The 1990s were ripe for filmmakers adapting stories about adults into a teenage milieu. Emma turned into Clueless. The Taming of the Shrew turned into 10 Things I Hate About You. Dangerous Liaisons turned into Cruel Intentions. And, here, The Stepford Wives became the gender-reassessed Disturbing Behavior.
After his brother commits suicide, Steve (James Marsden) and his family move from Chicago to a sleepy town in Washington State somewhere around the Puget Sound. He quickly falls in with three outcasts – Chad Donella, Katie Holmes, and Nick Stahl – set against the popular “Blue Ribbons,” a bunch of A-list students who excel at sports and studies, and hang out in a tightknit group who oppress anybody they deem beneath them. The Outcasts are the most boring moody art students, the Blue Ribbons are the most boring suburbanites committed to screen. But, the Blue Ribbons start going crazy and wanting to cleanse the world through assimilation or murder.
Disturbing Behavior is a trashy film that suffered heavily at the hands of studio intervention. They cut together three different films and released the one that tested best. They completely changed the ending, cut out important scenes of dialogue, and completely removed the Final Cut from director David Nutter. This was Nutter’s only feature film, facing a solid career in television ranging from Superboy to The X-Files.
But, to be honest, Disturbing Behavior couldn’t be saved from itself. Consider the dialogue, which ranges from second rate John Waters to pseudo-Heathers slang. “You couldn’t repulse me more if you were made of equal parts shit and maggots” is so close to Taffy Davenport’s classic “I wouldn’t suck your lousy dick if I was suffocating and there were oxygen in your balls.” “Sounds razor” is no “How very.” The tone deaf dialogue extended to questionable character motivations. Two characters escape being trapped in a mental hospital with the possibility of brainwashing, and they subsequently have sex in a truck on a ferry.
Back in 1998, Disturbing Behavior was speaking to a few separate issues. The edgy subculture had become the mainstream in the early 1990s, angst and disillusionment was the dominant conversation among the youth, reaching its peak somewhere around 1995. This was slowly replaced by bright bubblegum pop and mainstream optimism. The Backstreet Boys, ‘N Sync, and Britney Spears replaced Nine Inch Nails and Anthrax as popular music on the radio and on MTV. As Gen X faded into the Millennial generation, it seemed that the domination of the art students were being replaced by the shiny happy people (holding hands). It seemed that even the liberals were being replaced with conservatives. It’s not a Good movie, but its an important piece of trash that speaks to many of society’s changes in that era.
Disturbing Behavior airs tonight (10/5/16) at midnight on MGMHD.
