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As for the film, Disturbia takes place (as the title might hint) almost entirely in the suburban home of our young protagonist Kale (LaBeouf), who has gotten himself into trouble one too many times and is now under house arrest. While Kale has certainly earned the trouble he’s gotten himself into, it seems reasonable to pity and empathize with him-even if he has all the comforts anyone could possibly want in a multimedia-rich home. What transpires next is a slow devolution of LeBeouf’s sanity as he becomes more and more possessed by the suspicion that his neighbor, Mr. Turner (David Morse) is a serial killer. With nothing but time on his hands, Kale descends into a compulsive spy who is edgy with his mother and willing to send his friend and potential love interest into danger to prove he’s right.

Now as you may have guessed, this movie is not dissimilar to an older movie made by Alfred Hitchcock called Rear Window. If you haven’t, that’s all right too, because it was made in 1954 and only serious movie buffs would have heard of or seen it. While Rear Window's nurse may be replaced with a token Asian friend named Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) and mysterious crates are replaced with bloody bags, the movie still seems strong enough to stand on its own as a good remake of an old classic. It may not be nominated to win awards, but it seems like that might be just fine for Shia LaBeouf who, aside from being knowledgeable about films, also understands the importance of growing as an actor.

“Not being typecast is something very important to me,” LaBeouf said when discussing his past movie roles and history as the star of Disney’s television show Even Stevens. Having never had a backup plan, this was probably for the best; what better example of failed child star than Dustin Diamond (better known as Screech)? As his diverse fan base has grown, so has hečand it shows. In preparing for this more adult role, LaBeouf talked about his preparing to play the part of a seriously troubled teen struggling to get a bearing on the world around him.

But beyond spending time with people who are actually under house arrest and learning what it’s like for them, LaBeouf also made it a point to understand how it affects the people who have to live with a person who is under house arrest. The result was not only a strong dynamic between Kale and his mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) but also a strong undercurrent regarding guilt and blame thatčwhile possibly a little underdevelopedčwas still a presence that helped the movie immensely.

These were all important aspects of the movie and, though the dialogue may have been a little weak at times, the relationships that developed had a real enough sense to them that the movie was engrossing. As far as suspense murder-thrillers go, that’s definitely saying something. Though David Morse may have come on a bit strong, he is a method actor and that in itself says something to dedication to a role that made his performance more than just okay.

“He wouldn’t even talk with me at all so that he could stay in character,” said LaBeouf, “not about football, not about family, he even broke three fingers on set, didn’t even flinch and simply asked if I was ready to go again! With scenes where he’s swinging a real bat at your head, you want that kind of security, but he [Morse] was always in character.” In a movie where a man is a serial killer with a basement right out of Saw, this had to be unsettling, though certainly funny in retrospect.

It’s amazing that this movie managed to get by with only a PG-13 rating while still remaining as edgy and cutting as an R-movie. As LaBeouf explained, this was due in large part to Spielberg, who defended the movie before the MPAA as being worthy of its lower rating since it only implied scenes and minds cannot be rated. In fact, only one scene was cut and the movie was kept intact, despite the PG-13 rating. As far as LaBeouf is concerned, it’s all for the best. “[Executives] want to dumb movies up,” he said, “[and] I don’t like that.”
Disturbia comes out this Friday the 13th.