Paul Conway (Matthew Labyorteaux) is an exceptionally brilliant teenager. Paul and his mother, Jeannie Conway (Anne Twomey), just moved to a new house in the suburbs of a small town called Welling so that Paul could attend the local university under the instruction of his professor, Dr. Henry Johanson (Russ Marin). Paul’s companion on the move is a robot he created himself. He named the robot BB (voice of Charles Fleischer). BB has been programmed to think and upgrade itself as it learns, occasionally taking the initiative to act on its own.
The first day in their new house Paul meets fellow teen and paperboy, Tom Toomey (Michael Sharrett). Paul immediately runs afoul of the local bullies, but BB comes to his rescue. Later he meets his next-door neighbor, Samantha ‘Sam’ Pringle (Kristy Swanson). Sam’s father, Harry Pringle (Richard Marcus) is abusive to his daughter and blames her for her mother leaving with another man. Living across the street is Elvira Parker (Anne Ramsey), a cranky old lady with a big shotgun and a nasty temper.
The Conway family settles into their new home. On Halloween a prank aimed at Elvira results in her shooting BB with her shotgun, blowing up the robot. Paul is devastated. On Thanksgiving Paul and Jeannie invite Sam over for Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner Sam goes home but is confronted by her father. He hits her and she falls down the stairs. Sam ends up brain dead on life-support. In 24 hours, the doctors plan on pulling the plug on Sam. Devastated, Paul gets a radical idea. With Tom’s help he steals Samantha’s body from the hospital and places BB’s microchip into her skull.
Paul takes Sam home and puts her in the shed. As the chip in her brain begins to animate her, the combination of her having been brain dead and the changes that BB incorporated into his programming turns Sam into a homicidal cyborg. Payback begins.
“Deadly Friend” was released in 1986 and was directed by Wes Craven. It is a science fiction horror black comedy. The movie was loosely based on the 1985 novel “Friend” by Diana Henstell.
It’s not a great movie but there’s a lot of camp that sort of puts it in the so-bad-it’s-good category as well as there being enough here to put it in the cult favorite list for many. Part of the problem with the film is the difference between what Wes Craven wanted for the film and what it ended up being.
Supposedly, Craven wanted the movie to be a dark love story, but it ended up more of a slasher film due to studio interference. They wanted it to be more of a horror film than a coming-of-age dark love story, so pressure was put on Craven to ramp up the gore. It ended up being a hodge podge of styles and genres. With the added horror footage, the film went from a PG to X before some of the horror was taken out by the MPAA to bring it down to an R rating. No matter what, the movie is fun and, although a little over-the-top and slightly juvenile, enjoyable to watch.
The somewhat ambiguous ending, which was another demand the production company wanted, ended up making the film even more convoluted, but in a strange way, even more Wes Craven.