Dead Kids (a.k.a Strange Behavior) from Glass Doll Films
Dead Kids:
To the quiet, respectable inhabitants of the mid-western college town of Galesburg, Illinois, murder is a virtually unknown social phenomenon. But when Lucy Brown is attacked by a masked, knife-wielding maniac, and her date, high-school student Waldo Davis, is slain before her eyes, the town is shaken to its very roots. For John Brady of the Galesburg Police Department, the shock does not end there. As more bodies turn up, his investigations lead him to the strange experiments conducted on campus at The Galesburg college psychology department.
Special Features:
Collector's Booklet (Written by John Harrison)
Audio Commentary with Co-Writer Bill Condon and Actors Dan Shor and Dey Young
Audio Commentary with Director Michael Laughlin
Isolated Music Track presents Tangerine Dream's score via Dolby Digital Mono (on Two Channels)
The Effects of Strange Behavior - Interview with Make-Up Effects Artist Craig Reardon
Delicious Conversation with Dan Shor
U.S. & International Trailers
You know, finding out there was a slasher made in your homeland is kinda like finding out your grandfather played for the Yankees! And this just wasn't any slasher but one of the first of the 80's Proto-slasher I think they call it (which as far as I can tell is a slasher before they were even called slashers!).
Personally I thought this was fantastic, a few questionable editing decisions in places but some hilarious scenes and excellent kills to boot! The acting is first rate and far and away better than Pieces, The Multilator or Blood Rage! It even sports an Oscar winner in Louise Fletcher (Nurse Ratchet from One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest), Marc McClure (Marty's brother in BTTF), Michael Murphy and Fiona Lewis, as well as a walk on by a neanderthal Mark Hadlow (Dori, The Hobbit).
It features some first rate music as well. The highlight is the party scene dancing to Lou Christie's Lightning Striking Again and it also feature a song by Nick Cave with the majority of the soundtrack scored by Tangerine Dream.
Excellent movie all round for even the casual fan of the genre.
The Severin disc runs at 101 mins as well - the database entry here is wrong as is the Severin cover (which states 99 mins).
The local Oz disc is great but they replaced the lossless 2.0 mono track with a lossy version in order to be able to fit all the extras on a single layer disc.
The Severin disc runs at 101 mins as well - the database entry here is wrong as is the Severin cover (which states 99 mins).
The local Oz disc is great but they replaced the lossless 2.0 mono track with a lossy version in order to be able to fit all the extras on a single layer disc.
This movie has been on my watchlist for quite some time so maybe I should give it a go. I don't think you can this film a 'proto-slasher' though, the slasher craze had been going on for a few years before this movie was released.