Disturbia 2007

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: 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. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: 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. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: 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. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: 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. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: For the most part a taut, careful thriller that emphasizes suspense over blood and gore. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Caruso, a very visual director, serves up some surprises and scares, and he's paced his movie briskly. You're out of this disturbing suburbia before you know it, shaken and even stirred. Read more

Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A lot of the movie works because LaBeouf is becoming a soulful, intelligent presence on-screen. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: It eventually evolves into a credible thriller, one pointedly rather than coincidentally embedded in the trivia of its time. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: 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. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: 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. Read more

Dennis Lim, Los Angeles Times: Has nowhere near the conceptual sophistication of Rear Window, where the protagonist's absorption in what he's watching mirrors the viewer's. The problem with Disturbia is that for most of the film you'll wish you weren't watching at all. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: Despite the foolishness, and despite the patent knockoffs of Rear Window and American Beauty, Disturbia is a likable little thriller. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: [The main characters] come across as tremendously industrious and likable. They know that, for all its dangers, they are living out a teen fantasy: Spying on adults in order to get the goods on them. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Disturbia will have young people on the edge of their seat, cringing and thinking at the same time. Read more

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

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

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: A one-dimensional thriller, albeit one more stylish than the ones churned out for the older teen-early 20s demographic. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: OK, so Rear Window was better plotted and more richly apportioned than this update. And so what if you can see every plot twist bearing down like a rush-hour commuter express? Disturbia still boasts a scrappy charm. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: A surprisingly competent film, Disturbia lives up to its title. It's rare to find a decent film turn up in the dead of April, traditionally Hollywood's dump month for shelved oddities. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: 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. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: 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. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Disturbia is disturbingly contemporary in its celebration of the technology that can make us all potential victims of the full-time snoops among us. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: 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. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Like Rear Window before it, Disturbia is sly and suspenseful and full of mounting dread. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: 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. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: While Disturbia does nothing to advance or honour Hitchcock, the movie succeeds on its modest terms. Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: You'll jump as if you've had electrodes attached to your sensitive parts; but when your nerve endings stop tingling, your brain won't remember a thing. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: 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. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: 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. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: Ironically, Disturbia's a thriller that doesn't want to bother you. Read more

John Maynard, Washington Post: The film quickly shifts from a clever homage to Rear Window to a bad parody of The Silence of the Lambs. Read more