by Spencer Hawken

Created on: February 16, 2008

Disturbia is in ways like a flashback to the 1980's, during that period a series of teen horror or thriller movies bought adult genre's to a younger audience. Prime examples of this were The Lost Boys and Fright Night, both had a sort of cult mentality about them and the kids loved them. Turn the clock back three to four months and in America Disturbia had much the same effect, a new generation of cinema viewer gets a bit of teen mush wrapped in the basis of a thriller. Disturbia quite literally rocked the US movie charts and I have a suspicion that from the 9th September UK cinemas will be doing the same thing.

Kale was a good kid, he had a great relationship with his mother and his father. Weekends meant some quality time could be spend between Kale and his father; but this was cut short by a terrifying accident. The loss of a parent can play hard on any child, but because of the special relationship Kale and his father had, the damage seems worse. And when a teacher chooses to use Kales father as a means of getting a response; Kale ends up under house arrest for three months.

With cable, Xbox live, and his I-tunes accounts all shut off to save money Kale first becomes a slob. But when a new girl moves next door his hobby turns to voyeurism. But this voyeurism turns deadly when a new report sparks his imagination about his unusual next door neighbour.
This summer Kale found himself, love, and a terrible secret!

Disturbia is very much a remake of Rear Window for the new Millennia, it has of course been given some very modern elements and products to bring it up to date, but anyone denying a similarity between the two movies is a liar. The format is obviously very different in Rear Window James Stewart or Christopher Reeve depending on the version were trapped in a wheelchair, here Kale has one of those security anklets, once he ventures 100 metres from the base unit, the anklet activates and the police turn up.

What separates Disturbia from Rear Window is that OC, Dawsons Creek, or One Tree Hill style mentality; and that's not necessarily a bad thing. What Disturbia does is uses the disguise of romance and a dash of comedy to lure in a new generation of thriller viewer. If I turn the clock back 20 odd years, Disturbia would be just the sort of movie to turn me on to thrillers. But in reality I'm in my mid thirties and Disturbia rings just a little hollow with me.

My reason to criticise Disturbia if it is criticism, is that while it offers a teen audience so much,

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