2008 Woodie Awards
Disturbia Review
Patrick Gleeson
Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Opinion
"Disturbia" stars Shia LaBeouf as Kale, a high school student placed under house arrest for the summer. One year after getting into a car accident that kills his father, Kale snaps at the end of the school year, punches a teacher and is sentenced to three months of house arrest. When his mother, played by Carrie-Anne Moss, cuts off the power plug to his television for not cleaning his room, Kale is left with nothing to do. To fend off boredom, Kale starts spying on his neighbors. This includes the new girl next door, played by Sarah Roemer, named is Ashley. Kale quickly determines that when Ashley goes for her daily swim and discovers that she always leaves the blinds to her room open.
Throughout the first third of the movie the audience is left guessing if she likes him and if she knows Kale is watching her. When Ashley eventually comes over to Kale's house and sees his stalker setup, Kale claims it is for spying on their quiet neighbor. Apparently this neighbor is the secretive killer Mr. Turner, played by David Morse. Most of the rest of the movie consists of alternating back and forth as to whether or not Mr. Turner is a serial killer. The transitions between the man's guilt and innocence are frequent and convincing. Disturbia's greatest strength is the several guessing games it plays one after another throughout the movie.
Overall Disturbia is fairly good but the ending needs help. It is a bit of a disappointment because after the final revelation, there are no real scares. Everything is either extremely predictable or revealed slowing without even attempting to surprise the viewer. While Disturbia seems like just another horror movie that has been restrained into a PG-13 rating, it doesn't rely on the standard gore and violence of horror. Instead it keeps the true nature of the facts ambiguous and the audience unsure of what is really happening.
Throughout the first third of the movie the audience is left guessing if she likes him and if she knows Kale is watching her. When Ashley eventually comes over to Kale's house and sees his stalker setup, Kale claims it is for spying on their quiet neighbor. Apparently this neighbor is the secretive killer Mr. Turner, played by David Morse. Most of the rest of the movie consists of alternating back and forth as to whether or not Mr. Turner is a serial killer. The transitions between the man's guilt and innocence are frequent and convincing. Disturbia's greatest strength is the several guessing games it plays one after another throughout the movie.
Overall Disturbia is fairly good but the ending needs help. It is a bit of a disappointment because after the final revelation, there are no real scares. Everything is either extremely predictable or revealed slowing without even attempting to surprise the viewer. While Disturbia seems like just another horror movie that has been restrained into a PG-13 rating, it doesn't rely on the standard gore and violence of horror. Instead it keeps the true nature of the facts ambiguous and the audience unsure of what is really happening.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
lisey
posted 5/27/07 @ 9:36 PM EST
okay disturbia was the best movie ever, and i never even saw it before... i didnt read ur pragraph, but if you said it was bad... i HATE you! if you said it was good. (Continued…)
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