Disturbia (Blu-ray) (2007)

"...a smart and well-acted teen thriller that serves up some lively scares.  Claudia Puig, USA Today
"...Caruso is a resourceful director is that he scares you silly with a minimum of violence and a few smears of blood.  David Edelstein, New York Magazine
"There's plenty to ensure fresh jolts for viewers who know Hitch's tricks inside out...  John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter
"The Breakfast Club meets Rear Window. The result should satisfy dating crowds from high school to night school.  Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
"Cool stuff. Cool movie.  Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Editor's Note Shia LaBeouf (CONSTANTINE, I, ROBOT) is a young talent to be reckoned with, as he demonstrates in this genre-spanning film from director D.J. Caruso. Part teenage romantic comedy, part horror flick, DISTURBIA stars LaBeouf as the troubled Kale, who is confined to his home under house arrest after he punches out his Spanish teacher in the middle of class. Kale's array of available diversions dwindle considerably after his mom (Carrie Ann Moss, MEMENTO) shuts off his X-Box and his i-Tunes, and he turns to voyeurism instead, carefully noting the daily activities of his neighbors. These include the swimming schedule of the hot girl who just moved in next door, Ashley (Sarah Roemer, THE GRUDGE 2), whom he ogles with his best friend, the class clown, Ronnie (Aaron Yoo, THE BEDFORD DIARIES). When Ashley unexpectedly shows up and wants to know what the boys are doing behind their binoculars, they concoct a story about their neighbor, Mr. Turner (David Morse, PROOF OF LIFE), and their suspicions that he is the serial killer currently on the loose. The teens' subsequent stakeout makes them increasingly convinced that this is in fact the case, and their creepy interactions with Turner bring them ever closer to learning the dark secret that lies inside his impenetrable suburban existence. Despite a slight identity crisis and distracting product placements, DISTURBIA is carried by the strong performance of its lead character, and manages to charm with its portrayal of young love.

	Carrie-Anne Moss
	David Morse
	Sarah Roemer
	Shia LaBeouf
	Carl Ellsworth - Writer
	Christopher B. Landon - Writer
	D.J. Caruso - Director
	Douglas Cumming - Art Director
	E. Bennett Walsh - Producer
	Geoff Zanelli - Original Music By
	Ivan Reitman - Executive Producer
	Jim Page - Editor
	Rogier Stoffers - Cinematographer
	Tom Southwell - Production Designer

Rolling Stone
3 stars out of 4 -- "[LaBeouf] is a winning combo of smart and smartass....LaBeouf excels as does Aaron Yoo..." 04/19/2007 p.71

New York Times
"DISTURBIA, capably directed by D.J. Caruso, makes the most of its star's jumpy, quick-witted charm." 04/13/2007 p.E12

Box Office
"[W]itty and intelligent..." 05/01/2007 p.75

Entertainment Weekly
"[LaBeouf] made the leap to bankable leading man...in this cybertech update of REAR WINDOW." -- Grade: B 08/10/2007 p.55

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] smart, playful, engagingly modern take on Hitch's peeping tom classic....Slick, savvy and suspenseful..." 10/01/2007 p.52

Empire
3 stars out of 5 -- "Caruso's greatest skill is in allowing his leading man plenty of room to show why he's leapt to the top of every casting director's wish-list..." 09/01/2007 p.46

Sight and Sound
"[A]n effective exercise in suspense....Its witty script, engaging themes and knack for suspense elevate it above many of its contemporaries." 10/01/2007 p.53

Ultimate DVD
4 stars out of 5 -- "Giving the themes of Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW an intelligent modern twist....[DISTURBIA ensures] the audience remains on the edge of their seat until the explosive ending..." 11/23/2007 p.108

ReelViews 7 of 10
"Disturbia is a nice little mystery thriller that takes a wrong turn on the way to its climax and morphs into a slasher movie. This abrupt change in tone is as jarring as it is unwelcome and transforms what could have been an effectively tense conclusion into something so over-the-top that it's almost laughable. During its best moments, Disturbia doesn't have the material to be memorable, but it is watchable and the subject matter holds an undeniable fascination...A comparison between Caruso and Hitchcock is obviously unfair - one is among the pantheon of film deities while the other has a few middling titles on his resume, but that's what happens when a director works in Rear Window territory. Disturbia is not a terrible movie. Even with the sordid ending, it holds the viewer's interest the way any competently made thriller can. There's a sense of potential squandered but maybe it takes a dumbed-down, amped-up approach to capture the attention of today's viewers." - James Berardinelli

Reel.com 8 of 10
"The parallels with Hitchcock's Rear Window and Brian De Palma's Body Double (not to mention lesser known variants on the genre such as Curtis Hanson's The Bedroom Window and John Carpenter's masterful Someone's Watching Me!) are obvious. They're also not comparisons that work to Disturbia's advantage, as director D.J. Caruso and his screenwriters both fail to go as deep as their influences and seriously botch a number of the devices that they steal...Nevertheless, Caruso is a skilled craftsman who knows how to stage and edit an action sequence--his movie may be impersonal, but it's never boring...Morse is chilling as LaBeouf's antagonist, while LaBeouf himself is simultaneously geeky and sexy in his star-making performance. He shares an easy rapport with love interest Roemer, and they, along with a slightly underused Carrie-Anne Moss, give the movie the soul that the screenplay lacks. The teen romance that in most movies of this sort would be perfunctory is, in Disturbia, a surprising strength." - Jim Hemphill