Human Behavior (2005)

Pack: Tomb of Terrors
Disc: 12

Subgenre(s): Crime

Year: 2005 (IMDb says 2006)

Rated: Unrated
Length: 72 minutes

Directors: Derek Cole, Shane Cole
Writers: Shane Cole, Derek Cole
Starring: Paul Anninos, Stephen Twardokus, Kevin O'Conner

Synopsis: A deranged serial killer leads a pair of detectives into his warped games.

Screencaps:

Review: Human Behavior is another formulaic crime drama which has no place in a horror pack except that this time it's all in faux black and white just to make it even more tedious to watch. There's a double-twist at the end, but by that time, you'll should have already worked it out.

In fact, Human Behavior is rather a mess with far too many jumbled scenes and repetitive exposition just to pad out the run time. It deserves credit for hiding the identity of the killer, but only to the point that you know the suspected black character, Corbin McCain (Vic Brown), can't be anything other than a red herring.

Paul Anninos plays a good part as the uber intense detective Trey Mochston, but everyone else suffers from exceedingly bad delivery. There are noticeable delays between the lines as the camera cuts from one character to another which doesn't help matters much either. Curiously, there are incongruous attempts at comedy including a scene where Trey answers the phone instead of the door even though there's a knocker on his door not a doorbell. Why they did that makes no sense at all since it spoils the otherwise completely serious tone.

Apart from the main murder victim, Shelly (Anne-Michelle Seiler), the girls in the film have very little time on screen, but they're all very pretty and worth scanning the background for. Elizabeth Hayden Smith, who plays Trey's girlfriend, is in several other amateur horror movies while Jessica Cunningham, who plays Hailey, went from this to some minor success in the 2010 season of "American Idol".

Like most low-budget "cop dramas", Human Behavior is full of inept and questionable police procedure plus a couple of fight scenes which are supposed to make you forget about it. It's not as bad as Nick Love's re-imagining of The Sweeney (2012), but it's almost a precursor. In reality, none of these cops would have jobs as cops for very long.

Some people might find the twist entertaining in the way that it also chooses to disregard anything realistic twice over, but I'll say no more about it because it certainly didn't work for me.

Most Memorable Moment(s): At 42 minutes in, the entire story so far is gone through by two cops during 3 minutes of the worst acting ever.

Originality: None

Best Line(s): "I have some bad news and some more bad news."
Worst Line(s): "Did anyone see anyone go in my office? Huh? Anyone?"

Best Effect(s): The blood from Shelley's head.
Worst Effect(s): Jason's still-breathing corpse.

Goriness (out of 10): 1
Sexiness (out of 10): 1
Profanities (out of 10): 5

Hottest Actor/Actress: Palmer Cheatham as Sharon the hotel clerk.

Picture Quality: Average (black and white, 4:3 ratio)
Audio Quality: Average

Rating (out of 10): 2

Trailer:


IMDb or Wiki: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1078581/

Final Thoughts: More of a mystery than a horror film and slow with it.