Disturbia - Review

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

The plot here is of a troubled teenage boy Kale (Shia LeBoeuf) who is under house arrest and believes that his neighbour Mr. Turner (David Morse) is a serial killer. The movie is a modern remake of Alfred Hitchcock's film “Rear Window". In the beginning of the story teenager looses his father in a fatal car crash and suffers form trauma. The disturbed teenager than gets into trouble by punching his Spanish school teacher for which the judge puts him under house arrest for three months. He is confined to a 100 foot circle around his home.

To get rid of the boredom increased by his skeptical mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) who takes away his i-pod and restricts him form watching the television and playing video games, he beings to spy on his neighbours with the help of binoculars and video cameras. He makes a startling discovery that his reclusive neighbor Mr. Turner shares many suspicious similarities with a wanted serial killer who specializes in slaughtering unsuspecting young women. The suspect also owns a Mustang whose description matches to that of the serial killer.

Kale has a lot of trouble in investigating due to his limited mobility as a monitor is attached to his ankle, which alerts the cops if he steps out of the restricted area. He fails to convince the cops and even his mother of his suspicion. Believing in the story and helping him in the act is Kale's techno-cool friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) who also serves the audience with some comic relief. The girl next door Ashley (Sarah Romere) also being spied upon adds romantic interest to the story. She comes to know about Kale's act turns up to him who is in turn shocked. She than gets involved in the game and enjoys watching people rather than being watched. The story takes a new turn when Mr. Turner gets romantically involved with Kale's mother.

Even though being a copy of a great movie it is well written and the credit goes to Christopher B. Landon and Carl Ellsworth. There are a lot of differences than similarities with the original. Director D. J. Caruso holds the audience in the movie with regular suspense situations. The cast of the movie gives a good performance especially Shia LeBeouf and David Morse who at times seems to have been underused. Overall the movie stands out to be more than average and has good entertainment value. Its worth watching and would have even made the great Hitchcock have a look at it.

Movie Name – Disturbia
Genre – Horror/ Thriller
Year – 2007
Director – D. J. Caruso
Cast - Shia LeBeouf, Sarah Roemer, David Morse, Aaron Yoo, Carrie-Anne Moss
Country – USA