Disturbing Behavior (1998)

Back in late April of this year I was searching threw the Netflix vault of titles and came across this film it looked good to me having that late 90's Scream vibe to the cover,a solid looking cast, & I was in the desire to watch a film I haven't seen before so that's what lead to me watching it and watching it more than four times.Disturbing Behavior(1998) is a film about a family who moves to a city where they intend to start fresh lives after the death of their son & brother and one of the family members the other son goes to a High School where he runs into group of peers Gavin(a rebellious cocky likable guy),UV(a major pot-head) & Rachel(the love interest of the film).One of the new found Friends Gavin portrayed by Terminator 3:Rise of the Machine's Nick Stahl suspects something off with the other kids of the school of whom he used to be good friends with and the new friend Steve(X-Men's James Marsden) thinks he's just nuts.The film goes on to show you a deep routed family conflict dealing with the passing of the deceased family member and also features Katherine Isabelle(of Freddy Vs. Jason & Ginger Snaps fame) as Steve's sister.The film then reveals the mystery of the film by having Gavin become a member of the Blue Ribbons and to show you very subtly the Janitor knows something is up too.The film then goes to explain that their's this corporation who takes children with odd ,unfavorable & etc, behavior and controls them to doing their biding then it's up for Steve and Rachel to stop it.Now this film is actually very good in my eyes it could've been a masterpiece if everything was left alone in the film tough because of my knowledge on this film a whole bunch of scenes had to be cut for the DVD Home Video release of the film and you could tell because some of the film feels lacking and some of the characters just needed more time to develop.The film's main strength is in how it slowly reveals the intriguing mystery beyond the story it's nice tone and setting and not to mention score.This film also features many similarities to another film of the same year or year before called The Faculty(now I also enjoyed that film) and that begs the question which is the better film we'll that's a hard question because I love both films very much but their must be decided victor between the two so let's dissect the strengths and weaknesses of both films of which they both have: The Faculty's strength is more in the characters of which is understandable because that film didn't have to sacrifice so much so for bulls!t reasoning behind the studios and getting to understand their traits and to have some witty Kevin Willamson dialogue in the film.Disturbing Behavior's strength is in it's mythology of the corporation and setting and atmosphere.It is truly sad Disturbing Behavior had to trim down it's character elements because I have a deeper interest in their back-story and the events their going through whereas The Faculty just offered me character development to characters of which I'm not to interested in their story.Disturbing Behavior is a good film regardless just if it was a lot less messed around with it would be a lot better in my eyes.My Next Review will be of:Halloween(2007) coming within a few days of this reviews postage I hope I brought some interesting insight to the film and didn't come off dumb in this review as this is my first review for IMDb.

Disturbing behavior is a really good movie that takes awhile to get into but once you do you get hooked into wanting to know what is going to happen next in the captivating plot of this movie and even though I may sound like it no I am not a member of the blue band club! This movie has it all mystery, drama, action ,suspense and romance. It also provides an excellent villain in the evil brainwashing Dr Caldicott. I mean how evil do you have to be to brain wash your own daughter and fail and then lock her up in a mental institute. This movie has you waiting to see the demise of the evil Dr caldicott and the blue band club and it finally happens at the end of the movie or does it? You'll have to watch and find out I guarantee you will be surprised by the ending. I give this movie 9/10 and I highly recommend if you have the opportunity to do so to check it out you wont regret it.

You gotta admit the concepts great, it's idea original, you'll almost want to believe it's true, but if you did, you'd feel like you'd have the IQ of a wing nut. New family, including Marsden in one of his earlier roles, move to this nice little seaside town with a cute name. But this is no ordinary town, for it's youngsters of lower rank, have been reformed into fine upscale citizens, whereas they were all once of lower rank. They're snatched by this organization, including teachers (sounds a little 'Faculty' doesn't it) and parents, where their brains are operated on, and they return, virtual buttheads, (a little 'Society' too) where they have no time for losers. If I was the result of those jocks, I'd go hell for leather, out of this place. Marsden and his Sis notice the disturbing behavior taking place over the campus, one jock going nuts in the cafeteria. Despite warnings at the start by a dropout, (Nick Stahl) who knows the whole deal here, where Marsden isn't sold, he soon becomes a believer, after Stahl meets a dreaded fate: He becomes a new butthead. Stahl's great monologue, involving an insight into the different types of groups of campus, in cool wording was a moment in this film. DB also has a shocking start, an intriguing selling point which will to impel the viewer onwards. This movie, has ongoing suspense, tight flow, but when it all comes down, the unavoidable in your face fact, is that's it's just a stupid idiotic film, many other of it's ilk in the 1999-2000+ better. Checkout William Sadler, wasted in a fine performance a nutty caretaker. You can do better than this one while perusing the thriller/horror shelves of your local video shelves, as this one might not cut it.

DISTURBING BEHAVIOR (1998) has an interesting premise that is well-executed the first half, but falls totally apart in the second. On the surface a teen flick, it has all the standard elements: cliques, peer pressure, angst, crushes, etc. Two groups vie for the attention/control of the 'new kid in school' Steve Clark (played by James Marsden). Frankly, I was thrown off by Marsden as I found him to be a bit too mature (age-wise) to be convincing as a "green teen"! Steve immediately is befriended by school rebellious school outcasts Gavin (the scene-stealing Nick Stahl) and Rachel (a Goth-looking Katie Holmes). Marsden is noticeably older than both Stahl and Holmes, both of whom at this time were actually teenagers, so I was a bit thrown off with him playing a teen.Stahl actually delivers the best performance in the film, and carries it for the first half, then disappears for a significant part of the second half (there is a reason!). Marsden tries and shows signs of good acting, but he wasn't given much to work with and is essentially playing the typical interchangeable hero part. Holmes fares much worse as she is rather unconvincing as a Goth chick! Her character is pretty much lifeless throughout. Other than Stahl, the most interesting characters are teen loser Andy (played gleefully by Tobias Mehler) and the weird school janitor Dorian (an over the top, enjoyable performance by William Sadler). The usually reliable Bruce Greenwood's gets stuck in the cliché role of the town villain, replete with fake mustache to PROVE that he's evil!The first half is very "disturbing" and combines elements of mystery, horror, and teen drama. The mass teen weirdness is relayed very slyly and creepily to the viewer and it really looks like the film is going somewhere! But once DISTURBING BEHAVIOR strips away subtleties and reveals the plot, it gets dull very fast! It ends up being very predictable and devolves into a typical 'the whole town is evil' flick!I think that the film wanted to be a satire on societal conformity and individuality, but the final act plays like a zombie-horror flick with rather unconvincing 'action' scenes and some very cheesy moments and bad acting! The very end of the flick is exactly what I would expect in a dime-a-dozen horror flick, which this movie ends up being!