| Deadly Friend |
| Written by Mob | |
Steamrolling through more of my impromptu 31 films for this Halloween season I finally rented a copy of Deadly Friend this week, as it was one of those random Craven films I’d never gotten around to giving a look to. A pre-credit sequence introduces us to BB, the robot that was built by Paul (Laborteaux) as his combination science project/best buddy, then we see Paul and his mother Jeannie (Twomey) settle into their new digs near the university the little prodigy is meant to attend. This opening bit has an odd feeling to it, in that it’s cutesy stuff with the robot grumbling to itself in a little robot voice, the paperboy Tom (Sharrett) falling over in shock when he sees the robot, (a recurring fainting theme for him) again, odd in tone considering how dark the film becomes. This sets the two of them up to be friends, which all feels very tongue in cheek and light-hearted to the point that I wondered about the rating of the film (it’s ‘R” theatrically, unrated on the DVD due to restored gore, BTW). The Disney-esque vibe doesn’t last long (though it does sort of come and go at different times), as we meet Sam (Swanson), the cute girl next door that Paul hears being yelled at by her father even as they are moving in. The local recluse/nutjob Mrs. Parker (Ramsey) brandishes a shotgun at the kids when they walk past her chain link fence and linger too long; I begin to think that Paul and his mother’s real estate agent fucking hated them or something. There are some more indications of Sam’s abuse, bruises and a bloody nose, and the loss of a basketball to Mrs. Parker when it flies over the fence, an incident that visibly angers BB, then we finally get down to the business of making a deadly friend. Halloween night the kids get the wild idea to prank Mrs. Parker by having BB open the padlock on her gate, which would allow them to ring her bell, which hasn’t happened in years (insert your own joke here), but once Sam approaches the house all manner of alarms and security lights go off, sending the kids into the bushes to the right of the porch. Mrs. Parker wastes no time in shooting BB with her trusty shotgun; the robot catches fire and ‘dies’ right in front of Paul’s eyes. The visual shorthand of Sam having Thanksgiving dinner with Paul and his mom conveniently skips us ahead about a month, Sam is happy to be spending time with people who care about her, then is forced to sneak back home where abusive father Harry (Marcus) is hopefully still asleep. He’s sobered up enough to know that she’s left the house, which is a beating-worthy offense in the household he keeps, and in the ensuing struggle Sam is thrown down the stairs, left twitching with head and neck injuries. Sam is declared brain dead at the hospital, and plans are made to pull the plug on her life-support the next night at 10:00 PM. A scheme is concocted by Paul to spring her from the hospital, using Tom to help get her to the labs at the local university where he can insert a newly re-vamped brain chip for BB into Sam’s brain dead body. This is something I’m a little fuzzy on, will she be revived as the robot, or will the robot brain somehow repair the damage to her human one? Why does the scheme to steal her body feel again like a Disney film’s complications, what with drugging Paul’s mother so that they can steal the car; those sort of shenanigans? They hide Sam in the shed behind the house; Paul begins to try and rehabilitate her, but is content to leave her turned off in a sleep mode. He’s rather surprised to find her alert and watching her old house, indicating that this whole experiment in playing teenage Frankenstein is about to go right down the shitter, but he ignores the signs, presumably because Swanson is so cute with her raccoon eyes makeup after her ‘death’. Sam begins lurking around the neighborhood, taking bloody revenge on those who had wronged either her or BB, beginning with her father, who ends up face first in the furnace beneath his house, and later Mrs. Parker, who gets her head pulped in gloriously over the top fashion by the basketball she took from the kids. Sam as the robot looks pretty silly, as her hands do the Vulcan ‘live long and prosper’ fingers together clench, as if mimicking BB’s robot pinchers, which looks absolutely fucking ridiculous, and she exhibits super strength even though it’s a robot brain in a human body, not the other way around! The wildly exaggerated violence is worth a look though, as it’s so far beyond what you’re expecting it’ll probably get a laugh, and there’s an asinine ending that makes no sense whatsoever, so that’s something to look forward to. From what I understand the film had a troubled production, Craven had the studio standing on him the whole way through, which could explain the tonal shifts and overall blah feeling of things. I would say this is at the very least worth a single rental for the wackiness of it all, but don’t expect to find a new favorite film unless you’ve just got a thing for robots or vintage Kristy Swanson. Rental. 4/10 |
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