`Deadly Friend' features Kristy Swanson when she was 16.



OK, you're not ordering `Deadly Friend' you're reading this review which means that if the prospect of 16 year old Kristy is not enough to persuade you to buy this film nothing else is going to.



Wes Craven's `Deadly Friend' is almost such a bad idea you wonder how he became involved with it. The plot focuses on a 16 year old Paul a brain surgeon, scientist who builds AI robots in his spare time. Moving to a new town with his single mother, they are instantly the talk of the nationhood as their robot Feebee (Think R2D2 with arms) makes a big splash and shows he/it is capable of violence as it fends off a carjacker and a teen biker gang and Feebee is beginning to disobey Paul. "Paul? What are you doing Paul?"



The girl next door is sexy 16 year old Kristy Swanson. For Halloween she dresses in a toga as a Greek goddess. Romance springs between the two teens, but before Paul can play doctor with her, Kristy is beaten to death by her sexually abusive father.



Here the film turns from sexy to sick as Paul lives out his necrophilia fantasy of bringing Kristy back from the dead with spare parts from Feebee. As with all sci-fi we know that bringing someone back from the dead results in at least two things, 1 they're evil, 2 they're super strong. Hence Kristy begins stalking and killing the nasty neighbors while Paul tries to lock her up in his attic.



As I said I don't know what Wes Craven was going for here. Homicidal zombie Kristy Swanson just isn't sexy. What is Paul hoping to accomplish?



`Deadly Friend' does have its moments reminiscent of small town sci-fi ala `Goonies', `Monster Squad,' exedra. One scene worth the price of admission alone is when Kristy hurls a basketball with super human strength at Anne Ramsey (`Throw Mama From the Train') causing her head to explode like a watermelon and her decapitated corpse to stumble around the room spurting blood. It's a scene like this which could have saved Wes Craven's `Red Eye.'