I like suspenseful movies when they are well done. I have sat through several movies that were supposed to be suspenseful thrillers that turned out to be horrible and not suspenseful at all. I was interested in Disturbia when I first saw a trailer for the movie.

Kale was having a lot of trouble dealing with his dad’s death in a car accident. It didn't help that Kale had been driving when the accident happened. Sometime after the accident, there was an incident during Kale’s Spanish class and Kale punched his teacher. Kale was put under house arrest. He did all right at first, but then his mother cancelled his X-Box Live and disabled his television.

Kale figured out how far he could venture from the house and then started watching his neighbors. He was really interested in a family moving in with a teenage daughter. He was surprised when Ashley caught him and came over. Kale had become convinced that another neighbor, Robert Turner, was a wanted killer. Ashley and Ronnie, one of Kale’s friends, started watching Robert hoping to find proof to back up Kale’s theory. It was mostly like a game to them until Robert let them know he knew what they were up to.

I really enjoyed Disturbia. The plot was interesting even though it wasn’t completely original. From the previews, I thought it looked like the movie was an updated version of the Hitchcock classic Rear Window. I still mostly feel that way even there were several differences. Jeffries was stuck in his small apartment because of a broken leg. Kale was confined to his home because he’d done something wrong. He did have a much larger area for his confinement, but he did end up watching the neighbors. He also became convinced that a neighbor was a killer and set out to try to find proof with help from Ashley and Ronnie. Instead of having most of the action confined in Kale’s home, several things took place in other locations. There were enough differences between the movies to make this one very entertaining and not completely predictable.

Disturbia was a good, suspenseful movie with a decent amount of mystery. Time was taken during the first several moments to set up Kale’s situation and introduce a few characters before jumping into the mystery. Kale had started watching the neighbors because he was board. He saw a few news stories about missing women and then saw something that convinced him that Robert was the killer. The whole situation provided the mystery since it wasn’t clear if Kale was right or not. There were several suspenseful moments, especially later in the movie. There were several times when I had no idea how things were going to work out and what was happening made me jump more than once. The suspense was very well done without resorting to a lot of gory violence. The little violence that was in the movie wasn’t overly graphic.

Kale spent a lot of time watching Ashley after her family moved into the neighborhood. He especially enjoyed watching her when she was in a bikini around the swimming pool. It was made very clear that Kale and Ronnie were attracted to Ashley and there were a few sexual remarks made. Kale also saw one of the neighbors have sex with the maid and three young boys watching porn while their clueless mother was in another room. A brief amount of nudity was shown when Kale saw the kids watching the porn movie. That was it for nudity in the movie. There was one other sexual situation that was really just two characters kissing and making out a little. The sexual situations, brief nudity, and violence caused the movie to be rated PG-13.

Kale became very troubled after the death of his father. It wasn’t completely clear what type of person he’d been before the accident, but I think he had been a good kid overall. His downward spiral started after his father’s death. He did have an attitude at times, especially with his mother. It did seem like he was smart, but he did a few stupid things. Shia LaBeouf was really good in the part. I also enjoyed his performance in Transformers. Julie, Kale’s mother, really wasn’t around much and just seemed to be frustrated with her son. Carrie-Anne Moss was fine in the part.

Ashley didn’t wait very long after moving to start spending time with Kale and Ronnie. She was intrigued by Kale’s theory about their other neighbor and was willing to help with watching him. Ashley had a few of her own issues that were never really addressed. Sarah Roemer was fine in the part. Ronnie seemed a bit goofy but was nice for the most part. He wasn’t in as much of the movie as Kale or even Ashley, so Aaron Yoo didn’t have a lot to do.

Very little was shown about Mr. Turner. What was shown established him as a freaky character even if he wasn’t a killer. There was just something about him. David Morse was great in the part. From what little was shown of the Spanish teacher, he didn’t seem that nice either. He did deliberately say something about Kale’s father. I’m not saying Kale was right to hit him, but it was somewhat understandable.

Main Cast

Shia LaBeouf - Kale
David Morse - Robert Turner
Carrie-Anne Moss - Julie
Sarah Roemer - Ashley
Aaron Yoo - Ronnie

D.J. Caruso - Director

I recently watched Disturbia on HBO. The movie is available on DVD now. I don't know what kind of extras are included on the DVD.

Disturbia was an entertaining, suspenseful movie that I enjoyed. I do think it is worth watching for people who like suspenseful movies.


Recommended: Yes