In Strange Behavior, there are a string of bizarre murders occurring in the small town of Galesburg. The local sheriff, John Brady, is convinced that a scientist at the local university is behind the murders. The biggest problem with his theory is that the scientist supposedly died years ago. John must uncover the truth behind the murders before his son, Pete, ends up with a murder rap of his very own.
Though this movie was filmed in 1980, it is very much in the spirit of ’50s sci-fi movies. It’s got mad scientists, experiments with hidden or unexpected side-effects, as well as the two most common protagonists for movies from that era: the sheriff (John Brady) and two questionably-aged teenage lovers (Pete and Caroline). Sure, it’s in color, and clearly set in the 1980s, but it definitely has the ’50s feel.
The mystery behind Strange Behavior is a good one. It doesn’t take long to realize that the experiments at the local university are turning otherwise harmless students into killers, but there are lots of other questions to answer. Are the killings an unintended side-effect? Or is someone deliberately trying to get these kids to kill? If so, who and why?
Unlike the standard sci-fi movie from the 1950s, Strange Behavior is rated R, and with good reason. There’s not a whole lot of gore to be had, but some of it is rather gruesome. The gore is fairly well done for a low budget movie that’s almost 40 years old. The scene depicted on the DVD cover (with a man getting an injection directly into his eye) is technically less gory than some of the other stuff in the movie, but it still makes me flinch every time. Hell, just thinking about it now has me wanting to flinch.
The movie is not without its problems. For one, it’s a low budget film that is set in America yet was filmed in New Zealand. While that’s not actually a problem in and of itself, it does mean the casting is rather limited. The main cast is good, but as is explained on the DVD commentary, that they basically used just about any Americans they could find to fill a lot of the minor roles. Very often when listening to the commentary you will hear that this was an actor’s father, or a crew member, or something along those lines. And even then, some of the roles were filled by New Zealanders and then re-dubbed by someone with an American accent. Not surprisingly, this results in some not so great acting.
It also suffers from a lack of logic on more than one occasion. For instance, in most cases when one of the test subjects kills someone, he or she takes no precaution to disguise his or her identity. There is one and only one case where the test subject dons a mask to obscure his disguise. And it just so happens, that his identity would have been exposed had he not done so. The other teens could have been spotted just as easily, and yet they took no steps to disguise themselves. The only reason for this one to wear a mask is because this is the one time it would have revealed someone’s identity.
The film’s climatic showdown is kind of a mixed bag. There’s a good deal of build-up and suspense, but the resolution involves a big twist that manages to be simultaneously clever and lame, not to mention asking far more questions than it answered. It’s kind of hard to explain why it doesn’t quite work without actually giving away the twist, but it just felt like they were trying too hard to be clever.
And then there’s the fact the movie takes way too long to end. The movie really should end with the ambulance scene. That would have provided a brief wrap-up and given some closure. Instead the movie goes on for several minutes longer before finally petering out. The whole bit with the church could have been excised from the movie without really losing anything of value; not to mention it would have made for a much tighter ending.
Strange Behavior is a fun movie. It has problems, sure, but it does a great job capturing the feel of a ’50s mad scientist B-movie. Of course, if you hate those types of movies, Strange Behavior won’t be entertaining for you.
The video is in 2.35:1 and it looks okay. It can be a bit too dark at times, and there’s some dirt and scratching, but there are no major issues. The same cannot be said for the movie’s audio. The audio is in Dolby Digital Mono and there’s a problem with the dialogue track. There’s a faint hiss in the background of the dialogue track. You can tell when a conversation is about to begin and when it has definitely ended, based solely on the beginning or end of the hiss. It’s a bit distracting, but easy enough to tune out once you get used to it. Or you could avoid the hiss completely by just listening to the Spanish track instead.
Audio Commentary – Co-writer Bill Condon and actors Dan Shor and Dey Young provide the commentary. It’s not a bad commentary, but as is often the case with movies made so long ago, the commentators sometimes have trouble remembering details and occasionally wander off into strange tangents, not really related to the film. Moderately entertaining and informative.
Trailers – Previews for Strange Behavior, Dead Kids (which is Strange Behavior with a different title. Apparently there were some kids murdered shortly before the US release and a lot of advertisers/theatres/etc refused to promote/screen a movie called, “Dead Kids,” so the name had to be changed for North America.), Patrick, Thirst, and Syngenor.
Deleted Scenes – A couple of deleted scenes. First one was pointless. The second one, only slightly less so. In a refreshing bit of honesty, the director admits the reason the second scene was cut was because one of the actors was terrible (the guy who played the mayor. He’s not really any better in his other big scene, but that one was more important to the story). The film certainly wasn’t hurt by the deletion of these scenes.
Photo Gallery – Your standard photo gallery.
Filmographies – If you really wanted to know some other movies with a particular cast or crew member and you were too lazy to check IMDB, then you could look here.
Isolated Music Score – For those of you who like watching movies without all that pesky dialog. While the music is pretty good, and quite effective in establishing the tone of the movie, I don’t really see why people would want to watch a movie without the dialog.
Strange Behavior is a fun throwback to the mad scientist movies of the 1950s. If you were a fan of those, you should like enjoy this release from Synapse Films. It doesn’t really bring much new to the genre, but it’s an enjoyable movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
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Synapse Films presents Strange Behavior. Directed by: Michael Laughlin. Starring: Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher, Dan Shor, Dey Young, and Fiona Lewis. Running time: 99 minutes. Rating: R. Released on DVD: October 28, 2008. Available at Amazon.
