Review of Strange Behavior (1981) by Dougal S — 26 Nov 2011

Working my way through the original video nasties I've reached this odd film, which like many of the others on the DPP list seems incredibly tame by modern standards and you have to wonder what the authorities thought was going to happen if people watched this flick?

Made in New Zealand but set in middle America the plot revolves around a series of inexplicable murders in a small town which seem to be the work of completely different people rather than one serial killer. It turns out that the local high school students are the ones offing the townsfolk having been brainwashed by a psychotic university lecturer under the guise of psycho-analytical experiments. The local police try and halt the killings with the chief of police discovering his own son is about to commit murder.

Cheaply made this has all the trappings of a TV movie for the most part and is never high on the gore that was a key element of many of it's contemporaries. Maybe it was felt that the subject matter may just be too disturbing as amiable kids suddenly become knife wielding killers before awakening to have no memory of their actions. Whilst never particularly scary there is an element of fun to the whole thing with numerous tongue in cheek moments to keep the attention, most noticeably a lengthy dance scene at a party where everyone is dressed as 50s film characters... for no apparent reason.

Had it not fallen foul of the UK courts then this would probably have slunk off into obscurity but as it is it gets to have a life greater than the sum of it's parts and is no worse for that. A bit of fun with a few chills thrown in - nothing more and nothing less.