David
Nutter is a director who has worked almost exclusively in television through
his entire career, most notably helming episodes of 21 Jump Street (1987
– 1991), Superboy (1988 – 1992), The X-Files (1998 – 2018), ER
(1994 – 2009), The “Kevin Finnerty” episode of The Sopranos (1999 –
2007), Entourage (2004 – 2011) and Game of Thrones (2011 – 2019),
to name an illustrious few. His two theatrical credits to date are Cease
Fire (1998) with Don Johnson and Disturbing Behavior starring James
Marsden and Katie Holmes, a film released in New York on Friday, July 24, 1998,
that attempts to be a commentary on high school culture and ends up being a
pastiche of parts of Village of the Damned (1960), A Clockwork Orange
(1971), The Stepford Wives (1975) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1978).
Steve
Clark’s (Marsden) family has moved to Cradle Bay, Washington from Chicago, Illinois
following his older brother Allen’s (Ethan Embry) suicide (shown in flashback
snippets), which is a topic off-limits during family dinners. Steve’s parents
want to behave as though the tragedy never happened and when he starts
attending his new high school, he is befriended by outcasts Gavin (Nick Stahl),
U.V. (Chad Donella) and Rachel (Katie Holmes) but is encouraged to join a group
of preppy, school-sweater wearing seniors known as the Blue Ribbons who promote
themselves as do-gooders but come off as cliquish and robotic. Gavin is
suspicious of the cult-like group and admonishes Steve to avoid them, fearing
their artificial smiles. Something just seems “off” about them. Gavin’s
conjecture about the Blue Ribbons proves correct when, while overhearing a PTA
meeting, it comes to light that school psychologist Dr. Edgar Caldicott (Atom
Egoyan favorite Bruce Greenwood) is responsible for hypnotizing and
brainwashing the teens into subservient, positive-thinking students to curb
juvenile delinquency. He has implanted brain microchips into the teens with
their parents’ consent – apparently, even they are tired of out-of-control
adolescents! The teens’ sexual urges are too strong, however, to be controlled by
the procedure and, when aroused, they act out in fits of violent,
amygdala-hijacking rage. Newberry, a fly-on-the-wall janitor portrayed by
William Sadler, is on to Caldicott and leaves the screen with deliberate
abandon with a memorable shoutout to Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall.
Without spoiling the ending, let’s just say that Gavin does an about-face.
What
had the potential to truly dive into the very universal nature of the existence
of disparate characters in American high schools and what the driving force is behind
such behavior is missed in this film that instead simply wants to come off as
scary but fails to do so. The by-the-numbers plot is so different from what the
director envisioned due to negative audience test screenings that the film
studio felt compelled to order more edits to alter the movie’s direction and in
the process is such a mess that it has left the audiences wanting something
different. For many years, I avoided anything and everything taking place in
high school as most films of this ilk tend to have one-note cardboard cut-outs
wherein no one is a complex character – good-looking jocks and sexy
cheerleaders are always assholes, nerds are devoid of self-confidence and are sexually
inexperienced and consequently shunned, and teachers are often portrayed as
doofuses. Any action partaking in hallways with lockers and bullies
automatically makes me cringe.
It’s
no secret that director Nutter was unhappy with this cut of the film, so much
so that he contemplated pulling an “Allan Smithie” on it but reconsidered.
Disturbing
Behavior was released on
Blu-ray from Shout! Factory in 2016 and the new pressing from MVD Rewind Collection
is identical to that release (it ports over the same extras) except for adding
a cardboard sleeve and a pullout poster in the company’s requisite differentiation.
It also represents a missed opportunity to provide the audience with the
desired director’s cut of the film which can be read about here, something that I hope a future
release will provide. This release suffers from a dark transfer that makes it
difficult to see most of the action.
The
extras contain:
Full-length
feature audio commentary from director Nutter who talks about the making of the
film, the performers involved, and the overall story and how it came about.
Deleted
Scenes – this section consists of the following 11 scenes:
1.
Caldicott Talks About His Daughter
2.
Newberry Tells Steve the Truth
3.
Office Cox Gives Steve a Ride Home
4.
Steve’s Nightmare
5.
Steve Confronts Dad
6.
Caldicott Explains His Plan
7.
Steve Walks Lindsay Home
8.
Steve Talks About His Brother
9.
Mom Finds the Gun
10.
Rachel Vents to Steve / Love Scene
11.
The Original Ending
The deleted scenes
run just under 25 minutes and are even darker than the film presentation.
Disturbing
Behavior theatrical trailer,
which runs 2:31 in length.