Disturbing Behavior (1998)

[CathedralCider 0]

Who could ask for more from a late 90's teen horror movie? Let me list the ways: a weird wise janitor, a quaint island community, the 'new kid' in town, a lesson about the dangers in conformity, Director David Nutter's first foray into film includes this thriller with mass appeal at the time. The director's impression of a small-town high school is somewhat over-the-top; evidenced in letter jackets in the lunchroom, hot rods in the high school parking lot, bake sales in the hallways, front-of-class Dickens readings, and a caricatured school that would make John Hughes roll his eyes. Marsden and Holmes as students-become-detectives are quite good at suspending disbelief throughout the film--which is astounding in itself. There are three consistent themes that put this movie way over-the-top: absentee parents, a very loud soundtrack, and aggressive teens who seem to be able to commit assault without consequences. It's a great guilty pleasure but a reminder of the slew of imitators who followed the Scream franchise. Available on Netflix instant.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

A look at Box Office Mojo showed me that this film did about 17 million in the summer of '98, so it didn't look like it appealed to anyone really. I think I most remember this film from NOT remembering it, or at least not even being aware of it at the time. I spent the summer on TDY in Saudi Arabia, and while we were aware of most of the pop culture happenings going on back home (like the explosion of "boy bands" that mostly came and went during that exact 97-day time period), a lot of the more minor under-performing films of the time that came out over the summer didn't hit my radar until they popped up on VHS that Winter. I was curious that Katie Holmes had been in a film that I didn't remember coming out, and then I saw it, and then I was less curious about Katie Holmes films from that point on.

[seanotron 2307]

This movie is basically The Stepford Kids. It has a great camp factor, which makes it fun to watch. I could see this being a fun episode.

[BagguhMcGuirk 104]

The only things I remember from this movie was a crazy janitor who hated rats and realizing Katie Holmes was the hottest woman I had ever seen.

[DeathToMikeyBay 130]

I just caught this last night on Netflix. Definitely deserves an episode.

 

Other movie by the same writer: Gone in 60 Seconds, Con Air, Kangaroo Jack

 

Follows Paul's sign of a terrible movie being under 90 minutes.

 

Okay, so the movie is a town with a clique of high school kids who act impossibly goodie all American, but there's a dark secret behind it as more kids are brainwashed into joining. Basically Stepford Wives meets The Faculty.

 

At least that's what it's SUPPOSED to be. It's such a mess. Movies like this are supposed to build suspense and gradually reveal the mystery (The Faculty managed it). It feels like there was a missing half hour of scenes that were deleted; several major plot points set up that never get resolved (the sheriff, the best friend).

 

In addition to 30 minutes of plot missing, the remaining 87 minutes seem to have the scene order totally jumbled and random. In THE VERY FIRST SCENE, we see one of the Stepford students go psycho, commit double homicide, and learn that the sheriff is in on it. The police being in on it should have been revealed later, and the acts of violence by the kids should have escalated. Instead, they have the most violent act as THE VERY FIRST SCENE. They needed to establish the town and students as picture perfect at first, like Stepford Wives. They needed to escalate the danger and scope as the movie went on, like The Faculty.

 

It can't be said how much of an acting zero Nick Stahl is. Did ANYONE like him in Terminator 3? He was only decent as the psycho Bobby from Bully, a perfect imitation of the psycho Bobby from Twin Peaks.

 

So Nick is the protagonist who makes friends with the lead stoner. The stoner steals scenes and is so prominent (especially next to Nick's non-acting) that he's pretty much the main character, even though Nick is supposed to be. Then halfway through he joins the Stepford clique. Will their friendship break through the brainwashing? Who knows! It is never resolved. The friend just disappears.

 

The Stepford students are able to violently assault multiple people out in public and get away with it. One rips the nose rings out of kids at a crowded supermarket and throws them 20 feet into display stands. There was more law & order in Road House.

 

The movie is crazy with its portrayal of the mentally ill. They break into a mental hospital where everyone is Sloth from The Goonies who can't stop screaming. They try to calm down one screaming girl patient before Katie Holmes just slugs her, knocking her out cold. The hospital break in? Nothing ever comes of it. 10 minutes of wasted filler in an 87 minute movie that's already underdeveloped on plot.

 

The movie never explains how the adults are cool with the psycho brainwashing. They just say that the kids are getting great grades now. It never explains why the sheriff is in on it, to the point that he doesn't care if one of the kids guns down his deputy. Or the protagonist's parents being cool with the principal's gang of kids giving their son a gang beating before hauling him off. Those must be some kickass grades.

 

It's telegraphed way in advance how the janitor is going to save the day...except his plan really doesn't do anything and the movie just ends.

 

The football team captain tries to rape Katie Holmes, telling her to "give up the plate". The fuck saying is that? Is that supposed to be a baseball reference? From the football captain?

 

Other nonsense sports phrase: one of the kids tells a brainwash victim to "be the ball", despite him not playing sports. In fact, we never see anyone play sports. You get a letter jacket when you're brainwashed but that's it. At the end, the protagonist repeats, "Be the ball," to the villain before pushing him off a cliff. What?? The villain never said that, and what does it have to do with being pushed off a cliff? For throwing someone's words back at them to work, they have to: A) actually be their words, and B.) ironically apply to the situation.

 

The ending (spoiler): protagonist and Holmes are going to run away from town before they get brainwashed. Villain tries to stop them. Villain and all the brainwashed kids are killed. Everyone involved in the brainwashing is now dead. Protagonist and Katie Holmes still run away anyway, rather than say go back to their parents, explain the whole thing, expose the brainwashing facility, and clear their names since they must be the prime suspects in multiple murders.

 

Speaking of spoilers, they set it up halfway that the janitor's sonic rodent repellent machine causes a short circuit in the mind control implants. So at the end, he unveils an entire truck full of the things on full blast. So the plan is to use that to short out the mind control implants so everyone goes back to normal? Nope! All they do is cause the brainwashed kids to go insane with pain and chase after the truck to destroy the machines. The janitor waits until they're all swarmed on his truck before driving it off a cliff and taking them all with him! So basically the plan was to murder all the kids, no different from just getting a gun and shooting them all.

 

So yeah the movie was a mess. The Faculty is far from a classic, but it got right everything this movie flubbed. It knew how to crib from Invasion of the Body Snatchers by starting with a sense of normalcy that's shattered as more and more people are taken over until it's just a handful of normal people left. Disturbing Behavior starts out with the clique committing double homicide in the very first scene and over the course of the entire movie, adds a whopping 2 more people to the clique through brainwashing. All they had to do was add a measly 2 minutes of footage showing how more and more kids in the school were wearing the brainwashed blue letter jackets until the entire school was taken over. Just 2 minutes would have gone so far in making a better movie.

 

Damn though I forgot how hot Katie Holmes was back in the day. It must say something how godawful terrible The Gift was when nobody went to see it despite it being her topless debute at the height of her popularity.

[Ribelin2000 23]

Interesting fact about this movie: it came out the exact same day as Saving Private Ryan, in July of 1998. As you probably could imagine, it got crushed like an aluminum can at the box office.

[DeathToMikeyBay 130]

It could have been released opposite Pluto Nash and still bombed.

 

In terms of pacing, I don't think I've ever seen a more inept thriller. Not even any of the Freddy or Jason sequels.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

I always used to get this movie confused with Teaching Mrs. Tingle.

[RyanSz 3140]

There were a lot of movies and shows like this around that time where bad kids would be turned into perfect angels either by being replaced by clones or lobotomized. ABC family did a similar movie called Perfect Little Angels and I remember the main character going to her friends house to give her a Wallflowers CD as a gift and then catching the girl's parents breaking the CD as it would corrupt the work that had been done on the daughter, because we all know that the Wallflowers are the band of Satan.

 

And FYI there is actually a TV movie called The Stepford Children.

[Turdinator 1]

I saw this movie in the theater when I was in 8th grade and I only remember a couple of parts: creepy guy grabbing Katie Holmes' boob and that Harvey Danger song playing when they escape the "hospital."

[jarrycanada 2483]

around the same time, David Nutter was creating other gems like superboy!

 

was just IMDBing this topic and found this. Superboy, first time I've ever heard of it.

what channel was this on? I swear to god someone is messing with space and time as we know it and rewriting history! PROOF

 

Superboy John Haymes 1988

 

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

I have to wounder was this Tim Burens inspiration for superman.

holyshit it's all there.

[RyanSz 3140]

Is that "The Total Package" Lex Luger?!