Disturbia by Paul Bullock

Stop us if you think you’ve heard this one before: a seemingly normal guy finds himself stuck at home and convinced there’s murder afoot after spying on his neighbours to alleviate the boredom. Yep, that’s right, it’s Rear Window. And Arlington Road. And The ‘burbs. And now Disturbia, one of those hush-hush not-actually-a-remake remakes that attempts to conceal its origins by throwing in new-fangled modern-day stuff like iPods, YouTube and hip yoof slang (the title blends Disturbed with Suburbia). It should be terrible, but miraculously, Disturbia emerges as one of this year‘s most entertaining and accomplished teen thrillers.

Shia LaBeouf plays Kale, a seventeen-year old high-school student who is under three months house arrest after knocking out his Spanish teacher for speaking ill of his recently deceased dad. With his mum (Carrie-Anne Moss) out working most of the day and his TV cut off at the cable, Kale’s boredom gradually takes over and he decides to concentrate on the entertainment outside his window. Newly-moved in hottie Ashley (Sarah Roemer) proves a quick distraction, but less pleasing to the eye is Mr Turner (David Morse), the creepy next-door neighbour who may or may not be responsible for the disappearance of a young girl from Texas.

Did he do it? It doesn‘t really matter. Disturbia isn’t so much about its (slightly drawn-out) conclusion, but how it gets there. Director DJ Caruso, veteran of TVs The Shield and flicks like The Salton Sea and Taking Lives, utilises Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth’s sharp script to create a slow and steady portrait of boredom and the tricks our minds can play on us in a bid to halt it. The tension is built up subtly and notably without the cheap parlour tricks or easy scares that usually blights the genre, and Geoff Zanelli creates a fittingly moody score, despite being hindered by some shoehorned-in rock music.

The cast too are on top form, with man of the moment Shia LaBeouf once again emulating 80s-era John Cusack with a performance full of the kind of subversively dry wit that will serve him well in his role in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Amazingly for a teen film, he shares palpable sexual chemistry with the otherwise rather dull Roemer, and in friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) has a comic sidekick who is actually funny, and creates some genuinely amusing interludes to break up Morse's masterful study in banal evil.

What Disturbia doesn't have though is any new tricks hiding up those designer sleeves. Those who've seen Rear Window or any of its mimics will know exactly what to expect from this and its strict adherence to Hitchcock’s 1954 classic undermines its attempts to warn us against the perils of technology. But then, looking for subtext in a film like this is rather like expecting the characters to act logically and call the police. Sure it’d be the more intelligent thing to do, but it’d make for one hell of a boring movie. And Disturbia is anything but.