fi elements but, for the most part, be family friendly.  Unfortunately, once Warner Bros. realized they had hired the guy who directed A Nightmare on Elm Street, they started demanding a number of changes.

Paul (Matthew Labyorteaux) is a teenager skilled in the science of robotics.  He has built his own creation, BB, that has the beginnings of true artificial intelligence, and he has been asked to take classes at the local university to help combine his skills with neuroscience.  He quickly becomes friends with Tom (Michael Sharrett) and a troubled girl named Samantha (Kristy Swanson) who is abused by her father (Richard Marcus).  

Paul soon falls in love with Samantha, but encounters back-to-back tragedies when BB is destroyed by a paranoid neighbor (Anne Ramsey) and Samantha is rendered comatose by her father.  Paul concocts a plan and, with Tom, retrieves Samantha's body shortly after life support is discontinued and implants BB's chip into her brain.  The operation is successful as Samantha is brought back to life.  The problem is a good portion of the new creation is BB who still has a black-and-white understanding of right, wrong and the consequences for such - consequences that the revived Samantha now carries out on those that did wrong to her, Paul and BB. 

I was never a big fan of Deadly Friend.  In the past I found it pretty dull and, while I always appreciate an exploding head, I found Elvira's death by basketball to be over-the-top hilarious.  This is despite being a fan of Kristy Swanson as she was in a number of low- to mid-budget horror films in the late '80s through the early '90s.  The movie itself just never grabbed me because I had seen everything that was in it in better films.

Watching it again I see what Craven and Rubin were going for.  I had forgotten about the first half of the film with the developing friendship and romance and how much a part BB played in everything.  I remember Anne Ramsey, because she's pretty much unforgettable even in small roles, but I forgot about Samantha being a victim of abuse and subtlety with which Swanson handles the role.  It feels more of a realistic profile of abuse rather than slipping into After School Special territory.  

From what I understand Craven made a rough cut of the movie he wanted, without the opening in the parking lot, the death by basketball or the stupid, nonsensical ending.  It's out there somewhere and both stills and deleted scenes have surfaced.  Unfortunately, there hasn't been any real effort to reassemble it.  From what I understand the events still take pretty much the same course but without the extra gore or ridiculous kill scenes.  It would be nice to see.

However, with Craven gone and Deadly Friend being an initial box office failure that is pretty much forgotten, it's doubtful.  That is too bad because, although I appreciate this movie a lot more now, that is still the movie I want to see.  Instead there are too many attempts to reference Nightmare and most of the gore scenes were suggested by Mark Canton, who was at the time the head of Warner Bros.  While Craven tried to make it work as best as he could, and in many ways succeeded by still having the relationship between Paul, his mom (Anne Twomey) and Tom central when it came to dealing with Samantha, too much of what would have given the movie emotional grounding was excised in favor or spectacle.  Also, while the ending is a good effect, it makes no sense in the greater context of the film, other than Canton wanted a final jump scare. 

Even though I personally liked it I still can't recommend Deadly Friend for people getting into Craven.  He had a habit of doing one fantastic movie and following it up with a stinker or two.  While this isn't as bad as The Hills Have Eyes 2 or Shocker, it's still quite disappointing as a follow-up to Nightmare, and it would be some time before Craven began to get himself back on even footing. 

Deadly Friend (1986)
Time: 91 minutes
Starring: Matt Labyorteaux, Kristy Swanson, Michael Sharrett
Director: Wes Craven 

 

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