Disturbia: Critic Reviews

Disturbia, unlike Hitchcock's masterpiece of urban-courtyard fishbowl voyeurism, is a Rear Window that never bothers to peer into more than one window.

Instead of manufacturing elaborate, ridiculous plot twists or imposing overwrought psychological melodrama on a basically absurd premise [director] Caruso and the screenwriters opt for efficient, clever B-movie execution.

Despite the interesting set-up, the action degenerates into obvious implausibility and silliness - fatal for a suspense thriller - and boredom sets in.

Offsetting the chilly voyeurism is a viable teen romance and an appealing sense of humor. Though there are occasional lapses in logic, Disturbia is consistently suspenseful and entertainingly disturbing.

The film quickly shifts from a clever homage to Rear Window to a bad parody of The Silence of the Lambs.

Every piece of the story is jammed predictably into place. Kale sees the cute girl next door; the cute girl comes over. Kale sees the killer next door; the killer comes over.

Ironically, Disturbia's a thriller that doesn't want to bother you.

What Disturbia lacks in complexity, it makes up for in witty jokes, sneaky jolts and a timeless lesson: If you've got windows, someone's always watching.

The most disturbious part of Disturbia is how engaging this teenage thriller manages to be, even though it's a shameless rip-off of Rear Window.

Despite the foolishness, and despite the patent knockoffs of Rear Window and American Beauty, Disturbia is a likable little thriller.

Disturbia will have young people on the edge of their seat, cringing and thinking at the same time.

One way you know that D.J. Caruso is a resourceful director is that he scares you silly with a minimum of violence and a few smears of blood.

Comparisons [to Rear Window] are probably something the makers of Disturbia don't want us to make, since Disturbia, for all its glitz and gadgets, is markedly inferior in everything but teen appeal.

The proceedings devolve into standard horror-movie effects and minimal motivations. [And] Hitchcock's original never had to resort to thunder and lightning to goose up the suspense.

Like Rear Window before it, Disturbia is sly and suspenseful and full of mounting dread.

There isn't much in the way of surprise plot twists. But the predictability is offset by the movie's energy.

Filled with both youthful angst and innocent energy, which makes for more interesting contrasts than you might expect in a slasher-next-door flick.

Director D.J. Caruso takes a lot of time to develop the characters. That works to the film's advantage because the viewer winds up invested in their fate.

The gifted and resourceful Mr. LaBoeuf is a young actor worth keeping an eye on, and director Caruso mounts a neat sense of suspense with tight camera angles and judicious, fast-paced editing.

Disturbia is disturbingly contemporary in its celebration of the technology that can make us all potential victims of the full-time snoops among us.

A modest but squirmingly fun suspenser that brings Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window into the era of vidcams and cell phones, serving up hearty, youth-skewing portions of PG-13 violence and bikini-bait along the way.

Director D.J. Caruso relies entirely too much on cliched shock cuts and keeps pulling back every time the flick seems to be settling into anything close to a creepy mood.

The chills are genuine. And there's something very rewarding about sitting through a new version of a movie any film buff knows by heart.

While Disturbia does nothing to advance or honour Hitchcock, the movie succeeds on its modest terms.

The filmmakers' belief that modern audiences will only respond to noisy, inarticulate endings dooms this movie to a last act that devalues, rather than elevates, it.