Wes Craven's major studio follow-up to his influential A Nightmare on Elm Street could be described as a combination of The Bride of Frankenstein, Short Circuit, and an after-school special. It's an intriguing combination of elements, but the end result is a schizoid mess. Craven's direction is surprisingly awkward; it abruptly shifts its tone back and forth between teen-friendly comedy and grisly horror, and lacks the intense, sustained atmosphere of his previous horror hits. Deadly Friend also suffers from a disjointed story line that glosses over characterization and believable plotting in favor of cheap thrills as it degenerates into what is essentially a slasher movie with a technological gimmick. The cast give their roles a decent amount of energy but can't rise above the paper-thin quality of their characterizations. To make matters worse, the film is burdened with a number of nightmare sequences thrown in to capitalize on Craven's success with A Nightmare on Elm Street. These moments show that Craven knows how to craft an effective knee-jerk shock, but they are throwaway bits that further pull the audience out of a story that is already weak and under-motivated. Craven and screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin would soon move on to better things (Craven's next film was the impressive The Serpent and the Rainbow and Rubin went on to write Ghost), but their efforts here are likely to leave even hardcore horror fans cold.