DVD Review: Disturbia

Shia LaBeouf stars in this semi-remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. That statement might make the intended audience for this film respond “Rear what?” or “Alfred who?” but it is a serviceable little thriller.

I suppose at its heart, Disturbia is meant to show that even the most well manicured lawn has some dirt underneath. Kale is a troubled youth that is still aching from the death of his father in a freak car accident. He blames himself and has slipped into the role of the juvenile delinquent and some words from his Spanish teacher causes him to punch him in the face. This earns Kale a new bracelet – one on his ankle that doesn’t let him go too far from his house.

It only takes a few days, but Kale starts to go stir crazy, especially since his Mom (Carrie-Anne Moss) takes away his Xbox and cancels iTunes, and starts to spy on the neighbors. The neighbors across the street’s husband is a little too close to the maid, a hot new girl named Ashley (Sarah Roemer) moves in next door with her troubled parents, and his neighbor on the other side, Mr. Turner (David Morse), mows his lawn twice a day. News reports say that a serial killer is on the loose and kidnapping redheads. Kale starts to think that Mr. Turner has something to do with it so he recruits Ashley and his pal Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) to play amateur detectives and stake out Mr. Turner. Disturbia takes its inspiration from the great film Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock. I suppose as the intended audiences of these pictures gets younger they probably have no idea about the original work so it may seem new to them. The film does add some modern twists to the tale of an isolated person witnessing a crime and doing something about it. Jimmy Stewart’s character with a broken leg is replaced with a troubled teen that can’t stray too far from the house and add to that a little bit of teenage romance. It also offers some thrills but I think that the intended teenage audience will get more out of it than those that might be more familiar with Rear Window. Disturbia is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. A fullscreen version is available separately. Special features include a commentary by director D.J. Caruso and stars Shia LaBeouf and Sarah Roemer. There are also 4 minutes of deleted scenes. The 14 minute “Making of Disturbia” interviews producer Joe Medjuck, director Caruso, LaBeouf, screenwriters Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth, David Morse, Carrie-Anne Moss, Sarah Roemer, Aaron Yoo, production designer Tom Southwell, and stunt coordinator Manny Perry. A “Serial Pursuit Trivia Pop-up/Quiz” is an option to put text trivia, etc. that plays in the film. There are also 90 seconds of outtakes of goofing on the set. Next is the 4-minute music video “Don’t Make me Wait” by This World Fair. Finally, there’s a photo gallery, the theatrical trailer, and previews for other DVDs.

Disturbia is an acceptable urban update/homage of Read Window. Those that are familiar with the original might still find some thrills here but be prepared to want to go back to rent the original for even greater thrills. However, Disturbia is thrilling enough and makes a decent rental. Disturbia is now available at Amazon. As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.