Disturbing Behavior
What essentially is a high school set remake of The Stepford Wives nonetheless sadly relies upon the clichĂ©s of the teen horror genre to produce a disappointing effort that fails to draw the viewer in and take an interest in its story. James Marsden (an actor that I do respect) stars as the new kid in town who, despite his All-American pretty boy looks, quickly makes friends with the freakish social outcasts at the school, led by Nick Stahl. The top social clique at the school is a group known as The Blue Ribbons, who all dress in the same uniform and spout ultra-conservative bon mots as a part of everyday conversation. The truth is that these formerly rebellious teens have been lobotomized and had a computer chip placed in their brain that puts them under a form of mind control that makes them âperfect citizensâ until they get sexually aroused, whereupon they become violent. This immediately brings up the biggest plot hole in the story as the male members of the group donât seem too attracted to the female members (who all sport the sexy preppy schoolgirl look) and only become violently aroused when they see those good-looking people who arenât under the spell (like the Katie Holmes character) and vice versa. Itâs also ironic that over ten years later, the lockstep in-formation mentality of the neo-con Blue Ribbons has now in real life been applied to those on the opposite end of the political spectrum, showing that both sides of the same extreme coin will have zero tolerance for any form of dissent. Holmes as the town bad girl (who regardless seems to have zero sex drive) looks good even in some unintentionally hilarious scenes where the male Blue Ribbon attracted to her (and who comes across as the worldâs most overgrown virgin) acts out his virgin rage and flips out completely when he asks out Holmes and she tells him no; Stahl again fails to impress in his role, and the guy who plays his paleface best friend is possibly even worse; 70s B-movie legend Steve Railsback is wasted in the role of the corrupt town sheriff in on the conspiracy; Bruce Greenwood as the mad doctor behind it all has a couple of effective moments, but the âcult leaderâ aspect of his role is something that should have been expanded on; Crystal Cass as the female Blue Ribbon who throws herself at Marsden ironically comes off as being even sexier than Holmes herself; and legendary character actor William Sadler gets the acting honors here as the school janitor whom everyone assumes is a dummy but is actually a closet genius who winds up saving the day. Rumor has it that the original (longer) cut of the film was actually a rather effective and haunting piece of work, including the original ending which featured a different fate for the Stahl character, but studio interference stepped in and cut the film all to hell, as characters who disappeared from the narrative earlier come back in to help out towards the end. There is little to no attempt to scale back on the basic cheese factor of the story, but a little irony wouldâve been nice at times instead of the straight-faced style which permeates the film throughout. In the end, a minor horror trifle that should only be viewed by die-hard fans of Marsden, Holmes, and SadlerâŠ
5/10