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A super intelligent teenage whiz revives the love of his life with a chip that used to belong to his robot pal BB. But things don't go all that smoothly as his creation proves to have homicidal tendencies.

Is the film weird? You bet. Is it silly? Yeah, kind of. Is it hokey? Definitely. Is it entertaining? Surprisingly Yes.

The film is probably as close as you can get to family oriented graphic horror. The characters are not only well acted but extremely likable and that takes the film a long way. Matthew L something brings warmth and charm to his role and his relationship with his mom is cute and wholly believable. Kristy Swanson is pure delight as his "girl next door love" and her robotic moves are surprisingly well executed. Like in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Wes Craven is able to create characters who you actually give a damn about and that's what makes this silly premise actually work.

The film is pretty funny at times and the graphic horror is sure to delight gore hounds. The basketball scene alone is outstanding. For the most part Deadly Friend is more actual fun than suspenseful, although it does have a few well timed shocks.

All in all; A nice effort from Craven. Pretty inventive and overcomes it's weaknesses by being just a plain old fun flick.

Cheesy cool movie that I must say was a surprise. Has one of the coolest kills in horror. Funny at times too.

DEADLY FRIEND is written by Bruce Joel Rubin who has also written films like Deep Impact (Mimi Leder, 1998) and Ghost (Jerry Zucker, 1990). DEADLY FRIEND is directed by Wes Craven, the horror maestro behind films like A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) and the 90's boxoffice hit Scream (1996). Craven has done many mediocre or even bad films and especially in the 1980's. Fortunately DEADLY FRIEND isn't among the worst ones.

The film stars Matthew Laborteaux as teenager Paul, who moves to a new town with his mother. Paul has a self made artificial intelligence robot called BB and he spends a lot of time with BB and even talks about its structure and other elements in the school for students. Soon he meets the neighbor Samantha played by Kristy Swanson. Samantha is abused by his father and BB is abused by their angry old lady neighbor who indeed looks like a nightmare on your street. Soon something happens to BB and something happens to Samantha and what our teen genius develops is something we've seen at least in Frank Henenlotter's trash classic Frankenhooker (1990) among many other more or less serious "Frankenstein themed" horror films.

DEADLY FRIEND is little like Craven's other late 80's film, Shocker (1989). Both films try to be teen drama, horror and comedy at the same time, and it is of course pretty difficult to achieve a totally satisfying result with so many ingredients. DEADLY FRIEND is surprisingly restrained and drama oriented and Samantha really becomes pretty sympathetic girl and the two central boys as well. They're not over-the-top smiling and beautiful adolescents one can find from any of those disgusting Hollywood produced teen horrors/slashers that spawned after the success of Scream. In DEADLY FRIEND, the teenagers are pretty natural and realistic and so they're easy to feel sympathy for.

Craven has the talent to keep his tongue in cheek while directing these films (just remember the outrageous finale in Shocker!) and that helps a lot. He doesn't take himself too seriously and if he does, it happens very rarely. DEADLY FRIEND makes me smile a lot, but it's all intentional and I don't smile because I feel ashamed or sorry for the makers, which is the case when a film really takes itself too seriously and becomes laughable. The outrageousness in DEADLY FRIEND is taken as far as possible in a Warner production like this when the infamous and often heard among horror fans "basketball murder" comes and I must say it feels quite gruesome in an otherwise "lame" and harmless film like this. The gore in that brief but memorable scene is close to that of Tom Savini's in films like Maniac (William Lustig, 1980) and The Prowler aka Rosemary's Killer (Joseph Zito, 1982). I kind of doubt would this film get an R rating nowadays.

The main problem in DEADLY FRIEND is that it is too straightforward and has huge holes and easy solutions in its plot and screenplay. When writer Rubin decides they're going to do something, it just happens and there are no problems at all, as if they were completely alone in the city, the hospital and so on. Also the Samantha's father is totally unnecessary as a character. He is there completely in vain, and the violence he commits towards his daughter without any motive or explanation feels quite tasteless and unnecessary in a film like this. Samantha's fate could have been arranged without the character of her father and definitely ten times more satisfyingly and with a more noteworthy result and final film.

The "shock epilogue" we could expect from Craven is this time very effective and really has to be seen to be believed. It is as shocking and surprising as the ending in Elm Street, but I would say it is even more gruesome and even surreal this time. The effects required for that ending are handled fine as well as throughout the whole film. The BB robot is quite nice and never irritating. The result which comes after Paul's operation on BB and Samantha is very close to that of Henenlotter's Frankenhooker and they both are equally demented!

DEADLY FRIEND isn't as great and noteworthy horror comedy as it very well could have been in the hands of this director, but still I prefer this over Shocker, for instance, but this is far away from the masterpieces (Elm Street, Serpent etc.) of the director. I give DEADLY FRIEND 4/10 and will watch out those basketballs for sure.

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.

Okay, one of my fellow reviewers here on this site described this film in one marvelous – rather sarcastic – sentence. In fact, it's so well stated that I'm going to steal it for my own review. The premise of Deadly Friend, ladies and gentlemen: `Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy creates lethal cyber-Barbie...'. Deadly Friend introduces Paul, an ultra-intelligent adolescent who build a robot that thinks and handles completely for itself. The robot – B.B – is the purest, most advanced piece of technology ever yet it talks with a peppy, blurry voice. Along with his mother, Paul moves to a new town where he continues his Pointdexter studies and falls in love with his sweet neighbor girl (the yummy Kristy Swanson). The girl is terrorized and eventually killed by her monstrous father, a crazy old woman blows B.B to pieces and Paul snaps. He steals her corpse from the hospital and implants her with B.B's artificial brain. Right from the start, this goes wrong as Kristy avenges her death (and how!). Although the undertone of Deadly Friend is downright comic, there are quite a lot gruesome moments and bloody sequences. The plot is highly unoriginal (actually, some sort of lame Frankenstein-variant), the characters are far from believable and the entire production is perfect to claim Wes Craven is an overrated director. Below average, silly film but with – it has to be said – one of the coolest killings ever! The basketball-decapitation alone is worth at least one viewing of this film.

A few people have said that it's an undiscovered treasure, more people have stated that it's possibly Wes Craven's worst movie (haven't they seen "Shocker"?); I simply found it to be an OK, average horror offering that merely helps you kill two hours. The first half plays almost like a well-observed drama, but after Swanson has been "resurrected" the film becomes just too silly to work. The "infamous" basketball scene, however, is undeniably great; you'll have to rewind the tape multiple times to get the full effect of it! (**1/2)

I have not seen this one in quite some time, but it is about a new kid in town and his pet robot. A robot designed to grab people by the crotch and squeeze. Already, you see the flaws; he apparently designed this robot to have a bit of a violent streak in him. Young new boy makes a new friend a girl who has an abusive father. You can see where this is going. The old lady from "The Goonies" and "Throw Momma from the Train" blows the heck out of the robot and the girl is killed by her abusive father. Young boy somehow deduces that if you put the robot's computer chip in the young girl she will come back and she does. Unfortunately, she now seemingly has the robot's personality and that isn't too good. All the deaths you see coming, though the one with the basketball is rather good, in fact the highlight of this overly predictable movie. The only thing that is not predictable is the end which makes no sense. Well you know what happens, I am just saying by that time the kid should have left well enough alone. It is also a rather impossible phenomenon, but hey it is a horror movie.

I had heard very mixed things about Deadly Friend so I was a little worried but I think this film is a little misunderstood. Much like Shocker(1989), this film gets a bad rep and I don't get it. We all know that Wes Craven is very hit or miss but I think is one of his hits. At least he's trying something different.

The acting is mediocre but I really like the story as a modern day Frankenstein. The direction and scares, I thought, were fantastic and the basketball scene was awesome.

I challenge all you horror fans to give Deadly Friend a chance. You might just find that you've made a good decision.

It was the worst movie i ever seen in my life . I think if anybody wants to see it it is a waste of time. They had bad acting and bad parts. so if you want a good movie i think you should not see this movie. I am so mad that i wasted my money on that movie

I consume everything that has the words slashers from the 80's so I decide do to finally give a chance to "Deadly Friend". Well, I think about it as Craven's high school horror flick with a slasher vibe and cheesy elements.

The whole B.B. sub-plot kinda got onto my nerves but hey, I accept the 80's cheesiness. When things get ugly for B.B. (shotgun thing), I really liked how the sweet, super tender and sexy Kristy Swanson came on board as the main villain.

The movie follows the typical over the top slasher formula that deals with inventive death scenes (much in the likes of "A Nightmare On Elm Street") and a graveyard love story.

Still, the movie lacked of a dark tone or any mystery. This should be considered as a "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" horror flick for teens.

Kristy Swanson is absolutely adorable, sexy, tender. The perfect girlfriend to take home and introducer her to your parents.

The most brilliant moment comes with the infamous basketball death. Nice! A must see for a PG-13 audience and for any lovers for the 80's slasher craziness.

The stereotypical miscreant guys on cycles. The psycho, incestual dad. The wimpy good boys. The crazy old lady with a shotgun. The robot's idiotic electro-babbling (he can design an electronic brain, but can't give it even rudimentary speech capabilities?). Sam's hooker-blue eye shadow after she's been roboticized, not to mention her constant switching between moving like a robot and moving like a human being. There is nothing at all good here. Even as a "Saturday morning after a long night" movie, it sucks. The only thing that raised it from 1 star to 2 is the evil robot mask at the end, because it's so hilarious.

Paul is a new kid in town with a robot named "BB". He befriends Samantha (Kristy Swanson) and the three of them have a lot of good times together. That is, until Samantha's abusive father throws her down some stairs and kills her.

Whether you like this movie or not really comes down to how seriously you take it. Kristy Swanson walking and swinging her arms like a robot? Pretty silly. The acting is rather spotty at times. Some of the science and plot do not really add up. Calling this a "B" movie might be giving it too much credit.

There is a lot of dispute about what aspects were Craven, what came from the studio and what was from different producers. Craven did not want the movie to be as dark or gory as it became. Respectfully, I would have to disagree with Craven on that. The gore effects (especially the burned father) look incredible, and by far the highlight of the film is the death of the neighbor woman (death by basketball!).

This is a fun picture that seems to have been largely forgotten. Of course it is does not reach the status of "Last House", "Nightmare" or "Scream", but there is a lot to like about this one.

A boy genius specializing in brain research and robotics (Matthew Laborteaux) moves to the town of Welling with his mother (Anne Twomey) where he starts an apprenticeship at the university. He befriends a paper boy and romances an abused neighbor girl (Michael Sharrett and Kristy Swanson respectively). When tragedy strikes, he uses his talents to rectify the situation with horrifying results.

"Deadly Friend" (1986) was Wes Craven's next theatrical project after the success of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" (1984). It was meant to be a sci-fi thriller focusing on a dark teenage love story, but the trailer omitted BB the robot and advertised the movie as another Wes Craven horror flick. The film bombed at the box office.

You might remember Laborteaux as Albert, the adopted Ingalls boy on Little House on the Prairie. Meanwhile Winsome Kristy was only 16 during shooting. These two and BB the cute robot give the film a likable innocent quality. In tone, it's a cross between "Short Circuit" (1986) and "Silver Bullet" (1985) just with elements of the Frankenstein story thrown in.

Speaking of which, this is a modern-day coming-of-age take on Frankenstein and zombie tales exploring the idea of a dead person being resurrected by unnatural means with unpleasant results. It raises questions concerning when physical death actually occurs. Interesting ideas, of course, but the execution is so-so and yet kind of agreeable, a puzzling mix.

Craven is a hit-or-miss director IMHO. For instance, "Summer of Fear" (1978) is effective, but "The Serpent and the Rainbow" (1988) is mind-bogglingly bad. This one falls somewhere in between, but closer to the good.

The film runs 1 hour, 31 minutes, and was shot in the Los Angeles area as follows: Burbank Studios (Paul Conway's house), USC (university exteriors & lecture hall interiors) and Monrovia, which is just northeast of L. A. (Samantha on the loose).

GRADE: B-/C+

Paul Conway (Matthew Labyorteaux) and his mother Jeannie Conway (Anne Twomey) travel to a new town where Paul will join the local university invited by Dr. Johanson (Russ Marin). They bring the robot BB that was developed by Paul, who is a genius in robotic. Paul befriends the paperboy Tom Toomey (Michael Sharrett) and has a crush on his next door neighbor Samantha Pringle (Kristy Swanson), whose abusive alcoholic father Harry Pringle (Richard Marcus) frequently hurts her. One day, Paul, Sam, Tom and BB are playing basketball and the ball fall in the field of their paranoid grumpy neighbor Elvira Parker (Anne Ramsey) that does not give it back to the teenagers. In Halloween, Tom convinces Paul to let BB open the padlock of the entrance to her house. However, there is an alarm system and Elvira blows up BB with her shotgun. Then Harry pushes her daughter down the stairs and the doctors let her brain-dead connected to the life support. However Paul convinces Tom to go to the hospital to rescue Sam and then he implants BB's chip into her brain resurrecting Samantha. But will she come back to life normal?

"Deadly Friend" is an underrated cult movie from the 80's directed by Wes Craven in the beginning of his successful career. The story of friendship begins as a drama, with Samantha receiving bad treatment from he abusive father, and sci-fi with BB, maybe with one of the first artificial intelligence of the cinema. When Samantha becomes a zombie- robot, the plot becomes terror, but without gore, in the style of Franklenstein. Kristy Swanson is gorgeous and has a great chemistry with Matthew Labyorteaux. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição de Samantha" ("The Samantha's Course")

Note: On 28 Nov 2016, I saw this film again.

I'm guessing 90% anyone who is between the ages of 42-60 has seen this movie at least once. I'm on the lower end of that scale & when I was younger, it seemed like this movie & "the Boy Who Could Fly" was always on random weekends when I real movies would actually always play on the major networks. I don't think basketball off noggin is a spoiler. Hadnt seen either movie in decades. Actually saw this one prob 10 yrs & just finally saw it again. It's crazy that with so many movies, sometimes I struggle to find something new that interests me & so I find myself every 3-10 yrs rewatching movies I haven't seen in awhile. Sometimes it's like watching a movie for first time cuz you forget most of movie. Other times, u remember almost everything but sometimes see something you never noticed somehow.

Anyways, this is a solid movie. I don't think it's anything great but it's def solid. It so doesn't suck & im shocked any1 would give it a trash rating. I mean it was it. It's pretty simple story, but it works. It's better as a kid/teen imo but doesn't mean an adult can't enjoy it. Have to be interested in these kind of movies tho. I remember being really creeped out as a kid. Not as creeped as I was when I saw the Stepford Wives as A kid for first time back in late 80s but a little creeped out nonetheless. Now seeing it, it's not as creepy, but it's still good movie & if you like the stepford wives or have an acquired taste for 1980's movies & also movies in the horror & sci-fi genre. This is def 1 of the better movies of the 80s in that cat. When I say 1 of the better, it's a long list. Since imo it's the best time for those genres. However you have seemingly countless mixed in ova that period that are god awful & seemed like someone picked up a camcorder & gathered folks up round the neighborhood & they just winged it. This is Craven tho, and it has real actors, a good story & is well put together. Just don't watch it if you don't like horror or sci-fi'ish movies. Seems like that'd be obvious but we all know people who hand out 1s on movies we know don't deserve them & its clear to us that they just hate the genre of particular movie or are just weirdos.

The horror movie with a conscience. Whatever. Intelligent boy finds his beautiful next-door neighbor dead, and in order to keep her alive, he plants a robot-chip in her brain... OK. Not one of my favorites (even though it's directed by Wes Craven, and stars Kristy Swanson), but any movie that manages to incorporate a basketball into a death scene, has to have something going for it.