A family moves into Cradle Bay. The oldest child, Steve, during the transition to his new school, meets Gavin, an extremist adolescent who suspects a conspiracy. He believes his school is the test subject of a new brainwashing technique. He thinks the members of the Blue Ribbons group are the victims. These students aim for excellence and devote their lives to their success.

However, they haven’t been like this all their lives. As time passes, the perfectionist group grows. From time to time, it seems that their perfect student spirit is pushed aside and they become violent.

One day, Gavin arrives at school with well-combed hair, dressed in blue and sits in the Blue Ribbons’ corner. Steve can’t do anything other than believe that something is not right. He is the next victim.

The good old invaders sub-genre always succeeds. Isn’t this anything more than a caricature of what we find the corporations, in our society and in our government? In all these films, the hero ends up killing, without any regrets, anyone who wants to convert him against his will. They say out loud what we keep to ourselves.

This metaphor is easy to see in this movie. In the beginning, Gavin dresses a list of a half-dozen students who all have personalities that corresponds to their group. The Blue Ribbons are just another one of those groups. Then, we learn that what differentiates the Bleu Ribbons from the other groups is that they don’t do drugs, don’t drink and spend their evenings in a yogurt bar.

Up to this point, the film is promising. Sadly, it doesn’t deliver half the expectations it gives its public. The idea is under-exploited, the violence is absent and the suspense just isn’t successful. Disturbing Behavior prefers being a thriller than a horror movie. A few minor punches will cause shivers down your back. Still, a few others will make you bow your head in shame because of such exaggerated or incoherent scenes. Many elements have been inserted here and there to give us the impression that they will be used but this is not the case. Also, we get the feeling that everything happens for a reason but this is not the case (the pigmentation disease, Chug’s obsession with Rachel, Gavin’s fate after the infection, etc.). The characters come and go but nothing critical ever happens to them. The ending is rushed and hard to swallow.

The base idea, while being an imitation, could have produced something much better but the budget, the actors and the oddities fill the void and soothe our sufferance.