Disturbing Behavior (1998) Horror Movie Review

by James (aka Crypticpsych)
(New Jersey)

It Doesn't Matter If You're Not Perfect... You Will Be.

***Reader-Submitted Review***

Sometimes, a movie comes along that shows many problems with the horror/thriller genre while simultaneously being an above average movie in and of itself. Disturbing Behavior is one of those films.

You've probably never heard of Disturbing Behavior before this review, and this isn't a surprising fact. First, Disturbing Behavior was only released in some theaters for one weekend in 1998. This is probably because, that same weekend in June (JUNE? FOR A HORROR FILM?), a little war movie… Saving Private Ryan, was released. Disturbing Behavior was not the first horror movie to fall victim to a bad release date though, and it certainly wasn't the last. (The Mist (Thanksgiving) and Grindhouse (Easter) are two great recent modern films that fell victim to this… horror movies have an annoying tendency to fail around holidays OTHER than Halloween.

Also, Disturbing Behavior was released two years after Scream, a year after Scream 2, and a year after I Know What You Did Last Summer. Thus, it was swallowed up in the "lets release a quickie movie and strike while this genre's still profitable" glut that hit teen horror in the 90s. That phenomenon is hitting the genre now with the onslaught of "Saw" and "Hostel"-esque movies that are diluting the pool.

Finally, and most annoying of all, Disturbing Behavior is one of the greatest examples of MPAA rating system crucifixion that I have ever witnessed. Sure, the movie still received an R rating... but by the end of this review, you'll understand what I mean:

The plot goes like this (trying as hard as possible to be spoiler-free here...). Steve (James Marsden pre-Cyclops in "X-Men") moves with his mother, father, and sister to Cradle Bay in an attempt to start a new life and move on after his older brother's death. He attends Cradle Bay High School and tries to fit in. On his first day, he meets up with Gavin (Nick Stahl pre-"Sin City") and his albino sidekick U.V. (Chad Donnella), two nonconformist stoners, and their friend and pre-requisite "bad girl" hottie, Rachel (Katie Holmes pre-Scientology). The three of them show Steve that the usual clique-ness of high school is far more sinister at Cradle Bay High where a clique called the Blue Ribbons has formed. The Blue Ribbons are a gang of preppy, jockish, nerdy, snobbish (yes, all at the same time) students who are basically the school's elite. They get the highest grades, they wear the same type of clothing, and they look down, sometimes violently, on any other person or group. They also have a tendency to explode in rage and aggression whenever sexually stimulated, shown in a nicely filmed quick-cut music video style. These outbursts are always, of course, immediately covered up by the local police.

Things take a turn for the worse when gearhead Dickie (played by Tygh Runyan) gets into a massive fight with a Blue Ribbon in class one day, meets up with the entire group of Blue Ribbons that night who proceed to beat the holy high hell out of him, then the next morning is suddenly a straight-laced member of the Blue Ribbon group and destroys his beloved classic car with a sledgehammer in front of them.

It's at this point that Gavin reveals to Steve his theory that the Blue Ribbons are students brainwashed to be this way by school counselor Dr. Edgar Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood) and attempts to prove his theory by showing him how three of his old stoner friends all met the same fate as Dickie and are now Blue Ribbons. Gavin then takes a skeptical Steve to spy on a Blue Ribbon meeting, begging him to believe his story... only for them to overhear that Gavin is next for "the program". When Steve still doesn't believe in the magnitude of the threat (to the point of disarming steve of a gun he was going to use to kill his parents and any Blue Ribbons at his house), Gavin is left defenseless and the next day appears at school, the newest member of the Blue Ribbons. And it's starting to look more and more like Steve could be next.

In general, the movie succeeds because of a very nice dark atmospheric soundtrack that, this being a teen horror film from the 90s, has just the right amount of rock/alternative blended in. Visually, the city of Cradle Bay has this dark quality to it mixed with an air of something like "flawed perfection" (from the townspeople and police) that fits the movie perfectly. It's for this reason that later scenes in the movie, such as one filmed in an asylum, are some of the most memorable and disturbing in the whole film. Sure the actors in that scene are creepy, but the lighting and the atmosphere nail down the perfect feeling of dread. The dialogue is surprisingly good overall and does seem to fit your average joe q. teenager (or blue ribbon-esque teenager if you prefer). Most of all though, the movie is memorable for one thing: its acting.

Disturbing Behavior is one of the few movies I have seen where the movie shines even though the lead character is nowhere near perfect. Marsden overacts pretty extensively in this picture, playing the tough guy-hero a little too close to type. While he is likeable and watchable and you want him to succeed, to some degree you fail to connect with him overall in the movie. Holmes fails as well, not so much from bad acting but from being criminally underused in the movie. But thankfully, Stahl, Greenwood, and another actor I will mention momentarily, save them both. It even seems the director kind of knows this because the first sequence in the movie involves Stahl to some small degree, not Marsden. Stahl nails his role as Gavin and shows excellent chemistry with U.V. When you discover what the Blue Ribbons have done to his friends, you feel for him. When he is left defenseless you want him to survive. But what makes him great in this movie is the way that, after he changes, he shifts personality and character so perfectly that you can easily forget what he once was when he's on screen. Similarly, for reasons you'll see in the movie, Greenwood and the Blue Ribbons play villains who would be merely average in other movies. But aspects of Caldicott's character and past that the viewer discovers elevate him and his performance to the point that the man's psychotic yet stoic worship of science becomes deeply disturbing. Similarly, the sheer cold cultish ruthlessness of the Blue Ribbons toward others makes them spectacularly hateable.

The other character that saves this movie from mediocrity or average status is Dorian Newberry, the school's crazy janitor, played perfectly by genre stalwart Bill Sadler. And thus we come back to the MPAA. When I first saw this movie, it was an airing on USA many years ago. I loved it. It instantly became one of my favorite movies in the genre because of Stahl and Greenwood, but one of my favorites OVERALL, because of Sadler(As Gavin puts it, he has that "full-on Boo radley-village idiot-quasimodo thing going"). Sadler first nails down the mental midget aspect of the character through Newberry's over-the-top obsession with ridding the school of rats and through his diction. As the movie continues, though the character evolves, much like in Gavin's description. As the astute will notice, Gavin's comparing him with two characters who knew far more than they let on or was believed. And when Steve confronts Newberry over this, a whole new level of brilliance spews out of Newberry's mouth that proves just what an underappreciated acting genius Sadler is.

The problem is that you may never see it. I didn't realize at the time, but when I saw this movie originally, I was watching a director's cut. Everything was left in. And I do mean everything. Thus, I learned the past of Cradle Bay, I saw how Steve's brother died, I saw more of his relationship with his parents and understood their mental process better, I learned why Steve was possibly going to become a Blue Ribbon, I learned still more about Newberry (including some of the best lines in the whole movie).

And then I bought the DVD. And I wondered what the hell I was looking at. The movie was still good, but it was a notch below my first viewing. This is because the DVD that is available contains the R-rated theatrical cut. 10 scenes were cut from the theatrical cut, all available on the DVD, that, when I saw them in the movie, elevated the movie to a surprising level and didn't so much fill in plot holes as make the movie flow better and be better overall. But apparently this movie, rated R for violence, sex, language, and drugs thought it was smarter to slice it all out. In fact, I bet you this movie would be remembered right now, if it had gotten the PG-13 rating it deserved. Apparently we can rate movies R now because it might convince teenagers that conformity is wrong and we shouldn’t all be soul-dead zombie slaves to authority... but I digress (for further reference, see "The Craft", rated R primarily because it dealt with witchcraft... ooooooooo).

However, the fact that I am still able to see these scenes, though outside of the movie, helps keep this movie above average in my eyes. It's not spectacular by any means, but it is far better than some critics who only saw the theatrical cut would have you believe. And I think, if you give this story about the horrors of conformity a chance and remember to watch the cut scenes, you too will, in Rachel's words, find this movie "razor".