review for Disturbing Behavior on AllMovie

Screenwriter Scott Rosenberg's horror effort Disturbing Behavior only provides a meager handful of fresh and original moments. The formulaic and familiar story line can best be described as a teenage The Stepford Wives, with hints of a small-town Village Of the Damned thrown in for good measure. Rosenberg tries to create the self-conscious wink-to-the-audience tone of Scream, but his writing lacks the flair and creativity seen in Kevin Williamson's Scream franchise. First-time feature director David Nutter desperately attempts to deposit tension and suspense into the derivative story, but to little avail. He only drags out an array of familiar tricks and horror clichés (i.e. point-of-view camera work and a score by X-Files composer Mark Snow), but the film is still held back by bland characters, story holes, and plot contrivances. The adult leader of the brainwashing project is a generic antagonist, proving that horror movies without villains like Freddy Kreuger or Jason Vorhees are rarely compelling. The young, hip cast and occasional shocks will appeal to the targeted teen audience, but this murky and disorganized film only becomes one of the lesser teen-horror films of the '90s.