Fan review,thoughts about movie and questions about original version

One of my fave Wes Craven films and one of my fave 1980's horrors.

Yes,it has very over the top plot and some scenes are both crazy and funny,but i still like it. In fact,fk that. I LOVE this movie. If you're gonna be laughing about it or post stupid replies,don't bother cause you're only gonna be wasting space on this board. I am huge fan of this movie,and i don't give a sht about all the bs i might get,i'm not gonna change my opinion.

Btw,i'm also fan of many other Craven films,from 100% fun stuff like Shocker,more serious movies like Red Eye,or combination of serious and not-too-serious like The People Under The Stairs.

Yes,i know,this movie has shtload of problems with mixed direction and forced horror scenes,but i don't think that it's as bad as some of the Craven's other work like Hills Have Eyes 2. And it's important to know that most of the problems that Deadly Friend has is not because of the director,but because of the Warner Bros studio. Since i'm not gonna spend most of this post telling how some asholes from movie studios can fk up the good movie ( Exorcist 3 and Nightbreed anyone?) i'm gonna talk about what i think of Deadly Friend. Spoiler alert.

Script; Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin did a good job with script,even though it's somewhat obvious that some of it was changed and added because of studio requests. Rubin also wrote scripts for two great movies from 1990; Jacob's Ladder which i am a huge fan of,and Ghost.

Movie; I think that actors did a good job with their roles,script works for about 90% of the movie (hey,i have to be honest,right?),horror atmosphere is quite good,jump scares are sometimes predictable but they work,gore scenes were not really needed (more on that later),but even though some are laughable,i think that they are actually well done with solid makeup effects and infamous "basketball kill" is definatly one of the funniest kills ever and one of the best head explosions i ever saw in movie,along with the ones in Scanners,Maniac and Prowler. Nightmare scenes from movie are often called stupid,but i think that they were quite creepy to be honest,specially one where Sam dreams about killing her dad. Hey,if Wes Craven is directing a nightmare scene,then you know it's a good one.

I know that many people would probaly disagree with me,but i think that ending,at least first part of it,is quite sad. But that second part with ultra stupid-super fking idiotic "she's a robot!" ending is one thing that i absolutely hate.

After some research i found out that movie was originally very different then what was released. It was originally meant to be more of a love story then horror,but asholes from Warner Bros had different ideas and Craven was told to make the movie bloodier. I think that it's pure blsht. If all gore was taken out,movie would still be solid horror and with,like they originally wanted,interesting and dark love story.

You can actually see that there was more to this film with the romance subplot,and few of those scenes between Paul and Sam after she's been brought back to life are very well done both by director and actors. And i'm not talking about scenes when he tries to hide her or when he runs into the murder scene,i'm talking about scenes like when Sam is looking at photos of her and Paul and when she shows him one of those photos. Movie would probaly benefit more from those scenes,and original cut probaly did have more of that.

Instead,what we got is movie that jumps from "kids" horror to usual over the top 80's horror. More serious subjects that it touches,like child abuse are almost overshadowed with gore scenes that really don't feel like they fit anywhere.

I can see why Craven and Rubin disowned the movie,which is kinda of a shame cause i would really like to see how different original version was before they had to changed it. I'm a sucker for movies that have been tempered with in post production from one reason or another,so maybe that's one of the reasons why i appreciate this movie for what it could have been or for what it originally was.

Putting all this aside,i would like to ask does anybody knows something more about original version of DF; was there some article from fangoria or something about it,some interview or something like that ect...I do know that editor Michael Eliot did re-editing of the movie after bad previews and reshoots. This kinda makes sense cause he also re-edited other Warner Bros movies like Out For Justice and Showdown In Little Tokyo to make them shorter and faster,and by the looks of it,DF also had similar post production editing.


I did find some rare stuff myself;

Spanish lobby cards that show some deleted scenes;

Paul and Sam sitting on some porch and kissing,
Paul and Sam in Halloween costumes talking with same biker guy who bothered Paul earlier,
Paul at hospital sitting next to Sam after she died for the first time,
and one pic from original death scene of Elvira.

Here's ebay link to view these cards;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RA38-DEADLY-FRIEND-WES-CRAVEN-HORROR-Lobby-Set -Spain-/151096870929?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232e134811


Watching original trailer and reading about movie on wiki,i found out that Elvira's death scene was originally filmed with Sam smashing her in front door of Elvira's house. After watching movie again,this is what i noticed;

In the scene where Elvira's body is carried out on guerney you can still see that door of her house have big hole which was made in original version of her death scene. Dialogue said by Dr. Johanson where he says that her head was smashed all over the room is heard offscreen,meaning that it was probaly added later when scene was changed.

Theatrical trailer also has part in end where Sam says "You're so cute",but that scene is not in the movie. One thing that i have to mention is that trailer loks like it's edited with footage from both versions. Original death scene of Elvira and ending line are from first cut,Paul's nightmare about Sam's dad is from reshoot...

Here's a link for trailer,to see the scenes that were deleted look at;

0:44, 0:48, 0:51 - Original death scene of Elvira
1:02 - Deleted dialogue from Sam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQj2GKwKp5w


This short TV spot also has a shot of Elvira's original death at 0:15;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnNoU3OJw7I



One thing that's very obvious when watching the first part of the ending is that it probaly originally ended with Paul holding Sam's dead body while camera moves from them and up.

I know that i'm probaly one of the few fans that this movie has,but either way,i would sure like to see some new edition of it,and i don't mean remake cause i'm fkin tired of 'em. What i'm hoping for is that someone will release original version of the movie. This and Exorcist 3 are two films that i think deserve that. Hell,since director's cut of Nightbreed has been discovered (finally),maybe more other underrated movies will get better treatment.

Anyway,once again,anyone knows something more about original version of the movie or just has some GOOD words to say about it (cause i'm tired of bad reviews) go right ahead.

Personally,i think that movie is fkin underrated and that it deserves special DVD/Blu-Ray edition by Shout Factory. Sht,i think that Deadly Blessing got one,so why shouldn't Deadly Friend get one too? Just by looking at web sites like IMDb,it's obvious that it has its fans and it's definatly a cult movie. And if by any chance original cut or any deleted scenes would be included in special edition,it would be great.


My rating - 10/10


If you don't like it that's fine,but don't go posting replies full of bad comments. I would like to keep this post just for comments by fans,and not by haters.

Also,for any fans of the movie and Wes Craven,check out this video about his career. Deadly Friend is discussed between 34:05 and 43:32. Some smart comments about problems that film has are mentioned and why it should have been either family horror or straight horror,and not both.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_sxvmd6ZXU