Fridge Horror: Even though Paul dies at the end, nothing indicates that BB!Sam is dead. So there's a murderous robot still on the loose and the only person who could stop it is dead.
Nightmare Retardant: The basketball kill scene is played for horror value, but it's so ridiculously filmed that it's impossible to find it horrifying in the slightest.
The decapitated body in the infamous basketball death scene is clearly a puppet. You can even see what looks like the outline of the puppeteer underneath the nightgown.
The exploding head itself is also very obviously just a hollow dummy head.
In the ending Sam's face looks pretty fake. And then her "skin" tears off to reveal a transparently plastic-looking "robotic" face underneath.
Spiritual Adaptation: For its premise and plot elements such as the "cute robot built by a boy genius" aspect, it comes across as the Wes Craven movie that Steven Spielberg and/or Robert Zemeckis never produced (it especially leans towards the Zemeckis side, due to his experience in also working with Splatter Horror and Gorn productions such as Tales from the Crypt). The original cut of the film was more Spielberg-esque to a point Craven was trying to act as the Poor Man's Substitute for the aforementioned filmmaker, but Executive Meddling pigeonholed him back to his horror expertise much to his dismay.
Tear Jerker: When Sam dies, to some extent, it is actually sad.
