Life Is a Rerun

We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.

Teen horror hosted by Joe Bob, martial arts, and a DC hero.

DEADLY FRIEND (1986) – hosted by Joe Bob Briggs on MonsterVision

Director Wes Craven made some classic movies that rank up there as some of the best the horror genre has to offer, like The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream... but he also has some movies on his filmography that either did not work very well or were severely compromised. One of those compromised movies was the 1986 sci-fi horror film Deadly Friend, which he intended to be a sci-fi thriller without any graphic violence, with a focus on character and dark romance. Unfortunately, test screening audiences were not in the mood for what Craven wanted to give them and instead wanted something more like A Nightmare on Elm Street. So distributor Warner Bros. made Craven re-edit and reshoot, adding in nightmare sequences, cutting out character moments, and filming gory death scenes – including a famous one that involves an elderly woman getting her head smashed with a basketball. This tinkering didn’t do Deadly Friend any favors, as the movie still ended up being a box office disappointment... but even with all of its flaws, it has managed to become a cult favorite over the decades.

Scripted by Bruce Joel Rubin and based on the novel Friend by Diana Henstell, the movie stars Matthew Laborteaux as Paul Conway, a teen science prodigy who has created his own artificially intelligent robot called BB. When Paul secures a scholarship at the medical school Polytech, he and his mom move to a new town to be closer to the school. Paul quickly strikes up a friendship with paperboy Tom (Michael Sharrett) and neighbor girl Samantha (Kristy Swanson), who has an awful home life with her abusive, alcoholic father Harrison (Richard Marcus).

Paul, Tom, Samantha, and BB have some good times together... but tragedy strikes when the shotgun-toting grumpy old lady in the neighborhood, Anne Ramsey as Elvira, shoots BB for trespassing on her property. Things get even worse soon after, when Harrison accidentally kills Samantha by knocking her down the stairs. Paul can’t let go of his friend, though. He steals Samantha’s corpse and places BB’s computer brain in her head. Of course, whether this is a sci-thriller or a gory horror flick, this is a situation that’s going to go terribly wrong. The resurrected and computerized Samantha, who moves like Swanson was drawing inspiration from the famous robot dance, is never herself again – and before long, she’s on a rampage of revenge against the people that have wronged her and her friends: Harrison, Elvira, bullies, etc.

Deadly Friend isn’t what Craven wanted it to be, but it did end up being an entertaining movie. It’s cheesy and weird, but it’s fun to watch.

Legendary drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs hosted a screening of Deadly Friend on his show MonsterVision in August of 1996 – an episode that starts with Joe Bob lamenting the fact that dwarf tossing and dwarf bowling had been outlawed in the state of New York. How could they do this to the little people? When you take away a man’s sport, he has nothing left, so the little people who used to take part in the tossing and bowling events were suing for lost wages. Once Joe Bob is finished with this non-PC comedic bit, he moves on to introducing the movie, which he describes as a Breakfast Club version of Bride of Frankenstein, every bit as disgusting as A Nightmare on Elm Street but not quite as scary. He gives it 3.5 stars out of a possible 4.

During his hosting segments, Joe Bob says that he always enjoys watching Kristy Swanson (even if he feels that the undead version of Samantha looks too good), complains about BB because he hates when movies try to make robots seem cute (it’s too nerdy for his taste), and points out that there were a lot of nasty fathers in 1980s horror movies. By the time the movie has ended, he seems to have a lesser opinion of it, saying he thought it was decent when it was first released, but it doesn’t hold up very well because the story doesn’t go anywhere. Still, he doesn’t deduct any points from his rating.

MIDNIGHT OFFERINGS (1981) – hosted by Joe Bob Briggs

It was a “teen girl horror” double feature the night Joe Bob Briggs hosted Deadly Friend on MonsterVision in August of 1996, as the Wes Craven movie was followed by the made-for-TV teenage witch movie Midnight Offerings, directed by Rod Holcomb from a script by Juanita Bartlett. Joe Bob said that he doesn’t usually like witch stories, but this one won him over. It was executive produced by Stephen J. Cannell, the man who brought us classic television like The Rockford Files, The Greatest American Hero, The A-Team, 21 Jump Street, and a whole lot more, and Joe Bob appreciated that the movie has a tight TV construction feel to it. 

The movie stars Melissa Sue Anderson as Vivian Sotherland, who has gained witchy powers due to the fact that she’s the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter and uses those powers to get ahead in her scholastic and extracurricular activities. She’ll cast a spell and cause the death of a teacher who was giving her grief, then use some telekinesis to cause a disappointing member of the rally squad to hurt her leg so she can be replaced by someone more capable. There are a couple areas in her life that Vivian hasn’t managed to improve with her spells, though. For one thing, her mom, Cathryn Damon as Diane Sotherland – who is also a seventh daughter with supernatural abilities – disapproves of her daughter’s quest for power and aims to stop her. For another, Vivian’s boyfriend David Sterling (Patrick Cassidy) has discovered that she’s a witch and is trying to distance himself from her, even though Vivian insists they’re still together.

David is so done with Vivian, he starts pursuing a relationship with the new girl in town, Mary McDonough as Robin Prentiss... and when Vivian starts lashing out at Robin, it’s revealed that Robin is yet another witch. We’re on track for a climactic witch battle, and Robin gets prepared by visiting with a witch expert played by Marion Ross of Happy Days and training, honing her abilities so she’ll be able to protect herself against Vivian. The movie could have been more interesting and exciting than it is, there are times when your attention might threaten to wander, but the concept is a lot of fun.

During his hosting segments, Joe Bob advises viewers not to try to break up with a witch like David does, gets into the idea of dueling witches, says the movie reminds him of Vincent Price and Peter Lorre playing dueling warlocks in The Raven, and, since Vivian’s dad Sherm (Gordon Jump) is a questionable fellow, points out that dads in ‘80s horror movies were wicked but weak. They couldn’t be total villains because they were such weaklings. When Robin seeks out the help of Marion Ross and starts training for the witch fight, Joe Bob feels the movie has become “like Rocky,” with Ross serving as a mentor “like Pat Morita” from The Karate Kid. He’s having so much fun, he says the movie is pretty decent for something people were watching at 2 in the morning. And in the end, it lives up to Joe Bob’s belief that all great witch movies end in fire.

TIGER CLAWS (1992)

A serial killer called the Death Dealer has been taking out martial arts masters, and homicide detective Linda Masterson (Cynthia Rothrock), who is into martial arts herself, has a theory that the killer must be a martial artist as well. She’s paired with fellow martial arts-practicing detective Tarek Richards (Jalal Merhi), who has been suspended from his job working vice because he doesn’t play by the rules, but his suspension is short-lived because homicide needs him. From the crime scene photos, Tarek is immediately able to tell that the killer practices an ancient martial arts style called “tiger claw,” which takes you to the edge physically and mentally. Those who practice tiger claw are the most lethal martial artists – and the Death Dealer is out there to prove it.

To get to the bottom of this, and to level the playing field, Tarek starts studying the art of tiger claw as well... but the longer he trains, the more dangerous he becomes, to his own concern. This is the sort of martial art that can lead you to the dark side, like training at a Cobra Kai dojo in the era of John Kreese.

Martial arts champion Merhi launched his Canadian production company Film One in the late ‘80s, balancing his filmmaking endeavors with his day job working in the family jewelry business. His first movie was a troubled production that was barely released into the world. Tiger Claws was his shot at redemption – and he pulled it off, working with director Kelly Makin and screenwriter J. Stephen Maunder to craft a really cool martial arts movie / cop thriller. And, of course, it helped that he was sharing the screen with Cynthia Rothrock and Bolo Yeung, who is reliably intimidating and downright creepy as the Death Dealer.

“Martial arts cops vs. martial arts serial killer” is a great set-up, and it was brought to screen in a fun, action-packed, bone-crunching way, building up to a climactic fight where Tarek has to take on the Death Dealer while wearing handcuffs. I wasn’t familiar with this movie until recently, but it was such a solid success when it was released in ‘92 that spawned two sequels.

SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS (2023)

In 2019, director David F. Sandberg brought us a film based on the DC Comics character Shazam, delivering an entertaining movie with a lighthearted, family friendly tone. It was well-received, a decent box office success, and it made me like a hero character that I wasn’t familiar with before. Sandberg returned for the 2023 sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which is a fine follow-up... but in a surprising turn of events, the movie was a box office failure. Public perception of the DC Comics films wasn’t great at that point, but it’s kind of shocking that so few of the people who had seen and enjoyed the first movie showed up for the second movie. Shazam! made almost $368 million at the box office. Shazam! Fury of the Gods barely passed the $134 million mark.

At the core of the story is Asher Angel as Billy Batson, a young man in foster care who becomes a superhero when he speaks the word “Shazam,” since his superhero form has “the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury.” Now, thanks to Shazam, all of his foster siblings have super-abilities, too. Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), Pedro Peña (Jovan Armand), Mary Bromfield (Grace Caroline Currey), Darla Dudley (Faithe Herman), Eugene Choi (Ian Chen), they all turn into superheroes, with Currey being the only one who plays her character in both forms. For the others, their superhero alter egos are played by Adam Brody, D.J. Cotrona, Meagan Good, and Ross Butler. They’re called the “Shazamily,” but they’re starting to drift apart now that they’re all getting older. Facing his 18th birthday, Billy isn’t sure how much longer he’ll even be in the foster home.

The “Shazamily” will need to get their act together, because Hespera and Kalypso (Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu), daughters of the Titan Atlas, are out to enslave and torment humanity, and somehow Freddy’s crush Anne (Rachel Zegler) is also mixed up in their plans. Sure, the villain part of the story isn’t exactly fascinating, and it’s delivered in a way so that most of it will probably just fly over viewers’ heads (and viewers might not care if they understand what’s going on or not), but it’s serviceable and it allows for some good action, including scenes involving unicorns and a dragon. I often find that the action sequences in DC movies drag on for way too long and stop being interesting well before they’re over, and that’s the case here as well, but it wasn’t a major issue.

Shazam himself, played by Zachary Levi, is still a fun character to watch, and so are his fellow Shazamily members – whether they’re in superhero form or not. So I thought this was a solid sequel, better than its reputation and box office would indicate.