Deadly Friend (1986)

Deadly Friend

Release Date: 1986

Rating: * * *

By John Engell November 28, 2012
   
There have been more than a few famous robots featured prominently in film. There was R2-D2, Johnny Five, Optimus Prime…
One mechanical man you may not be familiar with is DD (voiced by Charles Fleischer, who is also responsible for giving life to Roger Rabbit), the brainchild of boy genius Paul Conway in Wes Craven’s little seen dramatic horror movie “Deadly Friend.”

Paul (Matthew Labyorteaux), his single mother, and his yellow marvel of artificial intelligence, move to small town USA so Paul can study at the local college.

Paul befriends the paperboy Tom (Michael Sharrett) and falls for Samantha (Kristy Swanson), the pretty, repressed girl next door who is abused by her alcoholic, sexually predatory father Harry.
On the night of October thirty-first, the trio with BB in tow, decide to pull an ill-fated prank on the shotgun carrying crazy across the street (played by Anne Ramsey of “The Goonies”). And after the lamest attempt at mischief in Halloween night history, (Samantha shaving cremes a car in the deserted street and the three juvenile delinquents trespass on said neighbor’s property apparently just to trick or treat), BB is blown to bits by the angry, bullish woman.

As grief stricken Paul attempts to cope with the loss of his best friend, Sam’s dear dad kills her in a drunken, jealous, fit of rage.
Catastrophes come in threes and Paul uses that big brain of his and resolves to steal Sam’s body from the hospital in hopes of reanimating it. After smuggling his love’s lifeless corpse to his garage, he goes all Frankenstein and implants the dead girl with the central computing chip from his destroyed robot. Sam is indeed resurrected, but she has become an abomination, an unnatural hybrid of woman and machine, intent on getting revenge on any who have wronged her or her metallic alter ego.

Long time Craven collaborator Tony Cecere coordinated the film’s stunts, which include a particularly gruesome, if not altogether impossible decapitation (or more appropriately, full on cranial explosion) by basketball. Charles Bernstein reunited with Craven to compose the film’s score.

“Deadly Friend,” like “Deadly Blessing” (see review here on Favorite Scary Movie Reviews) released five years prior, has an over-the-top “shock” ending that characterizes Craven’s early work. By all accounts, Craven loathed the ending of ANOES that the studio allegedly forced upon him, so I would be curious to know whether “Deadly Friend’s” ending was his work or some big-wig’s back-seat directing. 

In 2007 Warner Brothers released a handful of cult classics to dvd for the first time, and packaged them as part of their ‘Twister Terror Collection.’ The set included amongst other titles, “Eyes of a Stranger” featuring the special effects of a young Tom Savini, “Someone’s Watching Me,” John Carpenter’s segue to “Halloween,” and Wes Craven’s “Deadly Friend.”
 
A must see and own for all Craven completists, "Deadly Friend" is a fun and campy example of the master’s low-to-no budget brand of film-making that began with “Last House On the Left” and died with “New Nightmare.”    

Journey for Jamie Lee

By John Engell

The last two weeks I have neglected this blog and you followers, as I have concentrated all my energies on planning an important road trip. I apologize, sincerely, but I am back after the completion of a long journey, that I hope you enjoy reading about as much as I enjoyed making...

Earlier this year HorrorHound (my preferred horror magazine and the mid-west's premier horror con) announced that the original Scream Queen herself, Jamie Lee Curtis, would be making her first and only convention appearance at a special HorrorHound Weekend celebrating her contribution to the genre. Previously the horror community was largely resigned to never meeting the "Halloween" star, as it was held that the actress-turned-children's-book-author, had denounced her horror roots and distanced herself from the films that made her famous. But thanks to HH, and Sean Clark and his company Convention All-Stars, an impossibility became a reality for thousands of horror fans this weekend in Indianapolis.
And I had the thrill of being in attendance.

My journey began on November the eleventh when I stopped procrastinating and purchased my ticket to this once-in-a-lifetime event. Due to demand, HorrorHound offered JLC autograph vouchers and photo ops pre-sale, online only. Unbeknownst to me, I secured mine mere hours before they went off sale. I then made the necessary arrangements. I rented a car (I was given a black 2012 Mazda 6 that drove like a dream), and reserved a room at a property adjacent to the host hotel, which was unsurprisingly sold out. After a light breakfast, I got on the road at noon on Saturday the sixteenth and began the trek to Indiana- an 11 hour drive from Upstate New York. I arrived at the Inn at half past ten. The room was basic, but serviceable and after a quick soak to ease the aching bones, I hit the sack with a couple of Wendy's hamburgers for linner and some ESPN college football on TV.

I Woke up at 8:30 Sunday morning, showered, snagged a breakfast bar, checked out, and walked across the parking lot to the con. There was very little traffic when I entered. Some people were milling around including Charles Cyphers, who had mistakenly showed an hour early, and several groups had already congregated. Got in line to redeem my tickets at around 9:30 AM. Waited till nearly 11 before I had that golden ticket in my hand, at which time the line behind me had ballooned to a hundred people deep or more. By now the main hallway was crowded and there was a general confusion as to what lines were for what and for whom. The staff admirably attempted to direct the mob, but ultimately is was HorrorHound's own Editor-In-Chief Nathan Hanneman, who announced that JLC would be signing in order of the number on each patron's ticket. There was a dry erase board outside the entrance to the conference room where Jamie was signing that Nathan updated regularly to reflect the latest ticket holders to be allowed in. My particular number was halfway down the list, so I had my photo-op first.

Got herded into her auditorium at noonish and had my pic taken with Jamie at approximately quarter after one.The photo-ops were held in a separate room right down the hall. When I approached her she said "Hey, I remember you!" which I got a kick out of because I had obviously never met her before. The photo-op company did an excellent job keeping things moving and everyone seemed pleased with the final product, myself included. Did manage do add one more guest to my collection- Will Sandin AKA the first Michael Myers, who barely said a word to me and seemed annoyed when the first photo a gentleman graciously took for me of Will and I came out blurry and I asked to snap another. The second one also came out bad, but I said forget it and walked away. Spent the next several hours waiting to get my autograph. Had JLC sign a pricey piece of hand made paper I picked up at the craft store. I didn't want her signature to get lost on a large poster or have to compete with a background image. I couldn't be happier with the result. 

Jamie was amicable, although she was agitated at the mass of people still waiting in line with less than 2 hours till the designated end time of the convention (I would estimate 300 patient faces). When I told her I believed people were still entering the aud, she admonished the staff and demanded to know how many tickets had been sold for Sunday because she was "busting my ass" to get through the line in order to finish (presumably to catch a flight). She said she would soon only be signing her name to speed proceedings up. Fortunately my autograph was made out to me and she even included her character's name "Laurie Strode."

But there in lies the problem with attending any convention on its last day. You pay the same price as the previous day's ticket holders, but you surely don't get the same experience. According to numerous accounts, and Facebook posts by the event organizers themselves, Saturday JLC was dedicating several minutes with each attendee, and even personalizing their items with movie quotes (A similar situation occurred to me when I met Robert Englund, who went from taking posed photos with people at the start of the day to not taking photos with people at all by the day's end). Not to sound ungrateful, it it just a shame that despite knowing the exact number of tickets sold, and the amount of time that JLC would be signing each day, that the convention couldn't have determined an average amount of time that she could spend with each attendee to insure everyone got what they paid for as well as have the opportunity to share a moment with her. After all "it's not their first rodeo." But I digress. It may seem crazy to some people, hell most people, to spend all that money and time driving, and waiting in lengthy lines, for literally only seconds, but I have no regrets. This was truly a piece of horror history and I am honored to have had a small part in it. 

I walked off JLC's stage at 3:30 in the afternoon and immediately exited the building with a smile on my face. Got gas and purchased provisions- Gatorade, a couple Five Hour Energy Shots (New Pink Lemonade flavor) and a bag of beef jerky, and got back on the open road. Pulled in my driveway, exhausted, just shy of 2:30 AM Monday morning.

Jamie Lee Curtis donated all the proceeds from the show to the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. And she revealed during her panel that she had even purchased her own airfare. Sean Clark recently addressed rumors regarding his cut of the profits on social media, where he has clarified that he too has donated his share to the hospital. Both are class acts and I am thankful for their efforts. It was truly a special time.
Other conventions take notice. The bar has been raised...