Disturbing Behavior

1998 "In Cradle Bay it doesn’t matter if you’re not perfect. You will be."
5.6| 1h24m| R| en| More Info
Released: 24 July 1998 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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Steve Clark is a newcomer in the town of Cradle Bay, and he quickly realizes that there's something odd about his high school classmates. The clique known as the "Blue Ribbons" are the eerie embodiment of academic excellence and clean living. But, like the rest of the town, they're a little too perfect. When Steve's rebellious friend Gavin mysteriously joins their ranks, Steve searches for the truth with fellow misfit Rachel.

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Director

David Nutter

Production Companies

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

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Disturbing Behavior Audience Reviews

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.
Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
Davis P Disturbing Behavior is basically Stepford teens. It focuses on James Marsden's character, whose family has just moved to this small coastal town. There is something very sketchy about a lot of the high schoolers there... They used to be these average kids who did normal teenage stuff... That is until they were brainwashed. Marsden and his friend, Katie Holmes, quickly find out just what is really going on, and try to stop it. I enjoyed this film a fair amount. It is pretty well done and it knows its main audience, which is teenagers. And yes, it has a pretty strong teen vibe to it, a 90s vibe also, but it's not overboard to the point of annoyance. The acting is good, especially from a very young James Marsden. Also the actors fit their roles well. The writing is average, won't win any awards but its not bad and trust me I've seen a lot worse. I think this film can serve as one of those just viewed for purely fun purposes, nothing too heavy. 7/10.
Leofwine_draca 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.
Screen_Blitz In the 1990s, when the teen horror genre was on the brink of obscurity with fans growing tired of same horror clichés repeated over and over; Wes Craven shocked audience with his highly original horror flick 'Scream' and later came a new original horror film 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', both of which reignited the teen horror genre to fandom. However, this thriller directed by David Nutter who is responsible for the hit science-fiction television series 'X-Files' attempts to imitate a teenage version of 'The Stepford Wives', but suffers from a dull execution and absurdly ineffective thrills. This movie follows young teenager Steve Clark (played by James Marsden) who moves with his family to a coastal town in Ohio after the suicide of his younger brother Allen. Upon arriving at his new school, he meets a few social misfits including Gavin (played by Nick Stahl), U.V, (played by Chad E. Donella), and Rachel (played by Katie Holmes) who warn him against a sinister group called "The Blue Ribbons", an organization run by Dr. Edgar Calicott (played by Bruce Greenwood), of academically perfect and socially flawless students. Little does he know, this heinous group has a plan to overrun their town with a sinister plot of brainwashing individuals, and his only hope is the help of Rachel and the eccentric school maintenance man Dorian (played by William Sadler)The basis of the plot is that the students of this mysterious organization have power over pretty much ever social figure including the law enforcement. In one scene, a student from the Blue Ribbon group murder a man at a supermarket and the cops watch and do nothing to intervene. As the title suggests, the movie deals with teenagers who are brainwashed into committing violent and disturbing behavior, but the only thing really disturbing about this movie is how dull and incompetent it is. The film falls in a shallow ground of flaccid thrills and a complete lack of substance, pulling the audience into an atmosphere that is supposed to create a sense of eeriness, but fails to formulate even one effective scare. The scenes of the Blue Ribbon students hunting down the characters try make us believe that that teenagers running around in strange, zombie-like manners or erotically threatening the characters is supposed to be scary, but the results are just weak. And without any suspense or even jump scares to support its tone, what viewers are left with is a total scare-free environment. The biggest redeeming quality may come from the fine performances and a few mildly developed characters. Overall, these are buried under the a painfully executed plot, ineffective scares, and Bruce Greenwood playing a villain that feels all too one-dimensional. Disturbing Behavior is a pretty forgettable film, and an utter disappointment, a movie that had so much potential with David Nutter, the mastermind behind X-Files directing it, but wasted it on such a thrill-free fare. If you are looking a decent teen horror film from the 90s, you may better off looking elsewhere, unless you are more than willing to give this one a try.
willhaskew A teenager named Steve Clark (Jamie Marsden of X-Men fame), moves with his family to a small town called Cradle Bay in Washington State after leaving Chicago due to his older brother committing suicide. He encounters outcast stoners named Gavin Strick (Nick Stahl) and U.V. (Chad Donella). They're at the bottom of the social ladder at Cradle Bay HS. Steve also meets the Blue Ribbons, a type of Phi Beta Kappa-esque group of seemingly civic-minded student athletes. They seem like typical high achievers at first, but they're violent elitists, given to random acts of bullying, intimidation, assault and seen in the opening scene, murder. Before participating in the mysterious Program run by the resident school psychologist, some of the Blue Ribbons' leaders were once good friends of Gavin and U.V. It seems that Gavin, Steve and Rachel Wagner (Katie Holmes), Gavin's only other friend and Steve's love interest, are the only ones that truly take notice of the Blue Ribbons destructive nature while parents and community leaders look the other way. On the plus side, they did have an interesting idea of an almost cult-like group of student high achievers along with some creepy scenes seen with the 'recruiting' they do. The negatives, they give in to stereotyping, with jocks, stoners and social outcasts. The most disturbing thing about this movie may be the idea of some misguided educator deciding that the 'bad students' need to be improved through aggressive Pavlovian conditioning.