Disturbia

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Sarah Roemer

Director: D.J. Caruso

Category: IIB

The title of D.J. Caruso's thriller is uttered once in the film. When teenager Kale (Shia LaBeouf, above) - under house arrest for hitting a Spanish teacher who taunted him about his dead father - spies on a young woman performing an erotic dance in a neighbour's home, he says it could only happen in 'disturbia'. It's a reference to how suburbia in the US so often seems to be a schizophrenic mixture of bright veneers and dark secrets.

Murderous suburban malaise is hardly a film novelty - it's been covered by the likes of David Lynch, Larry Clark, Ulrich Seidl and Paul Goldman. But you'd hope that Disturbia would have taken its cue from, say, Blue Velvet or Suburban Mayhem. And there are moments when the film appears to be heading that way.

But it ends up being a mixture of elements from teen-horror films of recent years, with angst-driven adolescents, a scantily clad love interest (Sarah Roemer) and grainy Blair Witch-esque video imagery. And, of course, there's the shadow of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, which looms large over the storyline as Kale uses his binoculars to uncover the goings-on in neighbour Robert Turner's (David Morse) home.