Deadly Friend
Deadly Friend
After his friend is killed by her abusive father, the new kid in town attempts to save her by implanting a robotic microchip into her brain.
Jacob O’Neal reviewedJune 9, 2025
This movie underwent a lot of studio interference and it’s pretty obvious. The concept was something that the 80’s loved - a cute robot with a personality, a la Short Circuit, Rocky III and so many more. But this movie mixes the robot sub-genre with what felt like an episode of Goosebumps or Are You Afraid Of The Dark with the F word and some extra blood mixed in.
Deadly Friend stars Kristy Swanson in her first starring role as Sam, the hot girl next door to super genius, Bob (or something else. Half movie it sounded like Bob), a boy with a robot named BB (voiced by Roger Rabbit star Charles Fleisher). BB may have a bit of killer instinct. When BB is destroyed and Sam accidentally killed, Bob(?) places BB’s AI into Sam’s brain and brings her back. But she’s no longer just Sam.
This movie is terrible in all the right ways. Swanson walking around stiffly and pretending to be a robot for the last third of the film with her fingers in a position to look as if she has claws was hilarious. The acting was pretty bad all the way through. There are plenty of unintentional laughs. This is not a good movie by any means. Wes Craven tried to make something away from horror and then the studio made him change things to be more of a Craven film. This could have been amazing. It was the same writer as Ghost and Jacob’s Ladder (Bruce Joel Rubin) and directed by Wes Craven. Sadly, it just didn’t work…the way they wanted. But it worked for all the wrong reasons. It’s pure cheesy fun that should not be taken seriously. It’s just fun schlock.