Mary Jo (Natassia Malthe), a high school skank is murdered by a puritanical jock while servicing him with oral sex....so 1998's "Disturbing Behavior" begins. Today we know Katie Holmes as a courageous actress who is standing up to the Church of Scientology. Way before she met Tom Cruise, Ms. Holmes played a rebellious teenager in today's film. A horror story set in a pacific northwest high school, "Disturbing Behavior" sports a very attractive cast, however, most will not fare well. Mind control, conformity, and a mad-scientist are the culprits that will prey upon unsuspecting students. After all, if one is not a cool kid, high school can be a four year horror story for someone deemed to be an outcast.
After the sultry Natassia Malthe has her neck snapped, Steve (James Mardsen) and Lindsay (Katharine Isabelle) move to town with their parents. They are fleeing bad memories in Chicago and the parents believe they have moved to a paradise. The handsome Steve is befriended by a rebellious trio, including Rachel (Holmes) and Strick (Nick Stahl). He draws immediate attention from the cool click, known as the Blue Ribbons. These perfect specimens are comprised of honor students, jocks, and cheerleaders. Steve eschews their advances and stick with his friends. Strick warns Steve that the Blue Ribbons are under some mind control and have gotten away with murder. Uh-oh, Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwod), the guidance counselor, takes a special interest in Steve. Like most guidance counselors, Caldicott is also a mad-scientist at a loony bin which houses his failed experiments.
When Strick is abducted by Caldicott and the Blue Ribbons and turned into a super-cool zombie, Steve realizes that him, Lindsay, and Rachel could be next. In one horrific scene, high school vixen (and Blue Ribbon) Lorna (Crystal Cass) pays Steve and Lindsay a visit with disturbing results (see picture below). After this bloody scene, Steve knows he and his pals are in mortal danger. When he and Rachel go on a midnight scouting expedition to Caldicott's lab, they make some gruesome discoveries. Realizing they must run away or face a fate worse than death, they plot their escape. Too late...Caldicott and the Blue Ribbons are one step ahead of them. Steve, however, has a determination and a will that might just even the score.
Now Caldicott and his Blue Ribbons will face off against our outgunned protagonists. But wait! Surprises lurk in the weirdest places, and perhaps Steve and his friends do stand a chance. Perhaps "Disturbing Behavior" is only a mere exaggeration of the public school system's war on individuality. The American public school system favors those castes that buy into their ideology. The outcasts in this film exist in so many schools, and perhaps it is only a matter of time until some behavior modification, in the name of the student's best interest, will await our children in public school houses.
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