After his friend is killed by her abusive father, the new kid in town attempts to save her by implanting a robotic microchip into her brain.After his friend is killed by her abusive father, the new kid in town attempts to save her by implanting a robotic microchip into her brain.After his friend is killed by her abusive father, the new kid in town attempts to save her by implanting a robotic microchip into her brain.
- Awards
- 4 nominations
- Paul
- (as Matthew Laborteaux)
- BB
- (voice)
- Doctor in Sam's Room
- (as William H. Faeth M.D.)
- Robot
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDirector Wes Craven and screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin's original vision for the film was a PG-rated supernatural science fiction thriller, with the primary focus being on the macabre love story between Paul and Samantha, as well as a secondary focus on the adults around them and how they are truly monsters inside themselves. Craven filmed this version of the film and Warner Bros. decided to screen it to a test audience mostly consisting of Craven's fans. The response from fans was negative, criticizing the lack of violence and gore seen in Craven's previous films. The studio eventually discovered Craven's popularity as a horror film director. The president of Warner Bros. at the time, Mark Canton, demanded Rubin write six additional gore scenes into his script, each bloodier than the last. Rubin worked very hard with Craven to create a very deep and heartfelt movie out of it. Unfortunately, added gore scenes, re-shoots and post production re-editing of the movie heavily changed the original story. Craven and Rubin expressed strong anger at the studio and thus disowned the film.
- GoofsSam would have had her head shaved prior to her brain surgery.
- Quotes
Sam: [Samantha has a nosebleed] Do you have some ice?
Jeannie Conway: Oh my God. Come on in. Sit down. Paul, get some ice.
[to Samantha]
Jeannie Conway: Hold your head back, back.
[to Paul]
Jeannie Conway: Hurry.
[to Samantha]
Jeannie Conway: What happened?
Sam: Nothing. I just get them sometimes.
Paul Conway: Here you go.
Jeannie Conway: Listen, sweetheart, this may be butting in where I don't belong, but don't you think someone should say something?
Sam: For what, a nosebleed? Come on, I've had them since I was a kid. Ice will take care of it. I just forgot to fill the tray.
Jeannie Conway: Oh, Sam, I don't like this.
Sam: I hate them.
Jeannie Conway: C'mon you know what I mean. It's criminal. He could go to jail.
Sam: He's my father. Sometimes I want to roll a truck over his face but he's still my father.
- Alternate versionsThe original release of the movie contained cuts which were implemented by the MPAA in order to prevent an X rating. Scenes for which movie kept getting X rating were all the gore scenes which were re-shot by studio orders. Movie was submitted to the MPAA 13 times before it finally got an R rating. Uncut scenes have been restored on the DVD release from the Twisted Terror Collection released by Warner Bros. on Sept. 25th, 2007. These scenes are:
- When Samantha is dreaming about her father coming into her bedroom and she breaks a vase and stabs him with it, close-ups of Sam's face getting hosed with blood are present.
- After Samantha murders her father in the basement boiler, Paul comes in and pulls the upper half of his body from the boiler and you get several more seconds and close-ups of his charred skeletal face.
- The infamous 'basketball' scene in which Samantha kills Elvira with a basketball is extended to show more of Elvira's head exploding all over the wall and her headless body walking directly from the wall instead of cutting back to Samantha's face and then showing the body walking around as in the VHS release.
- ConnectionsEdited into Deadly Friend: Deleted Scenes (1986)
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.
- Bogey Man
- Nov 4, 2002
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- A.I.
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $8,988,731
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $3,804,429
- Oct 13, 1986
- Gross worldwide
- $8,988,731