Deadly Friend (1986)

After his friend is killed by her abusive father, the new kid in town attempts to save her by implanting robotic microchips into her brain.

Director:

Wes Craven

Writers:

Diana Henstell (novel), Bruce Joel Rubin (screenplay)

Stars:

Matthew Labyorteaux, Kristy Swanson, Michael Sharrett

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Matthew Labyorteaux	...	Paul Conway
Kristy Swanson	...	Samantha Pringle
Michael Sharrett	...	Tom 'Slime' Toomey
Anne Twomey	...	Jeannie Conway
Anne Ramsey	...	Elvira Parker
Richard Marcus	...	Harry Pringle
Russ Marin	...	Dr. Johanson
Lee Paul	...	Sergeant Volchek
Andrew Roperto	...	Carl
Charles Fleischer	...	BB (voice)
Robin Nuyen	...	Thief
Frank Cavestani	...	Angry Resident
Merritt Olsen	...	CAT Scan Technician
William H. Faeth	...	Doctor in Sam's Room (as William H. Faeth M.D.)
Joel Hile	...	Deputy

Storyline

Paul Conway and his mother Jeannie Conway travel to a new town where Paul will join the local university invited by Dr. Johanson. They bring the robot BB that was developed by Paul, who is a genius in robotic. Paul befriends the paperboy Tom Toomey and has a crush on his next door neighbor Samantha Pringle, whose abusive alcoholic father Harry Pringle 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 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 ...

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Plot Keywords:

robot | father | abusive father | neighbor | murder | 

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Taglines:

Not all nightmares happen on Elm Street.

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 October 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

A.I.

Filming Locations:

Midwest Street, Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$8,988,731 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Pan Arts, Layton

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Craven, Deadly Friend came about as a direct consequence of Craven's agent saying to him, "You should do a studio film, because otherwise you'll be stuck doing small films for the rest of your life".

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Goofs

When Samantha lifts the bully up, you can very faintly see the wires holding him up.

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Quotes

Sam: Hi.
Paul Conway: Hi.
Sam: I thought I'd come by. If you're busy or eating I can come back.
Paul Conway: Uh, we're done. Come on in.
Sam: I wanted to bake you something, but I couldn't. I just brought these.
[Samantha gives Paul a box of "Almost Home" cookies]
Paul Conway: Oh, I love these. I love them. Thank you, come on in. Come on in.

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Connections

Referenced in Welshy Reviews: Red Eye (2011)

User Reviews

Better than I thought

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.