Before there was Pet Semetary there was Deadly Friend. In Pet Semetary dead animals and humans could be brought back to life by burying them in sacred Native American grounds. In Deadly Friend, all you need is a robotic chip, which is implanted into the human brain. Sounds similar, right? Well…maybe not, but the zombie-like behavior of the “un-dead” in Deadly Friend is quite similar to that of the “un-dead” in one of Stephen King’s most famous book to movie adaptations.

There are a few pluses to Deadly Friend. First, Kristy Swason is in it. I like Kristy. She’s an okay actress. Second, her co-stars include the late, great Anne Ramsey (Throw Momma from the Train, The Goonies) and Matthew Laborteaux (Albert from Little House on the Prarie). Unfortunately, this fairly decent cast can’t save even the most preposterous of storylines. To make this even more surprising is the fact that this film was directed by Wes Craven. Craven was just coming off the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street when Deadly Friend was released in 1986. Why he directed this film is anyone’s guess.

The Plot:
Deadly Friend tells the story of Paul Conway (Matthew Laborteaux). Paul is a genius who is taking college classes (despite being of high school age) and has even designed and built his very own robot, BB, who is a high tech robot that can move and think on its own. Paul and his mother, Jeannie (Anne Twomey) have moved to a new town where his mother has a new job and Paul will be attending classes. He quickly befriends the girl next door, Samantha Pringle (Kristy Swanson) and a guy in town named Tom “Slime” Tooney (Michael Sharrett).

Life in a new town isn’t paradise for Paul and his friends. They have to deal with the evil lady down the street, Elvira Parker (Anne Ramsey) who hates teenagers, fun, and just about everything else you can imagine. Samantha has it the worst because she lives alone with her alcoholic, abusive father, Harry (Richard Marcus). Despite these obstacles, the three plus BB have a great time together until Elvira shoots and “kills” BB with her shotgun. From there, things really go downhill.

At Sam’s house, Harry has been drinking. As Sam returns home and attempts to go upstairs to get away from him, he throws her down the steps where she body (and head) slams into a wall. Harry is furious because he thinks Sam is playing, but she really is hurt and is taken to the hospital. The prognosis isn’t good. She has some swelling in her brain. Harry covers by saying she tripped on something and fell down the steps. Damn Kids. You know how they are.

Since it is pretty clear Sam is going to die, Paul gets a great idea. He can keep her alive and help her to function by putting a robotic microchip in her brain. Luckily he’s studied brain chemistry so he knows exactly how to operate on her. When Tom and Paul go to steal Sam’s body (which was on life support) from the hospital, they discover she’s been taken off life support. They decide to go to option B, which is to bring her corpse back to life, only who returns, isn’t quite the Sam they remembered.

Release Information:
Deadly Friend was released as one of six DVDs in the Twisted Terror Collection by Warner Bros. The box set was released on 9/25/07. The other five movies included in this box set are The Hand, Someone’s Watching Me, Dr. Giggles, Eyes of a Stranger, and From Beyond the Grave. The Twisted Terror Collection has had mostly decent movies thus far, but Deadly Friend might make a consumer take a second look before purchasing this box set.

Audio & Visual Quality:
I didn’t have a problem with the visual quality for Deadly Friend. It was your typical 80s movie. The picture was clear in an anamorphic, widescreen format. It was transferred at an aspect ratio of 1.66:1. The audio quality was bothersome. I had to continuously turn my volume up and down and up again. I had little to no background noise while I was watching Deadly Friend, so that had no effect or bearing on the sound.

When music was played, I ended up having to turn the sound way down because I’d turned it up so high just to hear the spoken text of the movie. When I did that, you could hear the music blasting throughout most of my house. Like the other movies in this box set, Deadly Friend has English, Spanish and French mono audio. It also has subtitles in all three languages. If you are hard of hearing, I highly suggest you use them to save yourself the trouble of trying to hear quiet audio.

Bonus Features:
Thankfully, the only bonus feature included on this DVD is a theatrical trailer for Deadly Friend. It’s bad enough you would have to watch this movie. Why add more junk to an already junky movie? It is better there are no extras included, even if you are a bonus hound, you most likely wouldn’t want to see extras from this movie.

Bottom Line:
Deadly Friend is such a crazy movie. The plot is so farfetched and the surprise ending is nothing short of ridiculous. I would say pass on this one if you plan to buy it on your own. If you want to get your kicks by watching Wes Craven’s worst film (at least of the one’s I’ve seen), you should rent this one from Blockbuster. Otherwise, it isn’t worth your time. If you end up purchasing the Twisted Terror Collection you may want to avoid watching this one. Of course, there is always eBay. You could auction off this one and keep the rest.

Rating:

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