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 (as Matthew Laborteaux)
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 | basketball | 1980s | abusive father | morgue | 

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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:

Friend

Filming Locations:

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

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,804,429, 13 October 1986

Gross USA:

$8,988,731

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$8,988,731

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

For the scene chronicling the transplant of B.B.'s microchip into Samantha's brain, Wes Craven called on the advice of retired neurosurgeon William H. Faeth, who has a cameo in the film as a coroner in Sam's hospital room. Craven said that "he was very helpful on all the anatomical details." Craven himself studied anatomy a great deal before filming started.

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Goofs

Elvira Parker's padlock to her gate is facing the incorrect way.

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Quotes

Tom: Hey, she's dead? Hey, what the hell are you doing, you didn't say anything about a dead body, we were supposed to save her life!

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Alternate Versions

The 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.

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Another Top 10 Unique Horror Movie Kills (2015)

User Reviews

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy creates lethal cyber-barbie...

With the Wes Craven/ Kristy Swanson combination, we should have the makings of a cult favorite here, but this film somehow lacks the under-the-bed, behind-the-door, in-your-face terror of the usual Craven offerings. Somehow, Freddy K.--who dwells in the realm of dreams that we don't really understand--is a little more terrifying than Samantha/BB the deadly neighborhood cyborg. Actually, one of the more disturbing things in the film is having BB's (Charles Fleischer) voice coming out of Kristy Swanson's face screaming "BB!". Brrrrr.