BAMcinématek Presents: Strange Behavior

Part of the BAMcinématek series Tangerine Dreams

Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 4:30, 9:15pm

Director Michael Laughlin
With Michael Murphy, Dan Shor, Louise Fletcher

(1981) 105min, 35mm

This part-camp, part-sincere take on pulp slasher films chronicles a small-town sheriff’s (Murphy) investigation of a series of gory murders while his son (Shor) volunteers for some dodgy, and quite possibly homicidal, experiments at the local university. The film successfully passes off the Victorian architecture and rolling hills of Auckland for suburban Illinois, and mixes an imported cast (including Scott Brady, Charles Lane, Marc “Jimmy Olsen” McClure, and Academy Award winner Louise Fletcher) with local actors trying to disguise their New Zealand accents. Tangerine Dream’s contrapuntal score perfectly complements the sense of dislocation and forced not-quite-right Americana, laying its iciest synthesizer riffs over the sweet teen romance scenes and deploying an almost funky percussion beat for the hyperactive climax.