What defines a scary movie to you? A lot of people think hot blondes being chased through the woods or back breaking possession flicks are what encompass 90% of the genre. In reality, these stories are fun but they don’t make much room for character development and mystery – two key elements that need to be in place to make a real scary movie. Would you consider a sleazy private detective who uncovers a depraved world of murder when he falls into the path of a serial killing couple to be a scary movie, even if the feature doesn’t contain half of the usual slasher film stereotypes and plot devices? If a cop drama meets psychological slasher falls into your definition of a scary movie, then you should definitely read on for my review of Deviant Behavior.
Deviant Behavior was created by the duo of Jacob Grim and Sal Hernandez who make up STX Media, the company that brought you last year’s anthology Dreadtime Stories. On this adventure, Grim served as cinematographer, director and editor while Hernandez served as producer and script-writer. Deviant Behavior was brought to life by leading and supporting cast members comprised of Eric Rodrigue, Tania Monroy, Alex Heatherley, L.G. Koruptore, Hendrik James, Pablo Schmitt and Bonnie Ann Coronado with John Dugan (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as Murphy and Ed Guinn (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as Al. Sidebar: This pool is, in my opinion, the best way to cast a film. Fill it up with talented up-and-comers and a sprinkle of iconic players to get eyes on the project.
As you can see from the breathtaking movie poster above (seriously, I’d hang that shit on my wall), Deviant Behavior features a blood thirsty serial killer that happens to be female. Though she has her boyfriend/husband as her accomplice, the majority of the brutal slayings are carried out by her hand. The mask, the fact that she doesn’t speak, it all comes together to form a killer that is quite chilling and psychologically terrifying. There’s just something so creepy about these China-doll masks and something even more creepy about an assailant that’s literally one big question mark. What do you look like? Why are you doing this? So many questions. I give Hernandez a lot of props for penning a movie with such a compelling killer that manages to keep the mystery level sky high. She was low key my favorite character without even uttering a word and she’s one twisted bitch. She keeps this movie brutal and bloody as Hell and injects much needed horror into the plot while the detective is working and romancing his time away.
Now, I poked fun at easy horror fans in my intro, but I fall into that category to a certain extent myself. Crime thrillers that mesh with any other genre of film really aren’t my thing, especially when horror is involved. Usually I like my movies pretty straight forward. I reviewed a movie several months ago called Dark Seduction that mixed vampires with film noir and that was the movie that made me love film noir. I can say that Deviant Behavior, which mixes cops and serial killers, is probably going to be the movie that makes me enjoy and appreciate the crossover. It was certainly more tolerable than other entries in this category. Deviant behavior is a slow burning, dark and suspenseful tale with elements of erotica and horror tossed in for good measure. It’s not going to be a film that works for everyone, but its target audience is going to thoroughly enjoy it. I can’t knock it for that. The other aspect of Deviant Behavior‘s overall classification that I thought was cool was the nods and styles that lend themselves to late 80’s and early 90’s titles of the same mood. If anything, Deviant Behavior is an awesome throwback to bloody thrillers of the past. All we needed was an ultra-muscled, hokey side-kick and we would have been there.
When examining independent titles such as this, I like to look at the producers’ previous releases and gage the production quality accordingly. While I found Dreadtime Stories to be enjoyable, it definitely had its weak points in production. I’m happy to say that Deviant Behavior is a step up or two in quality and a lot of those errors have been fixed this time around. It shows that Grim and Hernandez are looking at a long future in film-making instead of casually churning out garbage every few years to keep their name out there. I think their audio was much better here and the camera work was more focused and on point. They took risks on more experimental shots – the red room especially – which didn’t pay off, but I’ll still give them credit for attempting something different. It’s important for independent film-makers to learn and grow and I can see in Deviant Behavior that STX Media is doing this and they’re in it to win it. The acting is a lot better, too, now that I think about it. I wouldn’t be able to critique anyone’s performance because everyone was on the same level. Deviant Behavior has that fun, rough and endearing flair that most Texans possess and it doesn’t give you the happy ending you want…in a good way! Final Score: 7 out of 10.
