L'amie mortelle

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.

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)

DEADLY FRIEND

This Wes Craven effort may seem a little dated in these post-Scream days, but watching it for the first time in years I realised it may have been an overlooked slice of mid-eighties teen-horror cinema. It's stylistically similar with the lesser cherished of Craven's films, such as Summer of Fear, Deadly Blessing and Chiller, but, like these mentioned titles is worth revisiting.

It has the usual Craven touches – kids in jeopardy, nightmares within-the-film that throw you off balance and dysfunctional relationships, but the film is basically about an intellectual who reanimates his girlfriend by placing the microchip brain of his home made android into her dead body leading murderous results. No one can deny the greatness, if extremely absurd, of that exploding head via basketball scene remains.

Bride of Frankenstein and Short Circuit combined may not suite a lot of pallets, but as Wes Craven films go Deadly Friend is definitely not half as bad as the critics claimed at the time of it's initial release.

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.

"Deadly Friend" is one of those horror films that came and went without a trace; but for a die hard horror fanatic like myself, it certainly had it's share of scares, humor, and yes, a surprising human touch.

Matthew Laborteaux (a "Little House on the Prairie" alum) plays Paul; an egghead teen with a robot pal named BB. In the course of the plot, he meets Samantha or "Sam" (Kristy Swanson), an abused, lonely girl who catches the eye of young Paul. Needlessly killed, by her drunk father, Paul vows to make wrongs right, by implanting BB's superchip into Sam's brain....and that my friends, is where the fun (or nightmares) begin.

Sam is confused about her new identity, and is naturally seen as a freak. She proceeds to take it out on the locals (including Anne Ramsey, of "Goonies" fame, with above all things; a basketball!!), who want this abomination to cease from existing. Wes Craven didn't quite score with this outing, even after the phenomenal success of "A Nightmare on Elm Street", but even a flop has it's own merits. Find this little gem, and be sure the lights aren't off!!

Grade: C+