Strange Behavior aka Dead Kids (1981) review


This is another 80's flick I had never heard of before. It's an Ozsploitation slasher flick with some great actors in it. Filmed in New Zealand but set in Illinois, it can get confusing sometimes. Having seen Dead Alive\Brain Dead, I recognized the similarities in the houses and street setups, which are different than anything I've seen in Illinois. But that aside, it's not hard to maintain the illusion that the flick takes place in the states. Directed by Michael Laughlin (who also directed the 2nd flick, Strange Invaders, in what was supposed to be a trilogy), it's a pretty decent slasher.

The flick opens with the mayor and his wife leaving for the evening with their son, screenwriter Bill Condon, is left home to study. He encounters a shadow in the hallway and is murdered. The sheriff, John Brady (Michael Murphy) speaks to the mayor about his "missing" son. At this point there's no evidence of a murder. 

John's son Pete (Don Shor - Tron and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures) and his friend Oliver (Marc McClure - Back to the Future) are taking a class which uses old video from Dr. Le Sange (Arthur Dignam), who John blames for the death of his wife. She had been doing experiments with Le Sange, which altered her brain. Le Sange's protege Gwen Parkinson (Fiona Lewis) continues the experiments with high school students, including Pete and Oliver. Pretty soon, the teens start committing murders and John suspects that Le Sange is still alive and behind them. Soon he also has to save his son as the experiments take hold of his mind.

The film also stars Louise Fletcher, more known as Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Overall, this is a pretty decent slasher, even though there's not the single killer element like most of them. At one point one of the teens does don an interesting mask at a Halloween party when killing a victim and almost killing another. I'm interested in seeing Strange Invaders next. I'd give this flick a 3.5 out of 5. It's got good gore in a few parts, even if the killing scenes are not the most convincing. I'd recommend checking it out.  Have any of you ghouls seen it? How does it compare to you with American slashers at this time?

Later, ghouls

Dr. Deimos Strigoi

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