Disturbia Parent Guide
Parent Movie Review
Kale Brecht (Shia LeBeouf) is stuck at home on house arrest for punching his schoolteacher. Bored completely out of his mind after his mother tops off his sentence with her own form of punishment (i.e. canceling his iTunes account and other cable extras), Kale turns to spying on the neighborhood to pass his time.
Lucky for him, he lives in a suburb filled with large plate glass windows and very few blinds. Using his binoculars, he catches a new move-in sunbathing in her backyard and watches the guy next door mow his lawn. Behind all those uncovered panes, he also catches plenty of private activities—a girl undressing, family fights, boys watching pornographic programs and a couple becoming intimate.
However, he uncovers more than he bargains for when he thinks he sees Mr. Turner (David Morse) stab a woman in his living room.
Suddenly the hours of isolated confinement, along with graphic news reports of missing women, begins to play on Kale’s mind. Watching his neighbors, which was once a mindless diversion, becomes an obsession for the imprisoned teen. With the help of his friends Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and Ashley (Sarah Roemer), Kale sets up a camera in his bedroom to capture the questionable activities of Mr. Turner.
While the police and even Kale’s mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) write the rampant paranoia off as the result of his prolonged incarceration, the boy and his friends are sure they are on to something. They are even more certain when the elusive Mr. Turner’s idle remarks start to take on a menacing tone.
Believable at first, this script builds itself up to be a good scare for teens. Focusing on an innocent bedroom community, it dredges up all the dark secrets hidden behind closed doors. Seemingly innocuous acts become sinister deeds as imaginations run wild. But like Kale’s fears, the script increasingly loses control and credibility as incongruities start to multiply. Disregarding the first rule of surveillance, Kale and his friends stand in front of well-lit windows making them as much of a target as their victims. There are also frequent uses of scatological slang and disturbing depictions of violence including a gruesome automobile accident, bloody body parts and decomposing corpses.
Although Kale’s ankle monitor restricts his movements, it does little to curb his attitude. Stuck at home, he continues to disregard his overworked mother’s plea for help, fails to feel any remorse for the act that lead to his confinement and doesn’t find anything wrong with being a Peeping Tom. If it wasn’t for a serial killer living on the other side of the fence, this kid would be the reason this suburb is disturbed.
Kerry Bennett
© 2007 One Voice Communications. All Rights Reserved.
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Disturbia
Rating & Content Info
Why is Disturbia rated PG-13? Disturbia is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sequences of terror and violence, and some sensuality.
After spending the afternoon fishing, Kale and his father are involved in a horrific automobile accident that claims one life and causes bloody injuries in another person. Before the incident, Kale drives along a winding road while talking on his cellphone. At school, Kale punches his teacher in the face after he inconsiderately brings up the accident. Assigned to house arrest, Kale plays video games, watches trash TV and spies on the neighbors. He observes a woman swim in a bikini and later undress (back nudity is seen). He also sees young boys viewing pornography. (Distant but distinct scenes of partially concealed female frontal nudity are portrayed.) Blood-splattered household items and decomposing corpses are shown. During a fight with an intruder, Kale and the man exchange punches, and use furniture, sports equipment and kitchen implements as weapons. Characters are impaled with garden tools, stabbed, forcefully hit and kidnapped. Profanities, crude terms for body parts and frequent scatological slang is used.
Page last updated May 4, 2009
Disturbia Parents' Guide
Why does his father’s death have such an impact on Kale? How might he have been helped? What effect does the accident have on his relationship with his mother? Would we feel as sympathetic toward our “hero” (Kale) if his father hadn’t been killed?
What causes Kale to become suspicious of Mr. Turner? Is it natural to suspect the worst in others? Can isolation play a part in the development of paranoia and fear? How?
What effect does his punishment have on Kale’s attitude? Does it change by the end of the film? In what ways is this a “kid-power” movie? How are adults portrayed?
Home Video
The most recent home video release of Disturbia movie is August 7, 2007. Here are some details…
Get completely disturbed in suburbia with the DVD release of Disturbia. Director DJ Caruso, with the help of actors Shia LaBeouf and Sarah Roemer, show you around the neighborhood with an audio commentary. There is also an opportunity to go behind the scenes with a making-of featurette, learn more about the master of suspense with Hitchcock Flare, as well as sneak a peek at bloopers, outtakes, four deleted scenes and the film’s theatrical trailer. The movie’s music videos, a trivia quiz (called Serial Pursuit) and a photo gallery are included too. Avaiable in widescreen, full screen and Blu-Ray, the DVD provides audio tracks in Dolby Digital 5.1 (English, French, Spanish) and DTS 6.1 (English), with subtitles in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
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One of film’s greatest thrill masters, Alfred Hitchcock wrote Rear Window, a similar screenplay about a man, confined to a wheelchair, that grows suspicious of his neighbor’s activities. Shia LeBeouf who plays Kale, takes on the role of one of golf’s premier players in The Greatest Game Ever Played. He also stars as a boy mistakenly accused of a crime and sent to a reform camp in Holes.