(Long Island, N.Y.) It’s always pretty cool when you go into a movie expecting it to be somewhat generic and uninspired and come out actually having had a quality entertainment experience. That’s the case with Distrubia, a horror film released last month, and I still can’t believe that it ended up being a good movie. Part of my initial trepidation towards seeing it was that Disturbia was marketed like any other annoyingly vapid teen horror flick, but the time and length of the movie fit right in with our gang’s evening plans, so we figured, why not? It couldn’t possibly be worse than Epic Movie, which still gets my vote as one of the worst cinematic blights humanity has ever had to endure. Disturbia, in contrast, actually wound up being a very pleasant surprise.
While not claiming to be a remake, Disturbia nonetheless seems to have taken a great deal of inspiration from the Alfred Hitchcock classic Rear Window. The story involves Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf) as a troubled teenager with a history of running afoul of the law. His problems had started one year prior, when Kale and his father were involved in a car accident (one that proved fatal for dear old daddy), and he hasn’t Robe demoiselle d’honneur rose been the same since. Upon his latest illegal escapade (punching out his high school Spanish teacher, although the guy kinda deserved it), he’s sentenced to spend his summer vacation under house arrest. Kale is outfitted with an ankle sensor that prevents him from venturing from his property. If he does, the ankle unit explodes, killing him. Oh, wait, wrong movie- I mean it just beeps and summons the police.
Kale’s mother Julie (Carrie-Anne Moss, AKA Trinity from the Matrix movies, although she oddly
Robe demoiselle d’honneur violettedisplays no kung-fu or reality-altering powers here) furthers the punishment by depriving him of his iTunes account, Xbox360, and television set, forcing him to find alternate means of passing the time of his sentence. Me, I might read a book, draw, or perhaps write some very articulate and informative movie reviews for a certain website. Kale, however, becomes a Twinkie sculptor and peeping tom, using binoculars to spy on his surrounding houses daily until he has the routines of their various occupants virtually memorized. Of special interest to him is Ashley (Sarah Roemer), the cute teenaged daughter of the new neighbors in the house next to his. Eventually, they become friendly and she comes over to the house, where Kale introduces her to his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo), in addition to his creepy peeping hobby. Fueled by TV news reports involving a series of missing women, the gang notices some strange coincidences involving the ongoing case and Kale’s other neighbor, an eccentric named Robert Turner (David Morse). Is Robert a maniacal serial killer, or misunderstood loner? Unlike most movies of this type, the answer isn’t 100% clear.
The television commercials really don’t accurately reflect Disturbia’s end product well at all, as it actually possesses an abundance of personality, in addition to actually doing something different from the norm. I’d say the current advertising campaign (which merely highlights its horror aspects and nothing else) is doing the film a major disservice, but considering that Disturbia locked up the #1 spot at the box office for its first 3 weeks in wide release (only to be finally knocked off the top by the juggernaut known as Spider-Man 3), I guess a lot of people got to experience this fact for themselves.
I think the main thing it did right that so many other horror movies do wrong is that it spent a lot of time on establishing the personalities of the main characters and actually making them likable. 99% of horror movies don’t bother to do this with their characters and what you get are faceless cardboard cut-outs that you don’t care about in the least. In fact, you usually ROOT for the bad guy to kill them (I sure do)! But the first 2/3rds of Disturbia would almost be considered a light-hearted drama, and by the time the ball gets rolling horror-wise, you actually find yourself concerned about the fates of the characters, which in turn creates…actual tension! Wow! It was a refreshing change from your average scary flick, and it also helped that the performances of all involved were great across the board.
There’s a fair amount of product placement in this movie- Xbox360 (including its online service, XboxLive), and various Apple products (iPod, iTunes, Mac notebook) are actual plot points, believe it or not. However, while having products rampantly shoved down your throat is annoying in most movies (like in Men in Black 2 when Will Smith piloted his stupid flying car with a Sony PlayStation 2 controller), in Distrubia, it kind of had a legit purpose. They were showing kids doing what kids do. They watch TV, play video-games, download music to their MP3 players, etc. Hey, I do that stuff and I’m a grown-up. But they needed to establish all of those entertainment options for Kale just so we could see what he resorts to when they’re all taken away from him. I mean, if his mom was content to let him spend his entire house arrest blowing away other kids on the internet, he wouldn’t have taken a sick, voyeuristic interest in his neighbors and we’d have no movie, right?
Anyway, VERY decent flick. Recommended.
