Disturbia in suburbia

Kicking back by myself on a Saturday night…Sally is pet sitting…the snow is falling. On March 1, yet!

I should've read a book, but instead I watched Disturbia on HBO. I counted at least three movies within this film: Rear Window, Fright Night, and Silence of the Lambs. The target audience for this film, teenagers, wouldn't care. Originality is in short supply in this flick, but originality isn't what teens are looking for.

Shia LeBeouf is a nice-looking young actor who does a convincing job as Kale, a troubled kid who acts out and is put on house arrest. He wears an ankle bracelet, and the film sets up very well the parameters of his enclosed world. As they are setting up the domestic situation, the background activity of television news is reporting that young women are missing.

Sarah Roemer as Ashley is the chick next door who drives him to distraction, but not distracted enough that he doesn't notice David Morse as Mr. Turner, his neighbor on the other side, committing activities that seem suspicious. Personally, if it had been me I'd have been watching Ashley, not Mr. Turner. The guy could have murdered half of the women in town in his house but I wouldn't have noticed. I'd have been too busy ogling Ashley.

There is the element of voyeurism from Rear Window, the boy replacing the James Stewart character. There's the sinister neighbor swiped from Fright Night, with Chris Sarandon as a charming vampire. Finally there's a scene in the basement where Kale goes, a la Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling in Silence Of The Lambs.

Is there a limit on serial killer movies and television programs we have to watch? The serial killer is a bogeyman who has been around for several years now. Even Jason, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers are serial killers, although they are supernatural monsters. The genre has been--you'll excuse the expression--done to death. It's time to find some new monsters! About the only serial killer movie/series I've enjoyed in the past few years has been HBO'sEpitafios, the South American series featuring a killer of unusual abilities and skill at outwitting the law. It was still predictable, but the cast was terrific and the setting was novel and exotic.

There were no surprises to Disturbia because there wasn't much motivation. We never found out why Mr. Turner killed, or anything about him except he had really bad haircut and yet had the power of charm over women.

Out of five stars I'd give Disturbia two. It also doesn't survive the short-attention span test. As soon as it was over I forgot it. In order to write this I had to go to imdb.com to see who was in it and the name of the characters. That's a sure sign there wasn't much about it I thought memorable.

*****

In my last blog I was a little misty about sending my son and his family east to Pennsylvania to live. Now I find out he'll be located where my all-time favorite horror flick, Night Of The Living Dead, was filmed in the late '60s. Really. How cool is that? Very cool.