Recent Reviews
DVD Review: DISTURBIA
By Dave Dreher

Aug 5, 2007, 10:35

The longer I do this "review" thing the more I begin to realize one thing. We really need to spend a lot less time worrying about the whole MPAA rating thing.  A good film is a good film, regardless of rating.

Those that pan PG-13 horror just need to get over it and if you want to know why then you need to run out and pick yourself up a copy of DISTURBIA and check out how a tight, well acted thriller should be made. 

Although all involved in the project shine for my money the films best performance is turned in by David Morse.  He is dark, disturbing and scary.  DISTURBIA is certainly nothing new.  Very reminiscent of REAR WINDOW and a slew of other "vouyer" themed films DISTURBIA tells the tale of a troubled youth whom after his father is killed in a horrorific traffic accident finds his life in a tailspin.  One minute well adjusted son next minute fatherless nut case.  Life can suck sometimes.

He seems to bottom out when he attacks a teacher at his school and is sentenced to the dreaded house arrest.  His mother, played by the always beautiful Carrie Ann Moss, is at her wits end and takes away all the creature comforts that todays teens have grown to expect. The Ipod, the X-Box.  He is left with a couple hundred cable channels and his cell phone.  Boredom sets in and as you can expect he begins to watch the lives of his neighbors around him.

Next door to him a new family is moving in the oldest daughter is HOT, real HOT and he is instantly in love.  He watches her swim, he watches her change clothes, he watches her fight with her parents.  Although creepy all pretty harmless stuff.

At about the half hour mark this one really picks up the pace.  Through TV news reports we begin to learn of a series of abduction / murders that have been occurring and the car that has been witnessed at the scene is an older mustang, blue in color, with some damage to the body.

Yeah, you've guessed it.  While starring at his hot neighbor he notices that the dude down the street has a blue mustang and yep, it has some damage.  David Morse plays that neighbor and he is awesome.

The story amps up quickly and I"ll spare you the blow by blow but our young felon ends up incorporating the help of his best friend and the hot neighbor chick to investigate his suspicions and what follows is an excellent exercise in pacing, style and storytelling.

One of the films best scenes involves hot neighbor chick following the suspect to a hardware store so LeBouf and his friend can gain access to Morse's garage where they suspect some bodies are hidden.  Morse confronts hot neighbor chick in a parking garage and it is a chilling moment.  It is not violent nor exploitive in any way it is just damn scary.

You watch something like this and it really makes films like HOSTEL II and THE DEVILS REJECTS which less face it are pretty much just violence for the sake of violence seem even less important then they already are.

It's all about story folks.  Like it or not, if the story sucks so will the film.

This film could have been a much more violent, bloody R rated film but why?  It didn't need it.  David Morse oozes sinisterness and plays off star
Shia LaBeouf brilliantly.  This one will have you on the edge of your seat and sitting there yelling at the screen.  Fun, creepy and well done.  What the hell more do you want.

I loved it, and I bet you will too.

Disturbia is out now

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