DECONSTRUCTING 'STRANGE BEHAVIOR' INVOLVING 'DEAD KIDS'

Title: STRANGE BEHAVIOR aka STRANGE KIDS Year: 1981 Rating: ****

In director Michael Laughlin and co-writer/producing partner Bill Condon's second in their Strange-Double-Feature, titled STRANGE INVADERS, Dey Young and Dan Shor appear in a quick prologue as young yet old-fashion 1950's-era lovers, smooching in a car...

And two years earlier in STRANGE BEHAVIOR they're again behind the wheel, but here as the lead characters in modern times... the sheriff's son and his progressive girlfriend... as she timidly smokes after he'd (covertly) altered into a living-zombie-type, knocking her out before returning to the film's ominous epicenter — that caused his potentially lethal mental and physical transition...

Fiona Lewis in STRANGE BEHAVIOR aka DEAD KIDS

An enigmatic research building with Dey as a naïve receptionist where seductive yet evil scientist Fiona Lewis conducts clandestine experiments... that would be better kept secret for viewers... but the description of what's originally titled DEAD KIDS has been spoiled since the video box's backside description...

The plot involving a group of suburban teens who randomly engage in grisly murders while their methodical, slow-moving actions are like something from a listless, poisoning nightmare, fitfully backed by a surreal Tangerine Dream score and filmed in the gorgeous Australian landscape, masquerading as a rural American small town...

Nicole Massie welcomes Dan Shor & Marc McClure to a DEAD KIDS Party

Where sheriff Michael Murphy, fiance Louise Fletcher and detective Scott Brady are literally clueless until an overlong monologue-spouting explanation, liken to a mystery/whodunnit's finale, which STRANGE BEHAVIOR is anything but... 

The rest and best elements involve those young killers, like Dan Shor's buddy Marc McClure chasing Elizabeth Cheshire in a slasher-flick-fashion outside a house party where a hypnotically bizarre dance sequence makes DEAD KIDS really unique — if only they had more to do (as in more victims to stalk and kill) since, overall, this offbeat investigative thriller works better along the more archetypal horror-beaten path.

Dey Young in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Fiona Lewis in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Michael Murphy in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dey Young in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Michael Murphy in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dan Shor in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dan Shor in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Elizabeth Cheshire in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dan Shor in STRANGE BEHAVIOR with Marc McClure

Dey Young in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dan Shore in STRANGE BEHAVIOR with Cindy Arnold

Nicole Massie as Flying Nun in STRANGE BEHAVIOR with Cindy Arnold

Michael Murphy in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Scott Brady and Fiona Lewis in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Elizabeth Cheshire in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dey Young in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dey Young in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Michael Murphy in STRANGE BEHAVIOR with Scott Brady

Dan Shor and Fiona Lewis in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Elizabeth Cheshire in MELVIN & HOWARD and STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Elizabeth Cheshire in STRANGE BEHAVIOR with Jim Boelsen

Elizabeth Cheshire in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Elizabeth Cheshire in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dey Young and Dan Shore in STRANGE INVADERS and STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Signed Dead Kids Blu Ray by Marc McClure and Louise Fletcher

Marc McClure in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Louise Fletcher in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dan Shor and Fiona Lewis in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dey Young in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dan Shor in Strange Behavior aka Small Town Massacre aka Massacre Brutal aka Dead Kids

Marc McClure and Dan Shore in DEAD KIDS aka STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dan Shore in DEAD KIDS with Michael Murphy

Fiona Lewis in DEAD KIDS

Fiona Lewis and Dan Shor in DEAD KIDS

Fiona Lewis and Dan Shor in DEAD KIDS

Australian locations for STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Australian locations for STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Australian locations for STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Australian locations for STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Australian locations for STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Louise Fletcher in DEAD KIDS

Dey Young and Michael Murphy in DEAD KIDS

Dey Young and Dan Shor in DEAD KIDS

Dey Young and Dan Shor in DEAD KIDS

Dey Young and Don Shor in DEAD KIDS

B. Courtenay Leigh and Dey Young in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

B. Courtenay Leigh and Beryl Te Wiata in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

B. Courtenay Leigh and Beryl Te Wiata in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

B. Courtenay Leigh and Beryl Te Wiata in STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Original New Zealand title for Strange Behavior is DEAD KIDS

Lulu Sylbert in Strange Behavior in the followup STRANGE INVADERS with Paul Le Mat

Dey Young in STRANGE INVADERS and STRANGE BEHAVIOR

Dey Young in STRANGE BEHAVIOR with Dan Shor