Horror films of the 90’s are often times lambasted, unfairly so. Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 90’s, but I’ve always had a special place in my heart for the genre entries from that decade. In recent years I’ve slowly began to re-visit some of these films that I haven’t seen in years. More often than not the films have been as I remembered them, but every now and then my opinion is changed as a result of the recent viewings. That’s the case with David Nutter’s Disturbing Behavior. My memory was that this film was good and I liked it ok, but now I love it!

That’s not to say Disturbing Behavior is perfect. It has a wide variety of issues, I’m fully aware of that. But it hits just right on all the notes I want from 90’s horror films.

James Marsden stars as Steve Clark, a high school student who is uprooted just before the start of his senior year as his family moves to Cradle Bay, a small coastal town in Washington. The move came about as a result of a tragic event that resulted in the death of Steve’s brother, Allen (Ethan Embry). We can tell pretty quickly that Steve isn’t happy about the move and is still struggling with his brother’s passing. Having to get acclimated to a new school and a new town is not something he’s looking forward to at all.

Despite being apprehensive, Steve does manage to make friends in his first day of school. These friends are Gavin (Nick Stahl), U.V. (Chad E. Donella) and Rae (Katie Holmes). These are the outcasts of the school and they scream 90’s. I love it. There’s a fantastic scene in the school cafeteria where Gavin points out all the different cliques within the school – the jocks, stoners, nerds, and so on. The clique he ends with is known as the “Blue Ribbons.”

The Blue Ribbons are basically like Stepford Wives, but high school kids. Gavin has a theory about the kids but no one believes him and that’s too bad because Gavin is on to something. The Blue Ribbons are all part of a “special program” run by the school’s psychologist, Dr. Caldicott (Bruce Greenwood). The kids are being operated on so that they can be turned into perfect, flawless people. The idea is to eliminate free-thinking. Unfortunately for Gavin he falls victim to the program and is turned into a Blue Ribbon.

Steve manages to befriend the school janitor Dorian, played by the wonderful William Sadler. People think Dorian is a little slow, but that’s all by design. Dorian plays it up like he’s not too smart so no one will pay attention to him because he knows the truth about the Blue Ribbons. Dorian spends most of his time trying to rid the school of rats by using a device that gives off a high-pitched whine that is supposed to fend the rats off, but it fails to work. While it doesn’t work with rats, Steve and Dorian discover that it is the way to defeat the Blue Ribbons and Steve uses it in the big final showdown.

Disturbing Behavior is almost identical to Zombie High, a 80’s movie previously released by Scream Factory that I also reviewed and didn’t actually enjoy all that much. So why do I dislike Zombie High but thoroughly enjoy Disturbing Behvior so much? A couple reasons but if I’m being honest it could simply be the 90’s vibe. I grew up in the 90’s. I love the 90’s. A lot of music from the 90’s has a certain blandness, and I swear I say that with love, and Disturbing Behavior is full of that bland music.

If I dig a little further though, I do find a ton of characters and performances that I truly love within Disturbing Behavior. Gavin especially is a phenomenal character. He’s a very relatable outcast and easy to root for. When he gets turned into a Blue Ribbon it’s legitimately devastating. Gavin hates everything the Blue Ribbons are and represent. Gavin is the polar opposite. He’s our symbol of individuality and our expression of freedom. Seeing that all taken away is heartbreaking.

Am I taking too much away from Disturbing Behavoir? Maybe, but that’s the impact the film has on me now. I love it.

On the flip side Marsden has the blandness of the music but not the charm. He’s not bad at all, but he’s just there and most definitely has the rest of the cast to thanks for carrying the film.

The recent Blu-ray release form Scream Factory is enjoyable but doesn’t deliver in exactly the way that I’d like. There’s only one cut of the film, the shorter 84-minute cut, available on the Blu-ray. That’s a bit of a bummer. The deleted scenes and alternate ending are included as extras but I would have killed to have the extended cut. In addition to those extra scenes there is an audio commentary with Nutter and he does discuss the longer cut at times. Definitely an interesting listen for fans of the movie.

Disturbing Behavior is very likely a movie most people hate. That’s fine. It happens to be a movie I love.

Disturbing Behavior is now available on Blu-ray from Scream Factory.