Spooktober Day 29 DEADLY FRIEND!!!!

Day 29

Deadly Friend

Oh the days of wine and roses are over after today. Enjoy this treat while you can because the last two of this top three are definitely in a league all their own.

It was not, by any means an east feat deciding the top three. Doing list like that are actually pretty damn hard for me because they all rank somewhere up there and shift position or share position. But when it comes down to this month and its theme I picked. Well, it all came down to childhood and my connection to them. Be it for the good of mankind or the downfall of. But this one definitely earned it’s spot above the others. It’s something we rented and were recommended by our one video store clerk, because he knew I loved horror movies, he said it was made by the guy who did Nightmare on Elm Street so, say no more. It had me. I learned much later in life that just because someones name is attached to something. Doesn’t always mean it’s good.

But oh this movie. It is good. For all the right and wrong reasons. It’s something I loved watching on VHS, I got excited for when it’d appear on cable, but then sadly it vanished. For a long, long time. Until recently it returned to the world. In beautiful resolution, the clearest image I’ve seen in years and yes. It still holds up for me. This Frankenstein teenage love letter of a film. Do you know what almost took its place? Frankenhooker. Now THAT’S a movie anyone can get behind and the box art for does not tell a single lie. It’s a great, amazing, comic fountain of pure gold. It also was a huge part of my childhood. It had everything a kid shouldn’t see, but we saw because the 80’s were a HELL of a time. Nudity, super crack, hookers. Dismemberment. It had it all. It’s even the same kind of film as Deadly friend, but on its own level. A VERY different level. Where this ne was trying to be a straight up horror film, Frankenhooker was being a girlfriend brought back through prostitute parts, designed by her boyfriend and failed doctor.

As much as I love that movie, I went with this. Why? For the same reason I didn’t go with Hack-O-Lantern or Cathy’s Curse. Those films used to be very hard to find oddities but now everyone talks about them. And we recently did on our podcast too. My sister even picked it, and I LOVED that we got to talk about Frankenhooker. So much like any sane person when faced with the possibility of sleeping with your ex after you broke up? Why go through that shit again.

So here we are, my friend.

My

DEADLY friend! Ah hahahahahaha

2 more days people. 2 more…

SO!

When you suffer loneliness what do you do? You invest in building robots! Robots that sound like a Gremlin. And you name BB

BB will be your best friend, to end your loneliness, also the best protection you could ask for from car thieves, and anyone else that wishes harm on you. Or anyone it deems a threat to you. So it has mild murderous intent. I guess it’s less a question of morals and more a question of, is that a flaw or a feature.

I say why not both!

Well that so far, is our robot friend BB. Who is the direct result of a young genius named Paul. Paul is pretty nifty, but what takes getting used to, is how BB talks, and sees.

Much like the Predator who sees in only infrared, and takes some getting used to with how they see the world around them. BB also see’s things. Differently. They see things in highly pixelated scenes. Which is. Well. Something to strain the eyes. But also, and this is a hurdle for some folks. BB’s speech. It’s someone doing a combination of Gremlin gibberish and what they take as robo-speak. It’s no Johnny Five, and it definitely is  something that will become either hilarious for you, or annoying. But trust me, there is and have been far. Far worse.

So BB, Paul, and his mom move into a new neighborhood. Paul is here on a scholarship to study the human brain. He has a bright future ahead of himself, and has the most friendliest neighborhood in the history of ever. Literally he runs into a newspaper delivery boy and instantly wants to be friends with Paul. He also meets the girl next door, Sam who the paper delivery boy informs us has ‘great tits’, Sam is nice and immediately after meeting Paul says she may come visit his home some day. But she seems to have a troubled home as Paul notices a bruise on her arm and an ever watchful father.

But as our team of Paul, BB, and newsboy patrol the neighborhood. We learn about some of the neighbors. Well more like one other neighbor. Who happens to be the Fratellies mother from Goonies.

She’s crazy, keeps an uncrackable keypad lock on her gate, and owns a shotgun. Ready to shoot anyone who wont leave her property, and her alone. This is not at all key information we will need later or shall likely come into play. But it will. Likely. It does. Of course.

Any-who. Paul also ends up discovering the local bullies. Who ride on cool motorcycles. Apparently news paper boy Is the prime target of these bullies. There for Paul also shall be as they are now hanging out together. BUT they also are of course, interested in BB. Whom they slap around and joke about.

I would ask who seriously would do that to a state of the art robot that is actually pretty cool? But then I remember we live in a world where a Swedish made robot was sent to hitchhike and once it reached the U.S. more specifically, Detroit as I recall. It was torn to pieces and tossed on the road side. So, I guess the movie isn’t that far off. Dickless wonders enjoy screwing with nice things.

However this bad dude on a bike makes the mistake of shoving paul. BB is programed to understand what violence is. So BB reaches out and grabs the dudes nut sack. Immediately squeezing. At which point Paul informs them BB can indeed crush his junk into pulp if he so chooses to tell them so. So the geeks win the day and off they run, balls intact. For now!

Well Paul has had a day, for sure. So he returns home, BB charges themselves for future nut crushing adventures, and campus life. Low and behold though. Our girl Sam has kept her word about visiting his home! Just their first night moving in, and she’s already looking around his room. I always laugh at this because she wanted to bake something to bring over as a house warming gift. But she doesn’t know how to bake, or had anything. So she brings a box of cookies. And not Little Debbies either, she shelled out the good stuff.

But her visit and budding friendship is cut short, as her overly protective, and aggressive father comes over in search of her and drags her off back home. They really aren’t hiding that he’s abusive.

Especially when she’s trying to sleep in her bed and wakes to her sweating father hovering over her, accusing her of telling them lies about them, grabbing her arm and threatening to do more than that to her. But she has had it and breaks a flower vace on her beside. Shoving it into his chest! Which causes him to laugh, and spurt blood out of the vace into her bed. “You can’t hurt daddy! Cuz daddy don’t wanna be hurt!” He laughs. Blood spurting and then. Well yes she wakes up. It was a terrifying dream for her, but a fun weird one for us to watch.

Well goodbye night terrors and hello friendship! Paul and his friends are playing basketball together. Which is fun when ignoring issues like abuse and active life threatening bullying. I miss front yard hoops. Was always fun. Well the trio are enjoying their day together until they decide to let BB throw some street ball. BB doesn’t play with chumps though. They’re street pro. So as BB performs the crisscross applesauce. Or just you know, has a ball put in their arm with can only move upward. The ball gets propelled into, you guessed it. The crazy lady nextdoors front porch. So the group are screwed. Even when trying to negotiate safe terms for the exchange of their ball. She throws it inside her house and tells them to sit and spin. Which ends their fun. But BB isn’t happy. BB is scanning her house, and talking in heated gibberish. Murder could be on the horizon.

Speaking of playing god. We get a little nugget dropped on us of what could be on the horizon. Paul is shown actually doing work in the University as he said. He’s giving a lecture on BB and the advanced robotics he used to make them, and their artificial A.I. chips too. More importantly. We see him working on the brain of a cadaver where he shows off to his head professor that. When connecting a brain board for BB to the corpse. He found it caused animation in the bodies limbs. He can animate the dead! Which he see’s as being pretty radical, but his professor looks at with deep concern. Who is man to mess with the natural order of death and run their hands through gods garden of creation.

But enough of that, Its Halloween! Which means pumpkin carving, candy, and Sam coming over with a bloody nose asking for some ice. Which prompts Pauls mom to be the one to finally say something about the violence in her home. But Sam tells us repeatedly she always gets them, and they’re annoying. But Paul tells her to cut the shit or she’ll reset her nose just to bust it open again. Which Sam informs her, in as caring and sincere as she can “He’s my father, I may want to roll a truck over him, but he’s still my father.” So that’s over with. It’s Halloween!!

Which means costumes, and playing pranks! Like shaving cream on a car, toilet paper in trees. And breaking and entering.

Yes. The trio decide, or rather paperboy decides, why not use BB to break into crazy old womans property Pull a goof on her.

Paul is not up for this, I mean who could blame him. He doesn’t want BB to become a criminal. Obviously!

But his friends say nuts to that, lets do it! So they do. Of course BB can crack her secure lock in under a minute flat. But what now? They’ve opened the forbidden lands, what do? Well someones gotta pull a good goof on her! So Sam volunteers. Oh no. This can’t end well. Sam walks up to that front porch. Ready to give that lady a spook. But instead blaring alarms begin going off. A much more believable robot voice goes off alerting everyone “Danger. Danger. Intruder.” Oh this can’t end well. Sam freaks out and instead of running, which makes sense. She screams her head off. After that’s out of her system, she runs off the porch. But she slips! Falling to the hard concrete! Oh no. Noooo no not good!

But Paul is by her side and helps her up. They can hear old lady crazy coming to the door so they duck into the bushes. Unfortunately for them though. Sadly for us. BB comes to the rescue. As soon as old lady crazy sees them, they unload both barrels and even reload.

Unfortunately, and as a nation begins to greave. BB is dead. Blown to bits.

Now people normally might assume that the bullies would’ve been the ones to do it. Right? But alas no. Even Sam could’ve been the target! Though that would’ve made the old lady a murderer. Unless it’s a stand your ground state. But California is not. Was not. I don’t know. But Sam is okay. Paul however, is not.

He’s sad over losing BB, and his friends can see this. So they comfort him, because they are good. And he and Sam share a tender moment. Where the two even smooch.

Which is a victory in friendship for those too as they may be upgrading their relationship. But a defeat for someone.

That somehow is headed back home to her abusive dad. He witnessed that smooch. He is not happy about that smooch. Which he lets her know by shoving and pushing her around. Which ultimately ends with him pushing her down the staircase, where she hits her head on the landing and begins to enter the shakes.

Despite her father yelling at her to “cut the shit and get up”, she does not. So he contacts the hospital and tells them “I told her to clean her messes around those stairs”.

However. Despite this. Sam is not dead. She’s on life support, her brain is damaged somewhat though. Paul knows they could save her, he believes it. But the doctor won’t do it or use any of the theories Paul had worked on, knowing could potentially save her life.

So Paul does the only thing he can. He decides to steal her from the hospital before her father can order pulling the plug on her, bring her home and safe her there. This means employing the help of his friend news boy, roofying his mother so they can head to the hospital. Get there before 10 when they plan to pull the plug. They have a plan, and they’re going through with it.

Sadly though before the roofies work on his mom, she informs him the hospital changed the time from 10 to 9. So the coroner can head home early.

Well that’s a pickle.

But Paul is dead set on saving his future potential girlfriend. So we have now entered a literal ticking clock race against time. The two make it to the hospital. They just barely have enough time. Potentially. It can all work out for them. Except it doesn’t. because her father tells the doctor “Just pull the plug, lets get it over with.”

So they do.

Paul is unfortunately too late.

Or. Is he?!

Yeah he is. She’s dead. But he STILL feels there is time. So he rushes her fresh corpse out of the hospital and into the family wagon. Where he takes her to a lab, and begins to perform emergency, highly experimental robo-brain surgery. He plants a circuit board into her brain and installs BB’s memory chip. Again. This can only go well. Super super well.

In fact it does. Paul activates the handheld remote switch he used before to turn BB off and on, and now uses it to turn Sam on. But does it work? I said it goes super well! Her leg jerks and we have signs of movement! He’s done it! A man found a way to turn a woman off and on at the press of a button! The power of science people!!

So now, with his potential girlfriend in his shed. He turns her on and test her operating system.

She can breathe

She can blink.

She can even sit up. But can she to the Charleston? No….no she can’t.

But she can get up, walk around and stare judgingly! She also can turn herself off and on. I guess nature ah, found a way.

Well this isn’t good news for Paul. His freshly resurrected potential live in girlfriend is roaming freely. But where? Where could a resurrected girl, killed by her abusive father, possibly wonder off too?

Where, next door. To her abusive drunk father, whom she watched with judging wide eyes smoke a cigarette on the back porch, not caring at all for what he did. Could she be. I wonder.

Well her father wonders that too, as the police inform him his daughters body is gone, and he notices the house Is smoking hot, for some reason. So he investigates the basement. To find the furnace a raging roaring fire! He also gets a hand from under the stairway grabbing his ankle and pulling him down!

Which leads to some fun revenge of the corny kind. Like watching sam. She is now a human robot. So she moves. Like BB. Slow turns of the head, arms awkwardly held out and bent. Her body is not her own.

Well her dad gets his wrist broken and skin on his back scorched by the overly hot furnace. But it’s the least of his worries as BB-SAM snaps his neck with her new robot strength.

Score one for team BB-SAM

Though Paul upon discovering this, is not that pleased. His perfect once living potential girlfriend has just commited murder. But he’s a good future boyfriend, and he buries the body for her. These two are already functioning like a perfect unit.

Sam is now in a difficult spot. But an interesting one.

Yes he brought her back. But she also has BB’s brain chip. So even though she is technically back and alive. Is it really Sam? Or is it BB inside Sam? It’s a bit hard to tell at times as the way she looks at Paul, she seems very affectionate, and almost like a sad puppy when he tells her he has to leave her alone for a while. But BB also was affectionate to their creator Paul so. It’s a bit of a mystery and what makes the movie, cheesy as it is. Fun. Sam had plenty of reason to want her dad dead. She dreamed of killing him, everyone knew he was abusive toward her and he wanted to keep her away from a boy she had feelings for so. Yeah she could do it. But BB also hated him as BB sensed his bad nature and knew Paul and Sam did not care for him.  Same with the next victim of BB-SAM.

As we witness BB-SAM moving their hand in lightning fast precision and speed that’d make even a rabbit vibrator envious. BB-SAM has broken into the front yard of old lady crazy. But why?

Well that’s the fun part too. Old lady crazy did take their basketball, and she did scare the hell out of Sam. She also destroyed a perfectly (as far as she knew) harmless robot. On the flip side of that coin. BB knew their friends disliked her and that she was mean. BB came to their aid at the cost of their life. Though it’s fair to say in this round of murder, BB has more justification in killing her than Sam does.

Her death by the way, is one for the records.

Old lady crazy finds of all things in her dining room, A familiar basketball. Which she picks up and grumbles a curse over. The moment she does though. BB-SAM attacks! Tossing her to the wall! But the glorious part comes when the old lady faces BB-SAM and gives out her Valhalla battle scream, while a seemingly smiling BB-SAM picks up the basketball and throws it at her. Exploding the old lady’s head. Where the body does a ‘chicken with its head cut off’ dance and tumble over a chair.

Returning to her creator, Paul, rolling the bloodied basketball into his room.

Mission accomplished gang! We got the ball back!

Which I am sure Paul would be delighted about, if not for having a nightmare about the scorched head of Sams dad moving like a shark under his covers and leaping out at him screaming. Granted none of us would enjoy that sight. At all.

So life for Paul is a bit complicated now. He talked his friend into helping him steal the corpse of their friend and his potential girlfriend. They reanimated her corpse. Two people are now dead. He roofied his mom. His potential girlfriend is acting oddly and staring at him questionably. Acting more and more like a possible robot. Will he try banging her? Maybe, in the name of science. But likely no. He’s a good honorable guy. Pluss he’d need her consent.

So what does one do when your reanimated potential girlfriend is killing people and returning lost objects to you? Well you shove her in your attic of course. Naturally. At least that way she’s close by, you can somewhat account for her presence and actions. And it couldn’t hurt the possibility of quality couples time either.

He’s a good guy. He helps her get cozy, even says he’ll get her some bedding and get her setup. But it also raises a good question. Does she sleep? Do androids dream of electric sheep? Will her eyes ever not have too much shadowing around them? All legitimate questions. But sadly no answers.

Especially no answers when we hear more police sirens and Paul knows what happened and who’s responsible again. Which is pretty hilarious. Mostly because Paul’s still living and remaining friend, News paper boy returns to us! He too is curious as to the commotion. So we are told by a neighbor that, Old crazy lady called the police, claiming she saw Sam in her window across the street, and now her dad and the old lady are both dead. That the ladies head was exploded all over the walls. This prompts News paper boy to fall over on his bike to the ground.

He has not grasped the concept, let alone the idea in practice of the words low-profile. Keep it cool. Relax. He’s just freaking right the hell out. But no one pays any mind. He’s just a kid after all.

But what about BB-SAM? Well they naturally break free of their Attic space, but now they wish to explore Paul’s bedroom, let us pray they don’t discover his hentai collection. Kidding, hentai wasn’t that big yet for us. For them….not me. Anyway.

For BB-SAM this is a time of exploration and discovery. Exploring Paul’s room. Discovering a photo of the three friends with BB, causing BB-SAM to look into the mirror of their own reflection. Seeming to be. Not so happy with this. They politely trash the knick knacks on Paul’s dresser. Knocking over his action figures. Which prompts his mother downstairs to be on alert. But Paul arrives home and she is once again put at ease. Figuring it must be the wind, or a wild animal in the house. Not at all the murderous reanimated robot corpse of her sons once and potential girlfriend.

Well, things are not going well, unfortunately. Paul is beginning to realize there might be more than he can handle going on. He finds what troubled BB-SAM so much and realizes she might have a slight identity crisis, or he might be confused himself what’s going on. We almost see that Sam is indeed in there as she leans in to him, looking for a kiss. But he has to rush downstairs for an important call from his news paper friend. Apparently he feels he can no longer keep it inside anymore. He’s having conflicted emotions over what they did, and the fact BB-SAM has killed two people. So he’s threatening to go to the cops. But Paul ask him to come over and talk, to see BB-SAM for himself and work things out. Which he agrees too and Paul breaths easy.

However, there is trouble brewing. As Pauls head professor has called on Pauls mother asking where he’s been. Noting that even though Paul has been driven to the hospital to work there and lecture. He hasn’t been there in days. So now mom wants to talk to her boy and find out what’s wrong.

Paul manages a calm polite sit down with his news paper friend. Where he shows off BB-SAM to him. He’s almost buying it. He seems their one time friend standing, smiling and moving toward him. But the makeup around her eyes, and her fingers constantly in a Vulcan salute freak him out and he leaves. It’s not Sam too him. It’s BB-SAM. So the two boys end up tussling. Which is not good. Especially when you have BB-SAM nearby. She see’s this fight and immediately jumps to Pauls’ aid. Slamming Newspaper boys head into the ground repeatedly. But Paul pulls her off of him and in a heated moment slaps her to try and put some sense into her. But this is aggression to BB-SAM, so they begin choking Paul. Thus begins the conflict. They are choking their creator/boyfriend. She stops and runs off, finally speaking aloud. “BB”

Yep. BB is the one in control. Which is still kind of funny, hearing that gremlin voice coming out of her.

What’s not so funny, is that Paul while chasing after BB-SAM, unfortunately runs into Biker Bully. Who’s ready for Round 2, this time without the threat of junk crushing. So the two begin a one sided fight, Paul getting his ass handed to him. Until in the distance we hear “BB”, yep. BB remembers this ass clown, and BB translates to “I didn’t hear no bell”. Well Biker Bully is not prepared for this fight. Which again is great. With their robot strength BB-SAM not only actually crushes the mans testicles and what passes for a penis. They lift him over their head. Tossing the body at a cop car as they have now become more aware of a resurrected stronger than normal girl wondering the streets.

What ensues now is our final moments. Naturally. It’s sort of again a Frankenstein scene where the police play the part of the mob chasing down BB-SAM and Paul chasing after them to keep her safe. It’s a bit sad as he finds her in the one place he knew she’d be. In the storage shed where he stored BB. But something happens that we weren’t entirely ready for. But gives some meaning to earlier when BB-SAM stopped choking Paul. We see things from BB-SAMs side and again, its BB vision. But now there’s a red flickering going on. As it turns out. That flicker is from Sam finding a way to break through and talk to Paul. When she does? She even has her own voice back. She says his name and the two embrace. It’s very sweet and gives hope that, what he did actually worked. She was still alive in there somewhere and he did bring her back.

Of course much like Frankenstein though, this moment must come to an end. The police are already involved and they find the two. Immediately trying to separate Paul from her as they know she is the real threat. But Paul will not be moved. They have to toss him aside a few times. All the while Sam is scared and unsure what to do. She doesn’t want Paul hurt, but she also knows what happened with BB and herself. So she relents control back to BB, and with that. Begins the charge of the BB-SAM. She charges right at the cop with his gun pulled out, hands in their familiar Vulcan salute. She grabs the gun and aims it at her chest and the officer pulls the trigger.

Paul is crushed and has now seen his friend, potential girlfriend die in front of him. The police secure the area. His mom comforts him, and they all watch the body being taken away for the morgue once more.

However. Our movie is a Wes Craven horror. So it can’t end there possibly. OF COURSE NOT! Paul in his genius mind decides to go to the morgue and open the body fridge to pull her out. He whispers for Sam to come back to him. As he does. Sams eyes don’t open. Instead her arms fly upward and choke Paul! The eyes finally open and we hear for the first time in perfect speech, between BB and Sam voices, actual full sentences! They’ve learned to speak! Just like Paul always hoped! But her words are not of the friendliest. More of the…Deadly friend…liest. “Come join us Paul”, He begins to scream as we watch Sam’s body begin to change. Taring its way through her skin is her newly build robot exoskeleton. Complete with BB’s face, and a shark toothed mouth. Paul continues to scream until we hear the sound of a neck breaking. The film fades out and we get two things. First one last “BB” for the road, and then. The greatest gift of all. A song, a rock song of “BB….BB” sang both by BB and a male vocalist.

The end!

And what an end! Yes its corny and the thought that Wes Craven. Freakin Freddy Kreugers daddy here. And he makes something that at first glance looks far far beneath him. Even when compared to his first project The Last House on The Left. But he did it. He’s responsible for this.

Yes it is not a perfect film. But it is an under appreciated film. Very much so. The effects are a product of its time, Which even then when the film does get gory, it’s not intensely so. It actually holds back a bit. Which is odd again, considering this man turned Johnny Depp into a fountain of blood. But I’m not criticizing him. It works. For me, and thankfully others. This film has a lot going for it. It’ll also give you something fun to chant at friends when strangling them, like me and my siter “BB…BB”

It’s a fun film that’s stuck with me and I swear I never hit pre-order faster than I did the day Shout Factory announced this. Deadly Friend in 4k? Hell yeah sign me up! Even better that it comes with the original art work. Which was a far cry away from most of these with their beautiful painted covers. No this was another like The Entity, using a shot of the actress. But in a weird way that draws some questions on the film.

Often times when production companies are selling their films and begin distribution. They slap scenes from the movie on there and sometimes the still frames they use end up being cut shots, promotional material never used or scene in the film. One of the biggest ones I remember was from HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER 2. There’s a now legendary mystery on the VHS box, where we see Pinhead and the female cenobite dressed in surgeons gowns. But the scene never appears in the film. That’s because the sequence they filmed with that looked like shit. None of the effects worked, it didn’t look terrifying so much as it looked silly. So they cut the thing entirely from the film, but left the still image on the VHS box. Same happened here. Where we see a promotional still of the actress, with what look like cybernetics cut and pasted onto her face and arms. Looking out at us ready to zap us. And in grizzly bloody print DEADLY FRIEND. It was pretty cool looking. But no such thing in the film. Though at the end yes she does in fact turn into a warped deranged human BB. Still cool seeing though.

So yes! Go check this one out, it’s on Amazon for a buck or so. It’s cheap and easy, you can’t beat that. Unless you are anti-robot I guess. But seriously. You wont be disappointed, it’s a slive of my childhood, something I hunted down for a long time, and finally can say I own in glorious 4k. Though no one likely will watch it with me. Give it a look! And remember do not resurrect the dead. Sometimes, dead is better.