The easy going relationship between teenager Kale (Shia LaBeouf of Bobby) and his father, the affable Matt Craven of Déjà Vu and TVs “Raines,” is established as the film opens with them fishing in a stream. They really talk to each other and each listens. On the way home, with Kale behind the wheel, they joke with Kale’s mother Julie (Carrie Anne Moss of Matrix and Memento) on the phone about the number of fish they caught. Then Dad is killed in one of the most sensational and utterly believable car crashes ever shown in a movie.  After his father’s death, Kale’s personality becomes sullen and dark.   

When Kale punches out a teacher and is brought before a judge, again, rather than being given a year in jail, he gets a break and is placed under house arrest for 90 days, with an ankle bracelet to monitor his limited movement. This is what Kale will be doing for the summer.  

Kale is the typical teenage boy slob, with the requisite junky room, who spends all his time on self-indulgent games. In a desperate and seemingly counterproductive move, his mother cancels practically all of Kale’s subscriptions and services. Now, when one is trapped in the house with an ankle bracelet, and mother and son have been forewarned that idle time tends to drive people crazy, this would seem to be the time to allow those excesses. But it gives Kale an excuse to use his binoculars. 

Just at this time a hot new neighbor moves in next door. Her name is Ashley (Sarah Roemer of The Grudge 2), the teenage daughter of the new family. Things heat up as Kale breaks out the binoculars to watch Ashley in her bedroom, and she seems to be aware of his attention. She takes leisurely dips in her backyard pool, lounges poolside, and eventually she knocks on Kale’s door to introduce herself. Ashley projects the eroticism in the coming of age movies Girl Next Door and Swimming Pool.  

Since Kale has nothing to do now that his boy toys are cut off, he takes up a Rear Window type surveillance of the neighborhood. In addition to spying on Ashley, he looks in on some pre-teen boys that sneak pornographic movies on their TV, under the nose of a mother who thinks she’s in control of things.  

The most frightening scenario he sees leads Kale to conclude, from TV and newspaper articles, that a serial killer lives on his block, after he recognizes a car driven by Mr. Turner (David Morse of 16 Blocks and TVs “House, M.D.”). Soon Kale, his best buddy Ronnie (Aaron Yoo), and Ashley begin to spy on Mr. Turner, using electronic equipment and the video camera from his father’s office. Turner is excellent at being a mix of the Robert DeNiro/Robert Mitchum character from Cape Fear and real life serial killer Richard Speck. But Turner turns the tables on the teens just when they think they have him trapped. 

The great setup in the film raises the expectation level to a point that is not sustained. Credibility plummets. Implausibility skyrockets. The film deteriorates quickly, and you have a YouTube feature. Julie is unrealistically dispassionate about the loss of her husband. Ronnie gets away with things that convert comedy to silliness at the expense of suspense. Turner’s serial killer moves at the end of the film are ineffective against this teenage posse. Where he finds time to do what he does to his current female victim make you think you might have dozed off for a few minutes. Turner goes from being extremely meticulous to unnecessarily careless in the climax of the film. And can’t anyone dial 911?  The plot relies too much on the cops coming when Kale goes outside of his designated house arrest range when the chips are down. These events created an implosion of logic in the film that resulted in it falling short of the superior Perfect Stranger, which also opens today. 

Even though it’s easy to find numerous flaws with the film, there are a number of creepy moments to make one sit up and pay attention. Disturbia was directed by D. J. Caruso (Taking Lives, Two for the Money, and Salton Sea). This is not in the same league. The screenplay was written by Christopher B. Landon and Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye). It’s not a great movie by any stretch, but still enjoyable for those perennial 13-year-olds (of any age).