I’d be hard pressed to call “Disturbing Behavior” a stellar horror film, but as an artifact of the late nineties teen horror boom, it’s a worthwhile effort by an “X-Files” creative mind. “Disturbing Behavior” fosters a fascinatingly looney tone that works in favor of the premise, even when it strives for inadvertent camp. James Marsden plays Steve, a newcomer to Cradle Bay who has just move in with his family and little sister. Steve is instantly accepted in to the reject crowd of the school, as led unofficially by Nick Stahl’s character Gavin. Despite the strange rift between cliques in the local high school, Steve writes off the separation as simple pack mentality, but is told by Gavin that the popular crowd also known as “Blue Ribbons” are actually more sinister than they seem.
When Steve dismisses his claims and anxious pleas for help, he’s stunned to see Gavin has joined the “Blue Ribbons” and now he begins investigating their group alongside other outcast Rachel, as played as Katie Holmes. There’s a distinct air of menace and suspense with “Disturbing Behavior” that works quite well. While Nutter’s horror film is by no means a masterpiece it, like “Fright Night,” embraces its derivative premise and tries to convey its own unique ideas and overtones about puritanical society and how far some people are willing to go to engineer their ideal child in the age of quick fixes and easy solutions. You have to give Stephen Nutter some credit. In a time where the trend was creating slasher movies and self-aware horror films, “Disturbing Behavior” at least strived to bring us something different. Rather than another masked man hacking up teens, “Disturbing Behavior” is essentially a remake of “The Stepford Wives.”
Rather than providing a commentary on the male animal’s fight against the rising tide of feminism and women’s liberation, we’re given a story of a small town that’s decided to create the perfect teenager. What with teens running rampant with sex, drugs, and running around with independent thought, a local scientist has preyed upon parents’ needs for the perfect student and begins transforming the population of teens in to drones that hang out in groups and indulge in group activities. The problem is the glitch in their programming turn them in to violent murderous monsters prone to the inability to process certain functions. Nutters implements his cast well, offering up folks like Bruce Greenwood and William Sadler, as well as flawed yet empathetic protagonists in Marsden and Holmes. Meanwhile Stahl does a bang up job as a villainous “Blue Ribbon” whose own reprogramming makes him a formidable foe until the very end.
As an added bonus, for someone who was good at playing the girl next door during the late nineties, Katie Holmes looks quite fetching as a Goth Rocker chick. Admittedly my nostalgia kind of fogs up my thoughts on Nutter’s film, but being as objective as I can, “Disturbing Behavior” is a solid horror thriller with a bang up cast of newcomers, all elements indicative of a time where every filmmaker emulated Kevin Williamson. Scream Factory does a good job with the new transfer of “Disturbing Behavior” and pack their release with an full length audio commentary by director David Nutter. There’s also twenty four minutes of deleted scenes with audio commentary by director David Nutter. The audio commentary by Nutter is optional, and there’s even an alternate ending included which is explained by Nutter. Finally, there’s the original theatrical trailer for “Disturbing Behavior.”