Something Nice for the High School Teens

Rating: 8/10 (19 August 2007)

This is one of those films that happens to be a great film for the 'teens of the time' - done well, done intelligently, a tale they can wrap their finger around even though it's a story that has been done many times before their birth. But...here... the story hits the mark for that audience, and that's not a bad thing.
Here you have the tale of a teen that unfortunately gets sentenced to what should be a good summer, but three months of 'house arrest' due to unfortunate circumstances. Those circumstances are things every teen today can identify wholeheartedly with. But where the stroke of intelligence comes in is when his mother takes away all of his technological advances that would make the three months whiz by - no i-tunes, no Apple access, no online games to communicate outside with others, NO TV!!!!...etc. Instead he has to find something else to monopolize his house arrest time and he does - regular life outside of the windows of his house..and he finds interesting neighborhood tales. But he stumbles on one that is downright horrifying. With his new 'hottie' female neighbor and his faithful best friend, they piece together what they see and what they investigate to find that their horror is real.
Again, very nicely done for the late teen/early adult audience with enough thrills to keep you interested - and a fine homage to "rear window" completely updated and plausible. Sir Alfred would indeed smile at this film.