A surprisingly taut, well crafted horror/thriller.

Rating: 7/10 (5 September 2010)

When troubled teen Kale (Shia LaBeouf) takes a pop at his Spanish teacher, he is sentenced to three months house arrest, with an electronic tag around his ankle to prevent him from straying too far from home. His X-Box and iTunes privileges revoked by his milf-ilicious mother (Carrie-Anne Moss, who I wouldn't mind being shacked up with for three months), Kale indulges in a spot of voyeurism, which proves to be far more interesting than any video game: the man in the house opposite is having an affair with his maid; sexy new girl-next-door Ashley (Sarah Roemer) spends much of her time relaxing in the pool; and it appears as though creepy neighbour Mr. Turner (David Morse) has been busy abducting and hacking up local women. Enlisting the help of best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and, of course, Ashley, Kale attempts to prove that the man next door is the cold-blooded psycho he believes him to be.
A contemporary PG-13 (or Cert 15 here in the UK) take on Hitchcock's classic Rear Window cursed with a silly title and Shia LaBeouf in the central role: sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn't it? Thankfully, Disturbia's director D.J. Caruso steers well clear of the expected trappings that blight many a modern youth-orientated horror/thriller (extremely obnoxious characters, MTV style gimmicky visuals, OTT gore) and opts instead for good-old fashioned suspense and edge of your seat thrills. Caruso successfully creates a palpable sense of tension, which he somehow sustains even when occasionally pushing the limits of believability, and his cast all give commendable performances, the younger performers actually making their characters fairly likable and the more experienced thesps providing solid support (Morse in particular gives a very memorable turn as the sinister Mr. Turner).
The film builds inexorably to a well executed and nail-biting finale deep inside the bowels of the murderer's house, where some nasty surprises await intrepid young Kale (extra points awarded for the inclusion of a water logged pit full of mouldy corpses!).