Disturbing Behavior

Cast & Crew

James Marsden

Steve Clark

Katie Holmes

Rachel Wagner

Nick Stahl

Gavin Strick

Steve Railsback

Officer Cox the BIG Rat

Bruce Greenwood

Dr. Edward Caldicott

William Sadler

Dorian Newberry

Chad Donella

U.V.

Ethan Embry

Allen Clark

Katharine Isabelle

Lindsay Clark

David Nutter

Director

Scott Rosenberg

Writer

C.O. Erickson

Writer

Armyan Bernstein

Producer

Jonathan Shestack

Producer

Phillip B. Goldfine

Executive Producer

C.O. Erickson

Executive Producer

John S. Bartley

Cinematographer

Randy Morgan

Film Editing

John Dragonetti

Original Music

Nelson Coates

Production Design

Eric Fraser

Art Director

Louise Roper

Set Decoration

Trish Keating

Costume Design

Lisa Beach

Casting

Coreen Mayrs

Casting

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Critic Reviews for Disturbing Behavior

Audience Reviews for Disturbing Behavior

• Aug 12, 2016

  Maybe I was in a good mood, but I didn't dislike this film that much. Not that I was expecting it to, but you know how it is with 'horror' films in the 90s, particularly post-Scream. Not saying that a lot of films tried to replicate that, but the setting is fairly similar to Scream in a small and peaceful town where strange events start taking place. The one difference to Scream, is that this film has more sci-fi themes than horror ones and it's not really constructed as a film that's meant to tear apart the genre's tropes. Essentially, some of the more troubled teens in town are turned into the ideal students. Perfect, well-adjusted, straight-A students that contribute to society in helpful ways. Imagine the Stepford Wives except substitute the women for troubled teens. So the movie is more about trying to find out what exactly is happening to these teens that is, somehow, managing to reform them in record time. Apparently, from what I found out, the film was edited beyond all hell and the director, David Nutter, even considered taking his name out of the credits. I think the original cut was like 20 minutes longer than this and it focused more on character development, which I really would've been interested in seeing. This movie isn't bad or anything, but the characters don't really have much of a personality. You also find out more about Steve's brother, who shot himself, and who is the impetus for the family moving to Cradle Bay and why he did what he did. I thought that that, at least, was important, because Steve's depression or lack excitement at his family's move to Cradle Bay is due in part to what happened to his brother. There's also the fact that there was, supposedly, an organization that was behind Caldicott's experiments, which would have also been interesting to see. So I do feel sorry for David Nutter and the writer of the film, because I truly do believe that there's a more interesting story that they wanted to tell than what you got to see on screen. Their story, I feel, was truly bastardized and I could've seen the director's cut of it. And it is available, like some fans edited it together along with the deleted scenes, but it's not like I'm gonna go out of my way to seek it out. Part of the reason why I enjoyed this, in spite of giving it an average rating, is the fact that it feels like a time capsule of what horror movies were like in the 90s. And you can say that for every decade, of course, but I don't know, there's just something about that I enjoyed. The movie is a little goofy at times, so I liked that. Unsure if the film was purposely goofy at times or if it was meant to be taken seriously. Either way, some scenes made me laugh. The acting is ok, I like James Marsden and everything, but there's no real reason to care for his character. There's no real reason to care for ANY character, the character development, at least in this edit of the film, is literally nonexistent. There's the basic stuff, like you establish what type of person a character is, but they don't go much farther beyond that. It is what it is and this is where Nutter's original cut of the film would've, hopefully, helped the most. Just giving you a real reason to care for the characters. Even with that, and some of the issues I have with the scripting and its similarities to Stepford Wives, part of me had fun watching this movie. Not what I would call good, but enjoyable if watched in the right state of mind or with a group of friends that you can have fun with. It's also free if you have Amazon Prime, so there's that. You can't really go wrong with a 'free' movie. And it's less than 85 minutes long, so it doesn't stick around for too long. This is average at best, but a somewhat enjoyable average, if that makes sense.

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  jesse o Super Reviewer
• Oct 28, 2013

  According to science fiction horror films, high school is one of the most unsafe places when it comes to invasions of any kind, alien or other. "Disturbing Behavior" is an interesting concept with a real life allegory at play; we all know teenagers can be unruly, so let's lobotomize them and make them robots. James Marsden plays the fish-out-of-water, Steve Clark, who steps into a new high school filled with the normal geek-jock-stoner separation. Led by Gavin (Nick Stahl) and Rachel (Katie Holmes), Steve isn't buying into Gavin's raving notions that the jocks are being controlled by a higher force. Of course it takes losing Gavin to the dark side to make Steve realize the error of his ways. Sadly, this film is outdone by fellow teen horror film "The Faculty" oddly of the same year, which uses "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" as its starting off material. With a much better cast and way tenser moments, "The Faculty" overcomes its teenager angst and became a cult classic, while "Disturbing Behavior" is somewhat forgettable. With a young Katie Holmes to drive it home and enough thrills to keep it watchable, the film will always be a reminder of 90's teen horror, but apart from that, falls to the wayside of much better examples.

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  chris h Super Reviewer
• Jun 30, 2013

  90s popcorn thriller that never clicked, mainly due to its odd choices. The film is quick and has some solid moments, the nut house is one of them. The rapid storyline really didn't help, they really needed another 20 minutes here. The film is a offbeat teenage thriller that is fun and never takes itself too serious. Giant plot holes aside, the X Files team needed a better film transition because when this story is in full swing it really does work. A guilty pleasure film that includes a really cute Katie Holmes performance around the time of Dawsons Creek. The ending is quite good too.

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  brendan n Super Reviewer
• May 22, 2013

  Not great, but entertaining and tense for what it was. "Disturbing Behavior" benefits from its interesting plot, some creepy scenes, its ideas and strong performances from James Marsden and Katie Holmes. Its just entertaining teen thriller, nothing special really. However, William Sadler steals the show as the janitor, he's funny and was perfect for the role. Wont be a classic but its suspenseful fun that you can find in Netflix.

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