DEADLY FRIEND

[#1dvdfan]

I just orderd this vhs movie and saw it as a kid but dont remember it what is this flim about and is it scary?

[Jack_Cheze]

um... ok... uh... how do I break this to you?

Ok, here. I LOVED Kristy Swanson back in the day, and she's pretty adorable in this film.

Other than that... it might be good if you're high...

[CamaroMatt1996]

Its a good movie. Funny at times, creepy at others. Good stuff. Pretty good for a Craven Film.

[ParileseMonster]

Jeesh it is not that bad of a movie! Ever see The Creeping Terror? You can not watch that one without the MST3 treatment honestly!:o

[the dead one]

____________________
DEADLY SPOILERS!!!!
____________________

Some people seem to come down pretty hard on this movie, but I think it is actually very atmospheric and chilling. Good character developement and Kristy Swanson's portrayl of the abused girl next door Sammantha was quite genuine. Young unassuming, sweet and coming of age. she lives with her brutal alcoholic father, this guy was FD up and creepy!

Matthew Laborteaux is Paul Conway, the 15 year old scientific whiz kid character. He was quirky and it works! He lives with his single mother and his creation BB, a robotic playmate. They become the new neighbors on the block, moving next door to Samantha.

The story themes hit pretty close to home, broken families and loneliness. Paul befriends Sam, it quickly turns to a budding romance that is cut tragically short between them. Samantha's abusive father throws her down some stairs and kills her! BB, the robotic creation of Paul, seemed to be played for cutesiness yet that quickly changes. Once paul decides to play God, placing BB's Microchip into Sams brain. The choice to bring her back to life has deadly and tragic consequences. I really felt for Kristy's character, she was wonderful and deserves props for her very underrated performance. She under played Samantha and that is one of the things that made her all the more believable.

Wes Craven has contended that he had lost control of this film to the studio, regardless;Deadly Friend remains to be a creepy little film. It works on all levels imho! The actors did a top notch job and I bought the whole enchalada!!! 8/10

[Carrieattheprom]

Arrow did a review of this movie-maybe you should read it.


I think he described it as "an afterschool special on acid." :D


The ending doesn't make any sense AT ALL! :mad:

[the dead one]

The lets just say, we agree to disagree!:cool:

[crotalus]

As I remember it, I would call this movie fairly decent at worst. Worth rental price, or "budget buy" purchase, but nothing I'd make a special trip to find.

[XCoRyX]

i will give you this much information...

deadly friend is the 1 thing that ever made me enjoy basketball...EVER! :)

[the dead one]

That scene with the late great Anne Ramsey was priceless!
Good Call...:)

[TheDeadWalk]

They should put a picture of Corky from that tv series life goes on on the cover so everyone knows how retarded the film is.

Save for one exploding head, the movie is downright horrible. The cover tricks you into thinking its creepy or spooky, I used to look at it in the video store and think it had to do with an evil satanic friend or some psychic shit, but its none of that.

You get a talking robot that shouts "BEE BEE!"

My mother ran into my best friend's parents at the grocery store which was selling off used vhs tapes. We both love horror, and my mom said that they were pointing it out to her how cheap some of the horror films were. My buddy got a couple of Friday the 13th films, and one Halloween film I believe. My mom came home with this movie, and Return of the living dead part 2.

It's been almost 10 years ago since that day, and I still can't forgive her for that.

[jagged halo]

I can't belive I missed this thread!. I've always had an affection for Deadly Friend perhaps because it came out at a time when I was at my most vunrable - teenage kid and all that. Friend made its mark with me emotionaly I know that much, thanks to Kristy Swanson. I fell in love with her immediately, and what happens to her character is altogether very sad but ridiculous to say the least. However one can cleary see Craven's intention to explore the love angle further, only to have his creative input tossed aside in favour of ludicrous death sequences and a nonsense cap-off ending. I understand Cravens hands were tied thanks to WB trying to out do rival studios in terms of gore and splatter, instead we get a half baked tale with very little substance.

This film or rather Diana Henstells book Friend is ripe for re-adaptation, I've said it countless times there's so much material to play with, tons of character development, which got lost in Rubens screenplay. It's only a matter of time before we see Friend remade in to a successful film it should have been first time round. For the record the scene where Samantha appears as her former self, just before she's shot, gets me everytime!!!.

[MadmanMARZ]

The best thing about Deadly friend is the end song (rapped by the robot BeeBee)
"B B B BeeBee (beeeeebeee) B B B BeeBee (beeeebeee)"

[the dead one]

Glad I wasnt the only one who appriciated Kristy Swanson, Halo.
She did a great job with the character, I bought her performance. It was heart felt and genuine! You know I am not one for remakes, but if they did have another go of it...lets hope they do exactly what you suggested, in regards to Diana Henstells book...More emphasis on characters and story.:)

[jagged halo]

Hi Dead One,

Yeah I sincerely hope somebody picks this one up, it really could be such a fantastic picture. Equally tragic is the fact Diana Henstell died in a car accident, very sad indeed.

I have to say Warner Brothers crawled up there own backsides with Deadly Friend. Leave the movie making to the movie makers!.

[the dead one]

I wasnt even aware of Henstell's death, sorry to hear that...
Tragic news for sure. When did this happen??

As far as the studio system goes, you hit it right on the head!
Leave it to the talented professionals...Dedicated filmmakers!

[jagged halo]

I think she died in 1988, I did have an article somewhere on my PC, I'll have a look for it when I get a minute. But yeah tragic to say the least. Infact it was a schmoe on these very boards that told me about her passing.

[drdash]

i love this movie. i hope this hits dvd at some point. love the basketball death scene of anne ramsey. one of my favorite kills from the 80's.

ciao
drdash

[jagged halo]

It's certainly not a complete right-off, both Kristy Swanson and Matthew Laborteaux came across extremely well and there is enough material to keep you interested for the most part. I just cannot understand Warners mentality especialy after ANOES did so well. Why they didn't just leave Craven and Ruben well alone is beyond me. If they wanted an all out splatter fest then Henstells book is way too intelligent for that kind of nonsense. On the subject of its DVD release I got in contact with Warner Brothers sadly there are no plans to release it in the near future:(

[the dead one]

That figures...
leave it to these fat cat studios like Warner Brothers to disregard a film worthy of a DVD treatment! :mad:
Maybe we should send a message to these fools, by getting a petition out there...

[jagged halo]

Lol!, I'm sure it will see a DVD transfer at some point. I've actualy signed up to Warner Brothers mailing list, basicaly you receive updates via email on forthcoming DVD releases, so far it's just been the usual modern shit that I ignore. I also left a message with the man himself Wes Craven, I've not had a response, yet!. I'm more curious than anything else, to see this out on DVD, I want to hear Cravens version of events, but like I suspect he'll probably have to sign a gagging order:mad:

[the dead one]

I hear you!!! LOL! At least I have DF on VHS and the copy is still in very good shape. If you want to hear some interesting things from Wes, check out disc-2 of "The Hills Have Eyes" DVD!!
The Directors; Films of Wes Craven. He elaborates about his experiences on many of his films...interesting stuff there. :cool:

[jagged halo]

Dead One, clean your mailbox out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!;)

[Gravedigger]

In my opinion this was Craven's worst film...BAH!!!:mad:

[jagged halo]

I disagree, Shocker is Cravens biggest turd. DD does at least sport a solid performance from the beautiful Kristy Swanson. Shocker has no redeeming features whatsoever,
you'd think it was made by a spaz-glug.

[!MorganOnyx!]

I agree with JAGGED HALO. I watched SHOCKER hoping for a decent little slasher, in the vein of HOUSE 3 - with a bad ass attitude, a bad ass killer and some sweet death scenes. But I would've liked it to take itself seriously, as CRAVEN films usually do. It was an awful film - played for laughs with absolute ridiculous performances, dialogue and plot developments.

What was CRAVEN thinking?

Probably the same thing as when he decided to appear in a cameo in the almost as awful THE FEAR!!! A film that, in theory, could have been good. :(

[!MorganOnyx!]

JAGGED HALO -

By the way, where the FUCK is that thread where you said you sold your HALLOWEEN box set??!!! Can't find it anywhere! :confused:

[jagged halo]

I never started a thread regarding my Halloween box-set, probably because I've never owned the box-set, I had all the entries as single DVD's (which were brought for me I hasten to add!) I certainly wouldn't shell out for a crummy Halloween box-set, I could think of a dozen worth while purchases none of them remotely related to this abysmal franchise;)

[!MorganOnyx!]

JAGGED HALO -

Yeah sorry that was it. It was a thread about horror related gifts or something, and people explained which ones they had sold, swapped etc You said you had received these dvds as gifts and sold them. I was just wondering which thread it was because I can't bloody find it! :rolleyes:

[mary lou 102]

The movie is far from scary, but it is really tragic and sad. I loved it. One of Wes Craven's best works. If only that damn money hungry Warner would not have gotten in the way! They did the same thing with Valentine(very underrated).

[Gluttony]

I remember the basketball scene.Truly one of the most masterful moments in all of cinema history.

[SykkBoy]

I enjoyed the movie. It wasn't great, but I have worse movies in my collection. Anne Ramsey is always fun in everything she does, Kristy Swanson is smoking and the Little House dude wasn't bad.

As for Shocker, it would have been better without the Freddy Kreuger-esque one-liners and the similarly themed (and better, IMHO) "The First Power" coming out about the same time.

[teenkiller]

I actually attended a Q and A session CRAVEN was doing nearly two years ago. I asked him if he ever made a movie that didn't live up to his own expectations and he brought up Deadly Friend.

I have not seen the film but he went through a whole story about how the studio was constantly on his back to change things, he was going through a divorce, and on top of that somebody was trying to sue him for allegedly stealing the idea of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, all while trying to make this film. He said with everything mounting on his shoulders the film definitely suffered because of it.

Like I have said though I have never seen the film and am just awaiting a dvd release, which probably will not happen for a long time, if ever. I recently watched Shocker and while I found it awful it is the type of film that I could probably see myself watching again for laughs. I imagine Deadly Friend is probably the same.

Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[!MorganOnyx!]

It's on a par with SHOCKER. I'm trying to remember if one deserves more "suckage" points than the other for being downright silly. I think it's a tie. They both suck dog balls. :(

[teenkiller]

I'm really looking forward to watching it just to see who wins in my "Battle of Suckage". Hell, I would even watch the two films back to back if I had the chance. It could turn out to be great fun in a horrible sort of way. Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[teenkiller]

SPOILERS FOR DEADLY FRIEND

Well goody goody gumdrops! Deadly Friend has finally been released on dvd and you can bet your bottom dollar I picked it up.

Well let me start by saying I loved Kristy Swanson in this film. Seriously, the girl was adorable. While she was alive I enjoyed the relationship between Sam, Paul, and Tom. A nerdy but good natured group playing basketball, trick or treating... just all around good kids. Sam unfortunately has an abusive stepfather and you feel for her.

I was glad to see that CRAVEN brought back a couple of familiar faces from NOES. Charles Bernstein is once again doing the score and although at times I hear echoes of the NIGHTMARE theme it never gets quite that good. Over all I would just describe it as adequate. Then we also get Charles Fleischer, Nancy's doctor from the first NIGHTMARE (and voice of Roger Rabbit), doing the voice of BB. BB's warbled mumblings were irritating. I was actually glad when it got shot because I was tired of all the noise.

Everything is going okay up until Paul and Tom decide they want to reanimate Sam. Then things get hokey. The duo drug Paul's mother, take her van, steal Sam's corpse, and put BB's "brain" into hers. Naturally it brings her back to life.

It's not long before BB/Sam run amok and start killing the people who wronged them. Sam's dad gets it in at least a more believable fashion. Mean 'ole Mrs. Parker, who shot and killed BB, ends up getting a basketball thrown at her face. Like anyone who gets a basketball thrown at their face her head explodes. That scene was seriously golden. I know it's a scene that CRAVEN wanted nothing to do with, and I can understand why since he was actually trying to make a serious film. Man that is some funny shit though.

Who could forget the finale? I'm sure glad that bully from earlier in the film made an appearance again. I had forgotten how one dimensional he was the first time we saw him when he was getting his nuts groped by BB. And the end... does Sam end up killing Paul? I guess we'll never know.

For the record I definitely think Shocker was a worse Craven film. I don't think Deadly Friend is as terrible as people make it up but I can also see why it's not regarded as a genre classic either. Oh, and the theme that played during the end credits sucked ass!

Deadly Friend - 6/10

Well thats all for now GOoD JOURNEY my fellow schmoes.

[Cronos]

Meh, another shoddy Craven film, porrly directed, crappy acting and a silly script.

mehmehmeh

4/10

[The Postmaster General]

I thought it was great as a kid, then watched it recently and thought it was pretty good. There's some interesting concepts and Anne Ramsey is always funny.

[clepto]

people give it flack but I thought it was a pretty good movie except for the ending 7\10

[MidnightAngel]

Deadly Friend is personally not Wes Craven's best film but it's fun to watch. Oh yeah the ending scene scared me.

[clepto]

I like deadly friend evan though alot of people give it flack There are some flaws but it reallty isnt an awful movie to me and evan though the gore sequences felt forced I liked them especialy when the old bitch gets her head blown up by the basket ball not cravens worst but definatly not his best 6/10

[jagged halo]

Compared to Rob Zombies utter shit fest 'Halloween' Deadly Friend is a fucking master piece. I'm not joking either, Zombies Halloween remake is a piece of shit. At least with DF you get two lead characters who can act their socks off.

DF is a guilty pleasure of mine, it's nowhere near as bad as the hacks make out.