Disturbing Behavior is a lot better than you’d think. That’s not to be confused with “Disturbing Behavior is really, really good.”
It owes a lot to The Stepford Wives, only instead of the wives being replaced by perfect robots, the kids are.
Also, like a lot of scary movies, it has a nice mix of people who have gone on to be famous (James Marsden and Katie Holmes, although she was already on Dawson’s Creek at that point) and people who are familiar to scary movie fans (Katherine Isabelle).
James Marsden has moved to this new town with his family and a lot of the kids are perfect. Any time there’s a behavior problem, that kid becomes seriously perfect in a day or two. The guy who played John Connor in Terminator 3 tells James Marsden that there’s something wrong but of course nobody listens. And then future John Connor turns perfect too. THEN James Marsden listens. But it’s too late because his parents want him to be perfect now, too…
It’s one of my secret shames that I absolutely love cheesy horror movies. Yes, I love the really scary ones, too (Insidious and The Strangers are two of my favorite movies of the past few years) but the cheesy ones are great. And I think the acting saves this one from being just hideous. It’s just fun enough and good enough to become worthy of a rental. :)
