Strange Behavior (also known as Dead Kids, Small Town Massacre, Shadowlands, Human Experiments) is a 1981 slasher film written, directed and co-produced by Michael Laughlin, co-written with Bill Condon, and starring Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher and Dan Shor.

Its plot follows a series of bizarre murders being perpetrated against teenagers in a small Midwestern town, at the same time that the local university is engaging in covert mind control experiments on the youth.

Bryan, the son of the Galesburg, Illinois mayor, is brutally murdered in his home, his body later found stuffed and posed as a scarecrow.

Meanwhile, John's son Pete, a high school senior, sits in on a course at Galesburg University with his friend, Oliver.

After the lecture, Pete agrees to become one of Gwen's test subjects in order to earn money for his college applications.

After, he invites Caroline, a college student who works the front desk at the laboratory, on a date, and the two quickly begin a romance.

Meanwhile, John has a conversation with his girlfriend, Barbara, about the murders: he deduces that each of the victims are sons of men who previously collaborated with John to investigate the unethical experiments of Le Sange, and believes Le Sange is in fact alive, enacting revenge.

Barbara follows John to the cemetery, where he breaks into Le Sange's crypt, and finds the casket empty, except for two skeletonised lower legs.

[1] Before qualification for his residency elapsed, he took a job at Avco Embassy Pictures working for then head Robert Rehme.

[2] Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted that the pacing was at times slow, but praised the performances of Michael Murphy as the small-town police chief and impelled-into hero, stating "Mr. Murphy displays both the banality and the stalwart courage of which all such movie characters were once made," and as the female mad scientist, the role was "played marvelously by Fiona Lewis," and concluded that the film "belongs to two movie species, both of them nearly extinct.

"[6] In the New York Daily News, Rex Reed praised the film, writing: "Strange Behavior is a horror movie that shows how to succeed in grisly gore without really trying, and moreover, how to do it while being intentionally funny at the same time.

[13] The DVD included deleted scenes, a photo gallery, an isolated music score by Tangerine Dream, a Spanish-dubbed track, U.S. and Australian theatrical trailers and filmographies.

Also included are songs "The Ritz" and "Jumping Out a Window" by Pop Mechanix, "Shivers" by The Birthday Party, and "Lightnin' Strikes" by Lou Christie.