Paul and his mother move into a new town. The third member of their family is a robot that can learn by itself, assembled and parameterized by Paul himself. Thanks to its artificial intelligence, the robot assimilates what he sees. The Conways now have a cleaner, gardener and companion.

In the blink of an eye, Paul makes a new friend and nourishes a fresh love relationship. Then, misfortune strikes. And old hateful woman surprises the robot on its property and shoots it down. Its central processing unit survives but the rest of its body is dismantled. Later on, his girlfriend Samatha is brutalized by her father and pushed from the top of a staircase. She passes away.

To soothe his pain, Paul attempts the impossible: combine both deceased friends into a sole being. After a bit of manipulation, Samatha’s body is back on its feet but the result isn’t the one that was planned. Her tortured memory demands justice.

Featuring future technology in a film in always risky. As years pass, science rarely accomplishes the anticipated breakthroughs. To view Deadly Friend these days is even more an exploit because it still pushes the envelope.

The main actors are as old as the characters they incarnate. There seems to be a shortage of this kind of situation in horror movies and it becomes rudely effective when a teenagers start to perish. The actor’s interpretation is good because it awakens compassion. Even BB the robot has a soul of its own!

However, as soon as Samatha’s carcass awakens and tries to (poorly) imitate the scrap on wheels that once was BB, the pleasure ends. Her fingers stiffen, she adopts an uncomfortable position and even runs to attack. From that moment on, the murders are surprising but the plot dies.

When the dust settles, one of the worst turnarounds in horror movie history will take place before your eyes. You will be persuaded that you’re caught in a nightmare. It is only when the credits will scroll that you will understand that you’ve been taken for a fool.

Wes Craven isn’t infallible and here is one of his worst works. It is always comforting to recognize, in his characters, Nancy and Glen from A nightmare on Elm Street. We have this luck here. The base idea isn’t unpleasant but its execution becomes painful at the start of the second half.