Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Deadly Friend Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson October 30, 2021

When he decided to direct Deadly Friend (1986), Wes Craven was seeking to expand his oeuvre with a sci-fi drama about an artificial intelligence robot and his creator, a teenage polymath. Writer Bruce Joel Rubin had previously penned the treatment to Brainstorm (1983) but Deadly Friend (or Friend, as he titled it after Diana Henstell's 1985 novel, which he adopted) was his maiden feature-length screenplay. Thirties-something single mom Jeannie Conway (Anne Twomey) and her 15-year-old son, Paul Conway (Matthew Laborteaux), are moving into a suburban home in the West coast town of Welling. Paul is a prodigy who's already enrolled at nearby Western Polytechnic (probably a fictional stand-in for California Polytechnic State University). Paul spent three years building a robot named BB (aka Be Be), which reminds me of a cross between the titular Short Circuit (1986) and Rosie the Robot from The Jetsons. Paul is an understudy to Dr. Johanson (Russ Marin) at the college. The professor has been teaching Paul how to operate on the brain. Paul becomes fast friends with the neighborhood newspaper boy, Tom (Michael Sharrett). He develops an instant crush on Samantha (Kristy Swanson), the cute blonde next door. Paul notices the bruises on Sam's wrist and she initially tries to evade that they were caused by her abusive father, Harry Pringle (Richard Marcus). (Sam's dad wears clothes with crimson and forest green on them, which are similar to the colors on Freddy's sweater.) Besides Sam's dad, Elvira Parker (Anne Ramsey) is the other adult villain in the neighborhood. (The teen bad guys are the gang of biker boys led by Carl, who picks on Paul, Tom, and Sam.) Elvira is the curmudgeonly old lady across the way who's overprotective of her gated home. She owns a double-barrelled shotgun and isn't afraid to take it out to chase trespassers away or use it for real. Pivotal things happen to BB and Sam that compel Paul to apply his scientific ingenuity.

BB and Paul arrive at their new abode.

As Rubin recollects in an interview on this disc, execs at Warner Bros. wanted to ratchet the gore and violence after Deadly Friend received a lukewarm response at a test screening. Craven was happy to comply and the re-shoots bear his stylistic imprint. A nightmare scene with Sam and her father was added as well as a later scene showcasing the film's biggest visual effect. The added scenes incorporate elements of straight-up horror that make the film an intriguing hybrid. Unfortunately, some of the special makeup effects are overdone and not as convincing as better-done makeup f/x in other Craven pictures.

Deadly Friend received a lot of one- and two-star reviews from critics. Audience reception was mixed. The Philadelphia Inquirer's Desmond Ryan observed that "[Craven's] movie promptly turns into I Was a Teenage Brain Surgeon with a clinically specific operation that brought a nauseated groan from many in the audience." Michael Shmith of the Australian daily The Age heard "several young goons in the audience cheered and whistled whenever [over-indulgent and gratuitous violence] oc­curred, indicating, perhaps, they were not taking it seriously. I found these sequences vile and contemptible..."

I was pleasantly surprised, however, to see a small set of reviewers appreciate Craven's effort. Jon Marlowe of The Miami News wrote, "Craven nicely has fused the oldest horror ploy in the world (Frankenstein) to the oldest love story in the world (Romeo and Juliet) and made a pretty decent horror flick in the process....a fine horror film that keeps us riveted and suc­cessfully raises the ante on every other direc­tor who merely thinks 'horror' means having some maniac don a hockey mask and slice and dice one poor sucker per frame." The Wichita Eagle Beacon's Bob Curtright described the film as "a com­petent surface tale for the unini­tiated....[Craven] is a cut above the Friday the 13th imitators of his chosen slasher genre." John D. Miller, formerly the entertainment editor for the South Bend (IN) Tribune, called it "a treat for those who like their terror movies seasoned with intelligence and leavened with a sense of humor."

Deadly Friend Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Scream Factory has brought Deadly Friend to Blu-ray for the first time this month with a "new HD 2K scan of the film from the interpositive." The film appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 (disc size: 31.30 GB). The image looks clean and sharp during the main titles and mostly thereafter. There's small pockets of dirt and minor speckling but those instances are infrequent. Interior scenes in the Twomey and Parker households, as well as in the sheriff's office, display brown and muddy furnishings. (See Screenshot #s 8-10.) Frame grab #19 is seen through the point-of-view of the robot, who has vision Rubin describes in the script I read as "an electronic heat-sensing device" with "undulating colors." Scream has encoded the movie at a mean video bitrate of 34000 kbps.

The 90-minute feature comes with a dozen scene selections.

Deadly Friend Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream has delivered a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (1687 kbps, 24-bit) as the sole sound track. The mix is clean and free of any audible blemishes. Spoken words are clear and easy to discern. Composer Charles Bernstein fuses both electronic and orchestral layers as exemplified over the main titles. He also wrote a melodic theme for Paul and Samantha that's lovely to listen to on the 2007 Perseverance Records album.

Scream supplies optional English SDH for the feature.

Deadly Friend Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Hey Sam, Nice Shot – An Interview with Actress Kristy Swanson (9:26, 1080p) - Swanson recalls her audition, the script, and changes that happened during filming. She also shares poignant memories of Wes Craven, working with Matthew Labyorteaux as well as Anne Ramsey. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Written in Blood – An Interview with Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin (8:11, 1080p) - the Detroit native appears interviewed in his home office. He recalls being given Diana Henstell's novel Friend and after reading it, considered it a major dud (but he doesn't explain why). Rubin remembered advice his late meditation teacher gave him while exercising one day and decided to write the adaptation. Rubin talks about the respect he had for Wes Craven despite not being a big fans of his films. He shares information about Deadly Friend's first test screening, re-shoots that were done, and a preview audience's reaction at a subsequent showing. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Robots, Ramsey and Revenge – An Interview with Special Makeup Effects Artist Lance Anderson (5:02, 1080p) - Anderson is joined remotely from his home. Anderson talks about copying BB's design for when he created the robotic Samantha. He also touches on design elements and gelatin. Anderson also explains how the makeup team constructed one of the major effects in the picture. Finally, Anderson gives his recollections of Wes Craven. In English, not subtitled.

• NEW Samantha's Symphony – An Interview with Composer Charles Bernstein (8:23, 1080p) - Bernstein is interviewed remotely from his home recording studio. He describes how he saw Deadly Friend's story go, the theme he wrote for BB, the warm music for Paul's family life, his search for a melody, the Laurie Anderson voice he originally overlaid to the "BB" sounds, and the studio's reaction to the song. (Bernstein is also interviewed [along with Craven] on the Perseverance CD by Robin Esterhammer.) In English, not subtitled.

• Original Theatrical Trailer (in English, Spanish, and German) (5:09, upconverted to 1080p) - the first American trailer for Deadly Friend is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. It sports film artifacts and light scratches. The Spanish and German trailers are also shown in 16x9 widescreen but are in rougher shape with tramlines. There's also a fourth trailer that's dubbed.

• Original TV Spots (1:29, upscaled to 1080p) - five promotional spots for Deadly Friend that aired on American TV stations ca. October 1986. They're all clear-quality copies sourced from VHS. Shown in 1.33:1.

Deadly Friend Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Deadly Friend was a departure in several ways for Wes Craven, who was essentially working on his first studio picture. He benefited from a solid script from Bruce Joel Rubin. I've read a revised, later draft of Rubin's screenplay and it develops Paul and Samantha's relationship and their family lives more. Rubin is a very good writer and I wish Warner had filmed all of the scenes he wrote. (Perhaps Craven and his crew did but the Scream Factory disc doesn't have any deleted scenes.) I'm glad that Scream has finally given Deadly Friend a Blu-ray release, which sports a fine transfer and a good (though short) assemblage of recent interviews. I hope that Scream/Shout! Factory undertakes a new restoration of Deadly Blessing (1981). A PRETTY SOLID RECOMMENDATION for this Collector's Edition.