Disturbia (film)

Disturbia
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	D.J. Caruso
Written by	Christopher B. Landon Carl Ellsworth
Produced by	Steven Spielberg (executive)
Starring	Shia LaBeouf Sarah Roemer Aaron Yoo David Morse
Edited by	Jim Page
Music by	Geoff Zanelli
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures for DreamWorks Pictures
Release dates	April 13, 2007
Running time	105 min.
Country
Languages	English Spanish
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$117,573,043

Disturbia is a 2007 thriller starring Shia LaBeouf as a teenager who thinks he witnesses a murder while spying on his suspicious neighbor while being placed under house arrest.

Plot

Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf) and his father, Daniel (Matt Craven), are involved in a car accident while returning from a fishing trip, which takes Daniel's life. A year later Kale is reprimanded by his Spanish teacher, Señor Gutierrez (Rene Rivera). When the teacher asks Kale what his father would think if he could see him now, Kale punches him in the face. For this assault, he is sentenced to a three-month house arrest period during his Summer vacation with an ankle monitor and a proximity sensor, which prohibit him from roaming beyond the boundaries of his lawn. He learns that one of the police officers monitoring him is the teacher's cousin (Jose Pablo Cantillo), who delights in humiliating Kale, such as one occasion where he accidentally goes past the limits of the yard while chasing some neighborhood pranksters.

His mother, Julie Brecht (Carrie-Anne Moss), cancels his subscriptions to the iTunes Store and Xbox Live, as well as cutting the power cord of his television, to force him to help around the house. He begins to spy upon the surrounding neighborhood. One night, Kale becomes suspicious of his neighbor, Robert Turner (David Morse), who returns home in a 1960's era Ford Mustang with a dented fender, matching the description given on a news report detailing an errant serial killer from Austin, Texas. Kale and his best friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) spy on his teenage neighbor, Ashley Carlson (Sarah Roemer), swimming in a bikini. She subsequently decides to join them in their stake out.

Ronnie and Ashley dismiss Kale's suspicions initially, regarding them circumstantial coincidences. But they become more involved when Kale observes a woman Turner had picked up from a nightclub trying to escape the house in a panicked state before being apparently killed by Turner. Later on, he sees what looks to be the same woman leaving the house and driving off.

Later on, Ashley tells Kale that she is throwing a party with the popular individuals of their school, much to Kale's dismay, both because of his incarceration and his dislike of those individuals. When Kale discovers a jock physically flirting with a permissive Ashley in full view of him, he becomes consumed with jealousy. Assembling various household stereo equipment, he proceeds to crash the party by playing obnoxious music at extreme volume to the unsuspecting party guests. Ashley, furious at Kale's interruption, enters his house through a window, angrily confronting him about his voyeurism. Taken aback by the challenge, he admits to watching her because she is unlike other girls in that she is not self-centered, and in his words, is "looking at the whole world", unlike himself, who "can only see her". Ashley smartly remarks that the statement is both incredibly romantic while at the same time unsettling, before kissing Kale on the balcony of his home. As the two move to Kale's bed, Turner is shown killing a woman and moving her body outside the house, an action that creates noise that startles Ashley and Kale.

Days later, Kale insists that Ronnie break into Turner's car to get his garage door opener to continue investigating. Ashley goes to the supermarket to monitor Turner while Ronnie retrieves the door opener from his car, Ashley loses sight of Turner when bumping into a classmate, once realizing Turner is on his way home she calls Kale to alert him, She hops in her car to leave the parking lot, as she's leaving she's startled by Turner who appears in front of her car, he confronts her and it's revealed that he knows about Kale and herself spying on him, Turner leaves Ashleys car after telling her "I like my privacy, maybe you should pass it on". Just in time before Turner returns home, Ronnie retrieves the garage door opener code accidentally leaving behind his cell phone. That night, when Ronnie discovers his mistake, he re-enters the garage in an attempt to get it back. Inside the garage, he discovers a foul-smelling object wrapped in a garbage bag. As he attempts a more detailed inspection of the contents, the garage door is suddenly shut and Ronnie hides in the house while Kale attempts to rescue him, in the process alerting the police to the breach of his house arrest. After the police arrive they search the house and discover that Ronnie is nowhere inside and that the bag in the garage contains the remains of a deer that Turner hit on the interstate. Kale fears Ronnie has been discovered or worse, when he receives an SMS telling him to check his video monitor, the camera comes back on, revealing Ronnie, who seems to be dead. Worried, Kale walks over to his closet and opens the door, only to see Ronnie laying motion-less, Ronnie then suddendly scares Kale, revealing he was playing a joke on him. Kale then screams at Ronnie stating "You don't know what I went through searching for you!".

Kale's mother goes across the street to talk to Turner, in hopes avoiding criminal charges. While she is there, Kale watches the tape Ronnie recorded during his escape from Turner's house, as he's watching he notices something hidden behind an air vent that Ronnie accidentally filmed when he dropped the camera, he zooms in a few times only to reveal the object was the face of a dead woman. At the same time Kale realizes what he saw, Kale's mother, unbeknownst to him, is suddenly attacked by Turner and taken into the depths of the home. In shock, Kale calls out to Ronnie who is downstairs at the time.

Turner quietly breaks into Kale's living room, ambushes Ronnie,and strikes him with an aluminum baseball bat, knocking him unconscious. Kale, still viewing the video on his computer, sees a reflection of Turner on his monitor, narrowly dodging the man's strike. The two struggle for several minutes, with Kale nearly escaping from his home before being caught by Turner at the boundary line. Turner knocks Kale unconscious and carries him, bound by duct tape, to the boy's room. Turner reveals to a now-awake Kale that he plans on framing Kale for the murders of both Ronnie and his mother, using his father's death and police records as proof. Kale is then forced to write a suicide note to Ashley explaining his supposed actions, when Ashley enters the home from downstairs. Turner is distracted by the noise, giving Kale an opportunity to strike Turner, who is knocked off balance. Kale then rushes downstairs to a surprised Ashley, who promptly unties him.

Turner then attacks the pair, eventually driving them over a roof and into Ashley's pool. Kale orders Ashley to get the police, while Kale returns to Turner's home to rescue his mother. His monitoring officer, eager to humiliate Kale, arrives at the house only to be knocked unconscious by Turner. Kale then stumbles upon an operating room with a wig which Turner uses to stage his victim leaving the house and a woman's driver's license, the same woman that Turner had killed earlier. He then discovers a secret passageway to the home's foundation, decorated with paraphernalia from Turner's previous victims.

He suddenly falls through a crack through the floor, splashing down in a murky pool filled with human remains. Although he is initially terrified, Kale comes to his senses, attempting to find a way out when he hears a low whimpering. He climbs out of the pool and staggers over to a wall and finds his mother, restrained but unharmed. The two are then viciously attacked by Turner, who appears from the shadows. Amidst an intense but brief struggle in the darkness, Kale impales Turner with a pair of garden shears pushing him into the water hole, killing him.

Several minutes later, Kale and his mother are seen emerging from the garage of Turner's home amidst a battery of police officers. Afterwards, his monitoring device is taken off by a grateful police department, and he promptly exercises his new freedom by stepping out of his yard and passionately kissing Ashley. The two then get revenge on the neighborhood pranksters by calling their parents, pretending to be the one of the cable subscription staff enquiring about the bill for their viewing of adult movie channels. Confused their mother walks into their room to see them covertly watching an adult film. Satisfied Kale and Ashley are then shown kissing on Kale's couch when Ronnie, revealed to be safe, starts recording the scene on video, stating that it will be the number one video on YouTube, a statement that is answered by Kale's raised middle finger.

Cast

• Shia LaBeouf as Kale Brecht
• Sarah Roemer as Ashley Carlson
• Carrie-Anne Moss as Julie Brecht
• David Morse as Robert Turner
• Aaron Yoo as Ronnie
• Jose Pablo Cantillo as Officer Gutierrez
• Matt Craven as Daniel Brecht
• Viola Davis as Det. Parker
• Elyse Mirto as Mrs. Carlson
• René Rivera as Senor Gutierrez
• Amanda Walsh as Minnie Tyco
• Charles Carroll as Judge

Reception and sequel

Disturbia opened at #1 in its first week at the box office with $23 million, and it stayed at #1 the following two weeks with $13 and $9 million respectively. As of Sunday August 5, 2007, the film had grossed approximately $117 million worldwide. Disturbia is considered a huge financial success with respect to its small production budget of only $20 million, and talk of a sequel has already begun. However there have been no confirmed reports and none of the cast have signed on.

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 68% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 162 reviews, with the consensus that the film is "a tense, subtle thriller with a noteworthy performance from Shia LaBeouf". On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 62 out of 100, based on 28 reviews.

The film earned a "two thumbs up" rating from Richard Roeper and A.O. Scott (filling in for Roger Ebert), with Roeper saying, "This is a cool little thriller with big scares and fine performances;" however, many have criticized the change of atmosphere two-thirds of the way into the film, when the initial pacing and action morphs into that of a "run-of-the-mill slasher horror film".

The film won 3 Teen Choice Awards including Choice Movie: Horror/Thriller, Choice Movie: Breakout Male (Shia LaBeouf) & Choice Movie Actor: Horror/Thriller (Shia LaBeouf. It also garnered many other award nominations including a People's Choice Award for Favorite Movie Drama.

Themes

For a movie of its genre and budget, Disturbia explores many interesting themes hearkening back to the classic Rear Window. In fact, the movie seems to combine many elements from both Rear Window and American Beauty (the former also distributed by Paramount - but now owned by Universal - and the latter also from DreamWorks). and 1985's Fright Night where a serial-killing vampire lives next-door to a surbubanite kid played by William Ragsdale. The title itself refers to the suburbia setting and, just like American Beauty, the film explores suburban life and its effect on both family and personal life. Like both of these films, Disturbia pays particular attention to the themes of privacy and voyeurism, the former being violated and the latter being amplified by the setting. In the video commentary (found on the DVD version), director D.J. Caruso says windows are very symbolic in the film. For instance, Kale viewing the lit-up party from his dark room through the window is symbolic of his isolation from the others and his being "in the dark".

Overall, Disturbia is an amalgamation of the suspense genre along with the horror genre.

Filming locations

Disturbia was filmed on location in the cities of Whittier, California and Pasadena, California. Filming began on the morning of January 6, 2006 and ended on April 28, 2006. The homes of Kale and Mr. Turner, which were supposed to be across from each other, were actually located in two different cities.

DVD

The film was released on DVD on August 7, 2007. Special features include the following:

• Audio commentary with director D. J. Caruso, Shia LaBeouf, and Sarah Roemer
• 4 deleted scenes

1. Do You Wanna Talk
2. I Forbid It
3. Operation Stupid
4. You're Breaking My Heart

• Making-of featurette
• Music video: "Don't Make Me Wait" by This World Fair
• Outtakes
• Serial pursuit trivia pop-up/quiz
• Photo gallery
• Theatrical trailer

Disturbia was also released on HD DVD and Blu-Ray discs.

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Untitled

1. "Always Love" - Nada Surf
2. "Don't Make Me Wait" - This World Fair
3. "One Man Wrecking Machine" - Guster
4. "Whoa Now" - Louque
5. "Gangsta Boogie" - Love Stink
6. "Next to You" - Buckcherry
7. "Because I Got High" - Afroman
8. "We Love Reggae" - Noiseshaper
9. "The Great American Napkin" - The Summer Skinny
10. "Dream" - Priscilla Ahn
11. "Lovin' You" - Minnie Riperton
12. "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" - Lou Rawls

Songs featured only in the movie

1. "Lonely Day" - System of a Down
2. "Taper Jean Girl" - Kings of Leon
3. "Me So Horny" - 2 Live Crew

Original Motion Picture Score

Untitled

Track listing

|- image

1. Disturbia 7:02
2. Fishing 3:52
3. Poofoot 1:15
4. Voyeurism 2:35
5. Every Killer Lives Next Door to Someone 3:35
6. I Like to Play 1:46
7. Stealth Ronnie 5:10
8. Walking Ashley Home 2:01
9. The Club Girl 2:47
10. Stalking a Killer 7:15
11. The Basement Graveyard 8:50

External links

• Official site
• Disturbia at IMDb
• Disturbia at Rotten Tomatoes
• Disturbia at Metacritic
• Disturbia at Box Office Mojo
• Disturbia at AllMovie