Strange Behavior

Strange Behavior (released under the titles *Dead Kids*, *Small Town Massacre*, *Shadowlands*, and *Human Experiments*) is a 1981 slasher film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Michael Laughlin, with Bill Condon as co-writer. The cast includes Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher, and Dan Shor. The story takes place in a small Midwestern town where teenagers are being killed in bizarre ways, while the local university secretly conducts mind control experiments on young people.

The film was an international co-production involving the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. It was planned as the first installment of a trilogy called the Strange Trilogy, but the series was canceled after the second film, *Strange Invaders*, failed to draw a large audience. The movie pays homage to 1950s pulp horror films. It is regarded as a landmark in New Zealand cinema, as it was the first horror movie made in that country, and it has since developed a significant cult following. Although not prosecuted for obscenity, the film was seized and confiscated in the United Kingdom under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act 1959 during the video nasty panic.

**Plot** Bryan, the son of the mayor of Galesburg, Illinois, is murdered in his home, and his body is later found stuffed and posed as a scarecrow. Local policeman John Brady investigates. Meanwhile, John’s son, Pete, a high school senior, attends a university lecture with his friend Oliver. The lecture is given by Professor Gwen Parkinson and features a recording by her late mentor, Dr. Le Sange, for whom Pete’s late mother, Catherine, once worked. Pete agrees to become a test subject for Gwen to earn money for college applications. Later, at a house party, classmate Waldo is stabbed to death outside by a masked attacker, and Waldo’s girlfriend Lucy is attacked and falls into a pool. Pete and others save her, and the masked figure flees, removing his mask to reveal Oliver. When questioned, Oliver claims he was drunk and remembers nothing.

Medical examiners find a strange surgical incision near Waldo’s eye, and John concludes two different people are responsible for the murders of Waldo and Bryan. Pete participates in one of Gwen’s studies at a large laboratory where both human and animal tests occur. He swallows a pill, repeats words, and is dismissed.