decent thriller marred by clichéd ending

Rating: 6/10 (20 September 2007)

These days, when it comes to making horror or thriller movies it seems for the most part you have to go for bloody violence almost from the first minute to the last. Recently however, some movies have tried to buck this trend. Vacancy did it quite well, building suspense until the action kicked in. And Disturbia does it too.
Cale is given house arrest over the summer, for punching one of his teachers. Fitted with an electronic tag to stop him going too far from the house, he soon gets bored, and begins spying on his neighbours, including Ashley, whose parents have moved in next door, and a Mr. Turner. A combination of news reports over a missing woman, coupled with what appears to be suspicious behaviour from Mr. Turner makes Cale think that Turner may be involved with the missing woman....
Although it doesn't say it anywhere, this movie is a modern take on Hitchcock's Rear Window. However this doesn't detract from the fact that for most of it's running time, Disturbia is very entertaining.
It starts slowly, giving the characters time to develop, until the main plot kicks in. D.J. Curuso keeps the story moving at a pace, and builds up the tension as Cale tries to find out if Turner is up to no good. He also adds some nice humour into the movie too. The actors are all good. David Morse is suitably mysterious as Turner. Carrie Anne Moss, does well as Cale' mother. Sarah Roemer as Ashley is good, although her joining Cale in watching the neighbours, without getting creeped out by the possibility that he's been watching her is one of several plot holes unresolved. However, like Transformers, the success of this movie is down to Shia Lebeouf. He's fast becoming one of Hollywood's best young actors, and his performance is the best thing in the movie.
However what lets the movie down is the end. I won't reveal details, but up till the last 20 minutes or so this movie was high on tension and suspense. However, by the end it has sadly descended into horror clichés. This is a shame as up till this point it was very impressive.
Still the movie deserves credit for not going down the gore and violence route, and trying for suspense. I just wish they could have avoided the clichés at the end.
It turns a great fun movie, into only a good one.