DiStUrBiA

For those who have not seen this movie this paragraph will provide a brief summary of Disturbia, but if you are interested in seeing it please don’t read on. Shia LaBeouf is playing a teen who has just lost is father and is very distraught. He can’t concentrate and doesn’t care about school anymore. In class he takes his anger a little too far and punches his teacher in the face. After this incident he is taken to court and put on house arrest for three months. Due to boredom he starts to spy on his neighbors and suspects one of them to be the one that is killing women.
Disturbia, a film that is under the horror genre has horrifying scenes, but also shared comedy and a complex discovery plot. The complex discovery plot starts with the onset when Kale (Shia LaBeouf) notices his neighbor Mr. Turner (David Morse) has a ’69 Blue Mustang with a dented fender that fits the description of the car that was seen when a girl went missing. This is when Kale makes the link that this guy could be a killer. There is controversy whether Mr. Turner truly is a killer or not. The discovery begins while Kale is spying on Mr. Turner and explains to his friend Ronnie (Aron Yoo) and Ashley (Sarah Roemer) that he could be the evil being who kills young women. Kale begins investigating Mr. Turner’s home by diligently watching daily activites. Kale also has his friend Ronnie break into his car and retrieve the code for his garage. The confirmation stage is extended throughout the movie because the audience does not know for sure if Mr. Turner is the true serial killer or not. Kale tries to convince his mom that he is the killer, but she along with the police do not believe him because of all the trouble he has been in. According to Carroll this is what draws us to watch films and in this movie it is very important because it’s why Kale has to confront the killer and save his mom, friends, and himself. The confrontation can be found in several different scenes. There is a scene where Mr. Turner stops Ashley in a parking garage and gets in her car to tell her to leave him alone and allow him to have his privacy. This scene provoked suspense because it wasn’t obvious if he was going to hurt her. The ultimate confrontation is displayed at the end of the movie where Kale learns from his videotape a face of a dead young woman. He realizes his mom is over the killer’s house at that moment trying to convince Mr. Turner not to press charges because Kale and his friend Ronnie broke into his house that night. The killer duct tapes Kale’s moms’ mouth, arms, and legs and puts her in his hiding place. He then shows up over Kale’s home where he smashes Ronnie in the head and duct tapes Kale’s hands and mouth. Ashley comes to the rescue and jumps on the killers back leaving time for Kale to get up and hit him. Ashley sets Kale free. Kale jumps out of his bedroom window into the neighbor’s pool and runs to the killer’s house. He finds where the killer has been keeping all the dead bodies. He eventually discovers his mom, still alive and saves her while killing the evil Mr. Turner.
This movie along the lines of Carroll is not art-horror, but natural horror. The monster is a human being not a fictional monster or supernatural entity. I consider Mr. Turner a “monster” because he is very fearsome, disgusting, and impure. He killed young women and dismembered their bodies, which is very horrifying. Also this is considered natural horror because in real life there are such things as serial killers. I thought this movie was interesting because of the confirmation stage and how good conquer evil in the end. The movie is filled with suspense, horror, and comedy. The suspense is accompanied according to Carroll with micro and macro questions. In Disturbia we see the macro question as will Kale, his family, friends, and the neighborhood survive this serial killers wrath? A micro question in the movie is will Kale and Ashley become more than just acquaintances? From these questions we locate suspense in the movie because we are on the edge of our seats wondering what is going to happen next. The scene that provoked horror to me was the scene where Kale is fighting for his life and his mother’s life. He is in a dark, dreary, wet, and dirty basement trying to find his mom and when he does the killer appears suddenly from behind her and attacks Kale, but Kale is triumphant. This scene was very horrifying to me because I felt the fear behind Kale and the other victims that had been attacked by this serial killer. The movie also had a light side to it with the comedy that was thrown in. There were a few scenes where the audience in the theater laughed out loud.
So what makes one choose to go see a movie over another? I believe this has to do with plot. When I look up movies I read reviews and learn the basic storyline. The ones that interest me are due to the plot. I believe this movie has an intriguing plot and is worth watching. It is not the best movie I have seen, but if you want a movie that is entertaining with some scenes of horror you should see it. Also I believe that the acting in this movie was very well done, I give Shia LaBeouf a lot of credit because I didn’t know if he could pull it off, being a ex Disney star, but he did.