Very similar in feel to the same year's THE FACULTY, this teen movie is professionally made (if a little too "slick") and well-directed by David Nutter. Thankfully, instead of making yet another clichéd slasher movie, the producers opted for a STEPFORD WIVES-style conspiracy full of paranoid behaviour and brainwashing. The result is a mixed combination of science fiction and thriller films with plenty of horror content thrown in too. Although plenty clichéd, DISTURBING BEHAVIOUR proves to be a harmless enough evening's entertainment with some nice ideas and good performances, but far from a classic. After a brilliant plot set-up the film gradually falls to pieces at around the halfway mark, becoming an action-orientated film with one climax after another. Whilst the first half of the movie concentrates on building atmosphere and suspense - something it does very well - the second half is a plot less, predictable, and shallow viewing experience.The flaws are too numerous to mention and typical for the genre. Bad, "teeny" style music playing loudly at inopportune moments and lots of would-be subtle in-jokes and references to other, better films. Then there's the lack of explanation as to the brainwashing experiment itself, which is just kind of glossed over without any real depth. The action scenes are well-staged and stick to being realistic without any glossy special effects, which is good, although the silly ending (which owes a debt of inspiration to the Pied Piper story) lets it down.James Marsden (X-MEN) and Katie Holmes (THE GIFT) take the leads as the unconventional lovers and are seemingly cast for their good looks rather than their talent, as both are wooden and unconvincing at times. Luckily Nick Stahl (TERMINATOR 3) is around to show them how its down with a fine edgy performance as the paranoid loner. Veteran support comes from Steve Railsback, underused as a sinister cop, and William Sadler, who plays a somewhat silly character (although, in a moment of inspired cheesiness, he does get to utter the immortal line "Teacher, leave those kids alone!"). Nevertheless, DISTURBING BEHAVIOUR is surprisingly entertaining attempt considering the amount of flaws it has and the clichéd story, although hardly brilliant. A mindless and occasionally brilliant movie which tends to hit more than it misses.

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.

First things first... I know that any given "Newer Pop-Horror" film can be broken down into a recipe of other "Older Classic Horror" films. Yes, I also know that there is still some originality out there, I just wish I'd find it more often. Maybe I've seen too many movies...?I just HAVE to know I was the FIRST person to realize that "The Island" was a complete rip off of "Parts: The Clonus Horror." I realized it three minutes into the film while sitting in a theater having bought a ticket that now lines Michael Bay's pocket. Like he needs it. To add salt to my own wounds, I now own "The Island" on DVD. Relax, I only paid $4.00 for it. Anywho, I was outraged that not one shred of credit was given to the writer of "Parts: ..." Being that Mr. Bay just made a perfect copy of "Parts: ..." with better funding, he falls into a category I call Same Movie- More Money (or, S. M. M. M.). I wouldn't have a problem with this if credit was given where credit is due. After I knew there was a problem I guess a few more people figured it out and eventually the director of "Parts: ..." sued Michael bay and won siting something like 146 similarities. Bully for him!Now that I've gotten that off of my chest, let's continue on to "Disturbing Behavior." A fairly complete rip-off of "Strange Behavior." They barely changed the title, for Pete's sake. The original title of "Strange behavior" is "Dead Kids," but we couldn't have a movie released in America under THAT title, so we changed it from its original Australian title. So, I'm going to give you, in only MY opinion, what I think the recipe for "Disturbing Behavior" is. And keep in mind that stuff from above. I wouldn't have a problem if after stealing ideas from other writers that they were tossed a few crumbs of recognition from the recipe.A Whole Heepin' Bushell of "Strange Behavior" (AKA "Dead Kids")1981A Cup of "Stepford Wives" 1975Half a Cup of "Death Warmed Up" 1985And just a pinch of "A Clockwork Orange" 1971Mix together thoroughly and bake (EDIT- call it what you will) until your 16 year-old audience of 1998 accepts it as a glossy S. M. M. M. and... Enjoy!We could call this a spoiler... if one knows how to follow a recipe. If it makes you feel any better; I do own the films "Parts: The Clonus Horror," and "Disturbing Behavior." I'm sure that one would never gather from this review that I actually like this film. It's colorful, attractive, and moves quickly without a lot of explosions. Like cotton candy... it's easy, and fun, to swallow.

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!