Artificial Intelligence gone amok: a common theme for a long time, but maybe not so much in 1986, when Deadly Friend hit the silver screen. I first presented this post in 2012.
Actually, I’d wanted to write a post on one of my all-time favorite dumb guilty pleasures, Deadly Blessing. But my old VHS tape had long since gone the way of Goodwill, and DVD versions were no longer available. (Good news: they’re reissuing it in DVD and Blu-Ray next January. I couldn’t be happier.) But in trying to track it down online I kept coming across Deadly Friend, a 1986 gore-fest—directed by Wes Craven, no less—that I’d forgotten about. A definite dumb guilty pleasure that I used to watch all the time with my three daughters. (Yeah, they watched all that stuff with me when they were young, but in spite of that they turned out just fine.)
Whoa, how could I have not remembered the highlight of Deadly Friend: THE BASKETBALL SCENE. In some circles considered one of the most memorable scenes in all of horror movie-dom. If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about; if not, I’ll tell you…shortly.
Based on a bestselling novel by Diana Henstell, Deadly Friend tells the story of Paul (Matthew Labyorteaux), a high school rocket scientist nerd who moves to a new town with his mom and his pet robot, BB. He befriends Samantha (Kristy Swanson), the girl next door, who lives with her abusive asshole of a father. There are the usual high school bullies—BB takes care of them—and a mean old reclusive neighbor named Elvira (the late and great Anne Ramsey, renowned for playing Mama Fratelli in The Goonies), but at first everything goes along nicely.
Elvira is about to have a close encounter with a basketball…
The trouble starts when Paul’s basketball winds up in Elvira’s yard, and the creep won’t give it back. Then, on Halloween, BB picks the lock on her gate and goes up to her door. Elvira blasts the robot with her shotgun, effectively destroying it.
Soon after, Samantha’s father pushes her down the stairs and kills her. Paul, having lost his two best friends, goes all mad scientist on us. He steals Samantha’s body from the lab and, utilizing chips from BB’s “brain,” reanimates her. She may not look too good (way overboard on the eye makeup), but she’s strong—and seriously pissed off at anyone who has done harm to her or Paul. First, she takes out her dad; no problem there. Next, it’s Elvira’s turn. Samantha sneaks into her house, finds the basketball and hurls it dead-on into her face. Remember Gallagher and the watermelons? That’s what Elvira’s head looks like as it explodes.
Samantha is not quite herself…
From there, naturally, things spiral out of control, and Paul, getting crazier by the minute, is forced to do more and more cleanup to cover up for the girl of his dreams. I won’t spoil the rest of the movie for you, on the off chance that it’s piqued your curiosity. It does have a bit of a surprise ending, I’ll tell you that. But then, what horror movie doesn’t? Deadly Friend is ninety-one minutes of harmless—albeit gross—fun.