Disturbia hints right from the beginning that, as far as PG-13 thrillers go, it will not wuss out on us. There’s a car crash that’s pretty startling, promising what comes later won’t be some jolly misunderstanding. Director D.J. Caruso and writers Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth, working from Landon’s story, live up to the promise, delivering what is essentially a riff on Rear Window, with a younger hero and a creepier villain.
Kale (Shia LaBeouf) is a high school student whose life starts to come apart at the seams with the death of his beloved father. A year later, Kale’s mother Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss) is doing her best as a single parent, but the once-studious Kale is constantly getting into trouble. A run-in with a teacher earns Kale a three-month sentence of house arrest, complete with tracking device on his ankle to make sure he doesn’t go further than the lawn. Of course, house arrest when one has access to TV and the Internet isn’t quite so isolating as it once was, and for all his anger, Kale finds ways to pass the time – largely by spying on the neighbors with his best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo). Soon joined by new neighbor and potential girlfriend Ashley (Sarah Roemer), Kale starts to find entertainment value in his predicament. Then Kale comes to the realization that one of the subjects of his surreptitious observation, next-door neighbor Mr. Turner (David Morse), seems to have a lot in common with an at-large serial killer …
There’s a nice sense of both tension and humor in Disturbia. The film doesn’t make fun of itself, but it allows the characters a sense of absurdity and incredulity as they confront a situation in life that until now has only been TV fodder for them. LaBeouf and Yoo come off as brash but vulnerable – we feel for them as the jeopardy level increases.
It helps both that LaBeouf is adept at giving us a range of emotions as Kale and that Morse is able to seem absolutely mundane and absolutely chilling at the same time. The actors put the material over the top, ably aided by the personable supporting cast. It also will work for most viewers that Caruso goes for the gore when he can, producing some honest shivers.
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