Review: Deadly Friend (1986)

Cast: Matthew Labyorteaux, Kristy Swanson, Michael Sharrett
Director: Wes Craven
Country: USA
Genre: Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi
Official Trailer: Here

Sometimes Wes Craven makes films with serious intention; you can tell because they usually have something to do with either subverting the classic family unit or nightmares. Then there are the ones he makes with a smirk on his face.  Deadly Friend is the latter, and the smirk is undeniably infectious.

It’s the story of artificial intelligence, the enigma of consciousness, and being in love with the girl next door.  This being a Craven film, the girl ends up dead, forcing our protagonist, a teenage brain surgeon prodigy, to utilize his ingenious gift for invigorate brain functions in inanimate objects… like a dead body. The love of his life is revived and in true Frankenstein fashion, runs amuck through the once quiet suburban neighbourhood until inevitably a mob is spawned from an outraged society.

Sometimes Wes Craven makes films with serious intention; you can tell because they usually have something to do with either subverting the classic family unit or nightmares. Then there are the ones he makes with a smirk on his face.  Deadly Friend is the latter, and the smirk is undeniably infectious.

This film borrows heavily from the surreal images Craven established when bringing everyone’s favourite nighttime boogeyman, Freddy, to the big screen only a couple years prior. However, dreamscapes and physical representations of the subconscious have often been an obsession of this particular director… Well, that and booby traps, but that’s a whole other train to thought. Frightening dream sequences that dig deep into character’s fears, anxieties, or even hidden desires, have found their way into many of his films, including Serpent and the Rainbow, Last House of the Left, even Scream 3 has a classic Craven nightmare sequence. The dream jolts in Deadly Friend are some of the most startling in his career, mostly due to an expert use of contrast.

As the children of the cheery suburban street go about their endearing antics and the sun christens the day a blissful carefree splendor, you are powerless to resist being pulled into the lighthearted façade. Even as the secret treachery of some of the more dubious neighbours is revealed, the film keeps a light, fanciful atmosphere. It doesn’t prepare you for the horrors ahead, or the shocking violence that’s used just sparingly enough to keep the audience on their toes. This is the unique element of contrast not seen in many other Craven films with the exception of Last House on the Left, but there the contrast was clumsy, not nearly as refined as it can be found here.

The dream jolts in Deadly Friend are some of the most startling in his career, mostly due to an expert use of contrast.

One such spectacularly outrageous death, and probably what the film is most known for, is the infamous basketball head smash. The gore effect itself is shocking, yet goofy at the same time. It has a similar feel as the sometimes cheesy, but brutally visceral effects of Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn. In short, a basketball is sent hurdling with enough force to obliterate an old woman’s head. Don’t feel too bad though, she had it coming. As her energetically puppeteered headless corpse hops about the room, you’re left pondering: am I disgusted or amused? The point is that you’re both.

Between the absurd contrast of wholesome family adventure and wildly ridiculous yet ingeniously disturbing moments, Deadly Friend is one wacky fun horror film done with true 80s style. It’s also in no small part by Charles Bernstein’s driving synth score. It’s horror answer to Short Circuit, like if Johnny 5 was a murderous psychopath.

[notification type=”star”]68/100 ~ OKAY. Between the absurd contrast of wholesome family adventure and wildly ridiculous yet ingeniously disturbing moments, Deadly Friend is one wacky fun horror film done with true 80s style.[/notification]