Strange Behavior

Originally released in the U.S. under the name Strange Behavior, Dead Kids is the debut screenplay by future director and Oscar-winning screenwriter Bill Condon (he Oscared for Gods and Monsters) and the directorial debut of producer Michael Laughlin (Two-Lane Blacktop), two Americans who got their offbeat horror movie made by filming it as an Australian / New Zealand / American co-production in New Zealand. The title Dead Kids makes it sound like a slasher picture or a zombie film, and while there are some elements of both of those genres echoing through the film, it's really a mix of mad scientist thriller and revenge movie dropped into a somewhat surreal recreation of small-town Midwest America. Michael Murphy stars as John Brady, an easy-going chief of police (or maybe county sheriff?) in Galesburg, a small Illinois town close enough to Chicago to request help from the city's homicide detectives. He's a widower and a single father to Pete (Dan Shor), a smart, good-looking high school kid who wants to go to city college, despite Dad's insistence he go to a major university and see a little of the world beyond this town. Dad has good reason to send Pete away: he blames a professor at the local college for the death of his wife. The professor is long deceased yet his legacy still hovers over the school through pre-recorded lectures and professors who continue his psychiatric research and experiments in behavior modification. Pete, eager to make a little extra money, signs up as their latest test subject in a vaguely-described study being run by the doctor's protégé (Fiona Lewis, with an air of icy dominatrix about her). The project, of course, turns out to have a sinister side, as an outbreak of violent, inexplicable murders attest. The first is perpetrated by a knife-wielding assailant in a Tor Johnson mask who pulls off the mask to reveal.... Okay, no spoilers, but be assured that the trail leads back to the college study and the creepy scientist spreading his unconventional ideas from beyond the grave. Dead Kids came out in 1981, when the slasher film was all the rage, and the influence of Halloween is evident. Laughlin uses the same Panavision format and has a swooping crane shot that creeps up to a house, looks through the living room window to show us the parents, and then rises up to the bedroom window of the daughter above, a move right out of John Carpenter's playbook. And where Carpenter used a Los Angeles suburb to play the fictional Illinois small town of Haddonville, Laughlin has New Zealand towns and locations playing Galesburg. In this case, however, the location make everything about it a little off. The write-up on the disc jacket reads "New Zealand doubling for suburban Illinois," but when the film leaves the tree-filled college campus and heads into town or out to the highway, it looks less like suburbia and more like a southwest outpost, a dusty town under vast blue skies that suggest the desert more than the Midwest. That's only part of the odd atmosphere of the film, which plays out in a Twilight Zone where the fifties, sixties, and seventies all converge in a swirl of cultural cues. The high school lettermen jackets look like they came out of a vintage family sitcom, the local radio deejay could be broadcasting out of American Graffiti, and the kids talk like they stepped out of an Archie comic. When the Chicago homicide detectives show up, it's aging Hollywood tough guy Scott Brady coming on like an old school private eye, right down to a shot of bourbon before he gets to work. A high school costume party channels sixties pop culture and the soundtrack straddles everything from sixties pop to late seventies rock and new wave. It takes the décor of a teenage bedroom, where Springsteen and Talking Heads albums are prominently displayed, to confirm the time period. Everything about this film feels a little off, from the locations to the costumes to the rambling pace, which drifts along with odd editing beats more seventies arthouse drama than eighties horror film. It takes half the film to confirm that John is indeed a lawman since he never wears a uniform, works out of a station that looks more like a down-at-heels lawyer's office from an old Hollywood movie, and is never referred to by rank. He's not "Chief" or "Officer Brady," he's just John. You could chalk up some of that atmosphere to Laughlin's awkward direction--his staging of some of the murder scenes are clumsy and he fails to execute a couple of rudimentary exercises in building suspense--but he clearly is trying for a different aesthetic here. It's no mistake that he repeatedly shoots the murder scenes with the victims visible but the killers unidentifiable, their heads framed out of the picture so all we see are bodies in motion. It's not to obscure the identity of the killers, mind you, but to reduce them to mere weapons wielded by a mastermind controlling their action. The script, which Laughlin co-wrote with Bill Condon, is less concerned with the spectacle of onscreen murder than the fear of losing control and the horror is more wrapped up in the familiar turning alien and threatening. The killings are less unsettling than the driven, sometimes self-destructive behavior of the killers, who are just as much victims here. And the film's money shot is not a murder but a classic needle-to-the-eyeball (no spoiler here: it's on the cover of the disc case and on the disc art itself). That's one scene that Laughlin nails for maximum effect. While Lauglin's technique is sometimes clumsy, his work with the lead actors is terrific. He draws excellent performances from Murphy and Louise Fletcher (cast, refreshingly, as a comforting friend of the family in love with widowed Murphy), brings out the playful personalities of the teenagers played by Shor and Marc McClure (Jimmy Olsen in the first two Superman movies), and makes the transformation of Shor's Pete from easy-going nice guy to cocky ladies' man quite unsettling. Dey Young (of Rock 'n' Roll High School), playing a college intern in a classic eighties ponytail who lets the suddenly emboldened Pete take her out on a date, fills out her character with a refreshing confidence and self-awareness. And for pure nostalgia, look for Charles Lane (Mr. Potter's rent collector in It's A Wonderful Life) working as the police department gopher (mostly he answers phones and gets coffee). Many of the bit parts are wooden or flat but his main characters have plenty of personality and life to them. It gives you people to invest in and makes the final act effectively unsettling. Severin masters the Blu-ray debut of the film from the original 35mm negative, which may be why it went with the Dead Kids title, as it was called for the Australian release, rather than the American Strange Behavior. Anamorphic photography is prone to distortion and focus issues around the edges of the lens. Where Panavision veteran John Carpenter overcame those issues in his films, Laughlin and DP Louis Horvath did not, apparently, and the image goes soft around the edges of the frame in many scenes on this disc. While not glaring, it becomes more obvious because of the clarity of the transfer. The color is muted, likely an issue with the original palette, and the sound is fine. Tangerine Dream scored the film but it's one of their less interesting scores, more a collection of atmospheric tones and dramatic stings than a sustained series of compositions like Thief, which came out the same year. You can, however, listen to the score on an isolated audio track. The release features both Blu-ray and DVD editions of the film and the supplements. The commentary track by writer Bill Condon and actors Dan Shor and Dey Young was recorded a decade ago for the original Elite DVD release and it's a lively session that's both fun and informative. New to this disc is a solo commentary track by director / co-writer Michael Laughlin and a 20-minute interview with make-up effects artist Craig Reardon, who was hired just days he had to deliver the film's defining effect. He tells you the whole story of his seat-of-the-pants solution. by Sean Axmaker

The "slasher movie" niche of the horror genre, popularized by such titles as Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980), reached something of a peak in 1981. That year saw a multitude of titles from both independent producers and from major studios attempting to cash in on the trend, and included such fare as The Burning, Hell Night, Happy Birthday to Me, The Funhouse, Eyes of a Stranger, My Bloody Valentine, and The Prowler. Strange Behavior (1981), another entry that year, featured many of the tried and true elements of the genre: teenage protagonists, grisly deaths, mysteries from the past, perplexed small-town law enforcement, and the like. However, this film, directed by Michael Laughlin from a script Bill Condon (the future writer/director of Gods and Monsters [1998], Kinsey [2004], and Dreamgirls [2006]) and Laughlin himself, goes far beyond the expected and takes the viewer into surprising and delightful territories of comedy and satire, featuring arch performances from a clever, eclectic cast and unexpected scenes that pay homage to science fiction and horror movies of the 1950s. In the small Illinois town of Galesburg, we hear the parents of teenager Bryan Morgan (played by Bill Condon himself, then in his mid-20s) leave the house. Bryan immediately stops studying, turns on the radio and lights up a cigarette. Just then the electricity goes out in the house, so Bryan lights a candle and investigates downstairs. Distracted by his own shadow cast on a blank wall by the candlelight, Bryan engages in some shadow puppetry before being suddenly stabbed in the head. His assailant turns out to be another high school-age youngster. Meanwhile, single father (and town sheriff) John Brady (Michael Murphy) is raising son Pete (Dan Shor), who is considering college applications. Pete wants to apply to Galesburg College, but his father is resisting the notion. Pete's classmate Oliver Myerhoff (Marc McClure) introduces him to a moneymaking program at the Psychology Department at Galesburg - 200 dollars for students volunteering for two sessions of "chemical conditioning." The two witness a filmed lecture by the deceased Dr. Le Sangel (Arthur Dignam in a role originally intended for Klaus Kinski), and live demonstrations by his assistant, Gwen Parkinson (Fiona Lewis). The bizarre murders in town accelerate, of course, with the continued experiments on local students. Pete develops a romantic relationship with Caroline (Dey Young), the secretary at the Department, as they investigate the sordid doings. Strange Behavior was shot in New Zealand with a budget of $1 Million and on a 30-day schedule. The location choice was largely due to tax incentives, but fortuitous because New Zealand provided a green and pristine suburban landscape that evoked 1950s middle-America in a way that shooting in Illinois in 1980 could not. The cinematography by Louis Horvath seeks to reproduce the 3-Strip Technicolor of earlier decades; there is a sweet softness in the imagery, and the production design by Susanna Moore aids in the subtle impression that a serene 1950s-style small midwestern town has been plopped down in a 1980s world. Condon later said (in the commentary for the DVD) that the stylistic approach was partially inspired by the filming conditions in New Zealand: "It's something about being below the equator, but the blues of the sky seemed like Technicolor blues. Something happens with film there that makes colors much more vivid." Condon's script for Strange Behavior was originally called Dead Kids, and in fact the finished film played in most of the world under that title. The distributor in North America, World Northal, was nervous that the title would be insensitive in light of the Atlanta Child Murders case then dominating the news. Director Laughlin's treatment of the gore scenes (always a carefully examined aspect of any horror film) also diverges from the expected. The first murder in the film is seen in rather awkward shadow-puppet form, and subsequent violence is often light on bloodletting, but is heavily unsettling. Knives stab at disturbing parts of the body, such as the cheek or the calf of a leg; there is a scene of dismemberment in a bathtub that is shocking and grim; and for anyone with an aversion to needles, the favored injection method of the doctors in Department 104 is particularly cringe-inducing. Even the timing of the violent scenes departs from the typical editing patterns in common use at the time. Instead of the quick close-up cuts and standard shock edits usually found in such films, the scenes of murder and mutilation here are often coldly framed at a slight distance, and play out several seconds past the point of shock. The lingering discomfort plays on the voyeuristic nature of watching such movies, and also lends the proceedings a dreamlike quality. In the clearest indication that great care was taken in the look and feel of Strange Behavior, even the non-horror sequences of the film have an unsettling, enigmatic power. In one of the strangest party scenes in movies (in a decade known for its party scenes), a house full of teenagers choose to dance to Lou Christie's 1966 chart-topper "Lightning Strikes." There is never a theme mentioned in relation to the party, yet all of the attendees are dressed as 1960s TV characters; Lily Munster, The Flying Nun, My Favorite Martian, Wilma Flintstone, Hoss Cartwright, Batman and Robin are all represented by homemade costumes crafted with loving attention to a lack of detail. The viewer knows that previously uncharted territory is being covered when these costumed kids gather around a swimming pool filling with blood because one of their own has been stabbed repeatedly by someone wearing an out-of-place Tor Johnson mask! In the DVD commentary Condon praises Laughlin for allowing him to indulge in the party scene and feels that Strange Behavior is "...really one of the early New Wave movies, actually. ...I feel like we were kind of onto something that became very popular as that decade wore on." Oddly, the review of this refreshing film in the genre magazine Cinefantastique (Vol. 12, Number 1) was mostly dismissive. Judith P. Harris wrote, "the film has some nice camp performances, notably from [Fiona] Lewis in a lowcut skintight cashmere dress and Dragon Lady hairstyle; and [Arthur] Dignam, who looks like he escaped from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Made in New Zealand under the more marketable title Dead Kids, the film has plodding direction by Michael Laughlin. It is saved, however, by extremely realistic and occasionally gory special effects from Craig Reardon, who is rapidly becoming a makeup effects artist to reckon with." Conversely, mainstream critic Rex Reed gave the film a glowing notice, which the distributor promptly used in ads; Reed ranked Strange Behavior "in a class by itself. [It is a] horror movie that shows how to succeed in grisly gore without really trying. It is genuinely chilling, constantly imaginative. It almost defies description." The spirit and sensibilities of Strange Behavior were spun off into a follow-up by Laughlin and Condon, Strange Invaders (1983). The plot of this film, which was also shot in New Zealand, further explored 1950s-flavored science fiction, and served as an effective homage to the genre. Dan Shor and Dey Young returned as a teenaged couple in the prologue, and the cast included several other veterans of Strange Behavior, including Louise Fletcher, Fiona Lewis, and Charles Lane. Producers: John Barnett, Antony I. Ginnane Director: Michael Laughlin Screenplay: Bill Condon, Michael Laughlin Cinematography: Louis Horvath Production Design: Susanna Moore Art Direction: Russell Collins Music: Tangerine Dream Film Editing: Petra Cast: Michael Murphy (John Brady), Louise Fletcher (Barbara Moorehead), Dan Shor (Pete Brady), Fiona Lewis (Gwen Parkinson), Arthur Dignam (Dr. Le Sangel/Nagel), Dey Young (Caroline), Marc McClure (Oliver Myerhoff), Scott Brady (Shea), Charles Lane (Donovan), Elizabeth Cheshire (Lucy Brown) C-105m. By John M. Miller

For a brief moment in the early eighties, producer-director Michael Laughlin looked like the next big thing in the world of sci-fi/horror films. Known primarily as a producer of such quirky, out of the mainstream features as Two-Lane Blacktop and Dusty and Sweets McGee (both 1971), he made his directorial debut a decade later with Strange Behavior (1981). An idiosyncratic genre thriller that expertly blended satire with scenes of genuine terror, Strange Behavior generated a buzz among horror fans and even earned praise from such renown critics as Pauline Kael. Unfortunately, numerous title changes (Dead Kids - the original title - along with Human Experiments, Shadowlands, and Small Town Massacre) and poor distribution kept Laughlin's film from reaching its intended audience. It wasn't until a Los Angeles television station began broadcasting the movie a few years later that Strange Behavior developed a devoted cult following. By that time Laughlin had directed and released Strange Invaders (1983), an equally offbeat genre offering that veered from kooky comedy to outright horror. It was the second film in Laughlin's proposed "Strange" trilogy and sadly, the last, due to its commercial failure. After that, Laughlin only directed one more feature, Mesmerized (1986), a period melodrama starring John Lithgow and Jodie Foster. Now, thanks to Elite Entertainment, you can take another look at Strange Behavior on DVD and appreciate its twisted charms (it's available as a single disc or as part of a 3-disc "Aussie Horror" boxed set). Filmed in New Zealand but set in a small town in the American mid-west, the movie opens with a gruesome knife-to-the-head murder. The subsequent police investigation yields no suspects or motive but the killings continue - with teenagers as the main victims. Local cop John Brady (Michael Murphy) discovers a link between the murdered teens and Le Sangel (Arthur Dignam), a deceased psychology professor, and begins to focus his investigation on Le Sangel's assistant (Fiona Lewis), who is currently conducting experiments on the town's high school kids, including Brady's son (Dan Shor). Laughlin's approach to his material is both playful and sinister. Not only does he pay homage to classic horror movie conventions like the mad scientist but he also parodies the then-current trend of teen slasher flicks. Yet, despite moments of pure camp - Fiona Lewis's stylized "dragon lady" act - the film can also creep you out. The sequence where a housekeeper discovers a mutilated body in the bathtub before being pursued through the house by the killer is genuinely suspenseful, ending in a shocking final shot - a throat slitting. Even more disturbing is the sequence where a masked killer stabs ferociously at a girl's exposed calves as she crawls toward the safety of an open swimming pool. And, for anyone who's seen the film, it's hard to forget the sight of Fiona Lewis jabbing a very long hypodermic needle into Dan Shor's eyeball. Part of the film's success is due to the inspired casting. Michael Murphy and Dan Shor, as father and son, have an affable, easy-going on-screen chemistry. The loose, off-the-cuff nature of their scenes together - a breakfast discussion while Murphy trims his toenails at the table - is often crude and hilarious. Dey Young, who previously appeared in Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), is a total delight here and should have gone on to specialize in comedies. Fiona Lewis practically steals the film with her straight-laced sadism; it's a performance that makes the most of her glacial beauty and haughty demeanor. It's also fun to see B-movie veteran Scott Brady in a small part as a not-too-bright cop and Louise Fletcher as Murphy's sometime girlfriend. The music for Strange Behavior is by Tangerine Dream and Craig Reardon created the special effects. Reardon has since gone on to work on such big budget Hollywood projects as The X Files (the 1998 film) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). Bill Condon, who co-wrote the screenplay with Laughlin, would eventually win the Best Screenplay Oscar® for his work on Gods and Monsters (1998). Elite's DVD release of Strange Behavior sports a new digital transfer and is presented in the 16X9 anamorphic widescreen ratio. The extras include two deleted scenes, an isolated music score track, photo and trailer gallery and audio comments by writer Bill Condon, Dey Young and Dan Shor. The latter feature is easily one of the most entertaining commentaries of the year - at least for fans of this film. It's obvious all three participants - despite not having seen each other for years - still share a warm comradery over the making of the film; many production anecdotes of a personal nature are shared (Dey had a brief fling with co-star Murphy!) along with their now amused reactions to the film itself. Highly recommended for those who like their horror spiked with style and wit. For more information about Strange Behavior, visit Image Entertainment. To order Strange Behavior, go to TCM Shopping. by Jeff Stafford