The film is about a teenage boy, Kale (Shia LaBeouf), whose father is killed in a car crash. A year later, Kale is sentenced to house arrest all summer break after punching his teacher for bringing up his dad. Since Kale's (only?) friend, Ronnie (Aaron Yoo), is on vacation for a short time, he begins to spy on his neighbors, including quiet Robert Turner (David Morse) and his pretty new neighbor, Ashley (Sarah Roemer). One night Kale hears about recent murders in his area on the news; he puts two and two together and begins to suspect Robert Turner. Together, Kale, Ronnie, and Ashley start spying on Turner, which leads them down a dangerous path.
This is one of the few thriller movies that actually scares me...I think it's the multitude of dead bodies at the film's climax (and to think I wanted to go into forensics...). Disturbia actually reminds me a lot of Scream, just with a lot (I mean a lot) less blood and a better love story. It's intended to scare, but often times the comedy overshadows the horror. A prime example (in Disturbia, not Scream) is when Kale attempts to ruin Ashley's party. I can watch that scene over and over and still laugh the entire way through. The great thing about the film is, though, that it can reel itself back in and scare the you-know-what out of its audience ten minutes later.
One scene in particular that I'd like to talk about occurs about halfway through the film, when Ashley is leaving the hardware store in an attempt to follow Robert while Ronnie and Kale are sneaking into his car. Robert has disappeared and Ashley is in her car on the phone with Kale when she suddenly slams on her breaks--Robert is standing right in front of her car. He walks over to her (open) passenger window, reaches through, turns off her car and unlocks the passenger door, and climbs in the car, locking the door behind him. The scene is so tense it's hard for me to breathe, and I'm just watching it on a TV screen. Morse and Roemer do a fantastic job in this scene and I just get chills every time I see it.
Even if you're not big on scary movies, I'd definitely recommend Disturbia--I was a complete scaredy cat the first time I saw it, and now it's one of my favorite movies. Although it is scary, there are so many other elements in the movie that I'm sure there's something for everyone to enjoy. And remember: every killer lives next door to someone.
Score: 9.5/10
Recommend: Yes!
