From Suburbia to Disturbia

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2007)

Disturbia was a great film; in fact, I will go further to say that it is one of the best renditions of Rear Window that I have ever seen. It fits well with Freeway. This film is about a teen that is under home arrest, meets a hot neighbor girl and suspects that his other neighbor is a vicious killer after "observing" various people on his block with binoculars. This film was, in my mind, one of the best satires dealing with modern technology. However, there were other things that made this film worth seeing, the excellent PG-13 horror and suspense, the performances, the setting and the modernism of the film. I will be honest and say that when it came out I had not intension of seeing because I thought it was a rip of Rear Window and when I finally did see it, I was left in a state of borderline awe. This movie does what Freeway did to Little Red Riding Hood, with respects to the inspiration.
To start off, the acting in the movie was pretty good. Shia LaBeouf is really distinguishing himself as a younger actor, with the exception of Transformers, but in this film, his emotional feeling and nervousness is amazing. There were points where he did seem believable and you felt for this character. David Morse, who plays the accused, gives a fine, charismatic feel to the movie. He is very quite and at points sensitive, but at the same time mysterious. Unlike some of his other films, it's not his best, but it is very good nonetheless. There were also great performances by Sarah Roemer, Aaron Yoo and Carrie-Ann Moss. I will go further to say that Matt Craven was pretty good for this secondary role.
The set design was very well made and satirical. The seemingly perfect neighborhood, almost straight out of a 1950's Norman Rockwell painting with hot girls, child porno watchers and a possible killer. Satire anybody? I love the fact that they play on the whole "suburbia" concept, kind of like Desperate Housewives or Poltergeist did. I enjoyed the fact that this story is limited to only the house and its surrounding house, giving the viewer the same perspective as the main character, with the exception of the supermarket and the school. The modernism of this movie is very well constructed and parodied. Case in point; the elaborate use of communicating with you friend across the street via cell, well at the same time communicated with your other friend in a shopping store who is also using the camera phone to send digital pictures to the main computer. Among this one, there are many others like it. I love the fact that they parody the overwhelming use of technology by teens.
Now the horror. For a PG-13, there were some great suspense sequences, particularly the whole invading the killer's house sequence, and there were also some great "hidden" murders. Like Alfred Hitchcock, you don't see the brutal killings take place, but you are giving a sneak peek of it and based off of that, you imagination must do the rest. I love that. The scene that I'm talking about involves a clear plastic tarp and a window. I enjoyed the suspense sequences and as I said before, the one that I especially enjoyed was when Ronnie goes into Turner's house and you can't see anything because it's seen through a small camera. The binoculars are scanning the house and you don't see anything and it's just really, really good. That movie effectively kept me on the edge using binoculars and a camera.
Overall, I would not call this movie a horror or a slasher flick, what it is, is a hardcore thriller, just like Hitchcock does. I think this film had some very great stylized action and suspense sequences and killing scenes, it had some great performances and once again, a great parody on suburbia and technology. That was the highlight basically. This movie was a great PG-13 thriller and highly recommended for those who enjoy films of this palette, as well as horror aficionados. Those who enjoy Shia LaBeouf or David Morse would enjoy this film, but essentially if you enjoy movies, this is a great movie to pass the time or if your looking for a mild scare. I certainly enjoyed it and I would probably watch it again, I really would.