best

Rating: 10/10 (16 October 2019)

I first saw Disturbia during its initial theatrical release in 2007. I was 18 at the time Disturbia came out, so D.J. Caruso's thriller rife with subplots including the anguish of coming-of-age and teen romance meant that I was part of the target audience. I enjoyed Disturbia a great deal in the theatre and bought the DVD soon after as one of the last Hollywood Video rental stores closed in my area. After not seeing Disturbia for a few years, I was nervous to revisit it, for fear that it would be one of those films I enjoyed once because it fit a particular time in my life that I wouldn't get much out of after more maturation. I can pleasantly affirm my love for Disturbia is just as strong today as it was when I sat in the theatre the first time I saw it. I suppose it makes sense that I enjoyed it, I'm a massive fan of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. In 2010, the copyright holder of the Cornell Woolrich story that Rear Window was based off of, sued producer Steven Spielberg and his film studio DreamWorks for infringement. The lawsuit was dismissed, as the courts rightly recognized that there is much more to Disturbia than simply a Rear Window rip-off. Though the same voyeuristic protagonist and a mystery exist in both, the existence of one far from hampers the other.