One year after death of his father, Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf), still ridden with grief, breaks down in school, assaulting his Spanish teacher in the process. In light of his circumstances the judge places him under three months of house arrest rather than jail time. They attach a locator device to his ankle. It cannot be removed or tampered with or else the cops come. If he goes 100 feet away from the locator box in the kitchen, the cops come. With his mother (Carrie Anne-Moss) gone during the day and most of his friends away for the summer, Brecht begins to feel the pressure of boredom creep into his mind.

Unable to entertain himself, Brecht slowly begins to observe the neighborhood he lives in, from the troublesome kids to the cheating spouses. Enter the girl next door. Besides swimming in the pool and listening to music, Ashley (Sarah Roemer) slowly works her way into Brecht’s life, much to his benefit. After so much pain, things are finally going right for Brecht, until he begins to watch other neighbors a little too closely- in particular Mr. Turner, who is acting very unusual.

More and more, Brecht begins to suspect his docile neighbor of a recent string of murders in the state. As the evidence piles up, can Brecht bring himself to prove his neighbor’s possible guilt? How much danger will bring upon himself and those around him?

“Disturbia” is very much a modern day “Rear Window,” minus the Alfred Hitchcock suspenseful brilliance. Rather than the broken leg from “Rear Window,” we have a physical restriction to the house because of the locator device. In this modern world, we have too many creature comforts to believably be bored indoors – until the cable, Xbox and Internet are removed by the mother.

The greatest strength of the film comes from the actors, especially LaBeouf. He gives heart and soul to this performance, and it pays off. Effortlessly shifting from drama to comedy whenever the need arises, you find him both charming and honest in his choices. Of course, he also has great actors to bounce off. Carrie Anne-Moss, although criminally underused, still sparkles as the working mother. It’s a shame we never see her reaction to her husband’s death. And then there is the girl next door. What could have very easily become a 2-D, boring “pretty-girl” performance was elevated to something far more interesting by Sarah Roemer’s talent. Not an easy task, especially when the director wants to exploit your body for cheap money shots. And although this is a very entertaining horror/thriller, it becomes nothing more than that, despite the actors’ best efforts.

The biggest problem with the whole movie is that Mr. Turner is played as a killer. And it fails horribly in the resolutions. What is resolved by the conclusion of the movie? Do we learn why the murdered women are all redheads? Do we get any answers as to Ashley’s parents and their arguments? Does Brecht have a revelation about his grief? In fact, after the event where he punches his teacher, is his anger problem ever really visited again? Was that moment nothing more than a contrived way to get the plot set up? (Sadly, I have to say yes.) Shia LaBeouf is a talented young man, why not give him some meaty revelations to really sink his teeth into, rather than just have him go through the motions of every other horror film? Why set the bar so low?

At the beginning of the film, after the car crash that kills his father, LaBeouf finds his father’s clearly mangled corpse in the car. We never see the body. LaBeouf conveys every horrific thing we need to know through his reaction and his eyes. Clearly the director understood that such moments can be captured without generic gore. So why not apply that same brilliance elsewhere? Why not apply that same spark of risk to the music, an aspect of the film that sorely lacks originality?

Music, to me, is very important in a movie; it can transform a great film into an epic, or, in this case, reduce a good movie to an OK viewing. How unoriginal are horror composers these days? Loud, sudden sounds, sharp stringed instruments to add tension, sentimental violins at sad moments, warm piano music for romance. Come on. Sometimes the bravest music is when there is no music at all, which is sadly not the case here. While some horror movies are made by the soundtrack (see: “Jaws” or “Halloween”), here we have a movie restricted by the music, constantly reminding us this is nothing more than every other horror/thriller out there, and that’s a shame, because this movie could have been so much more .

I don’t want to come across as too negative. There are some truly chilling moments within this film, but it’s just not enough. Why should this movie be classified above others of its kind? If I had to make a comparison, “What Lies Beneath” comes closest to this movie. Some classic Hitchcock momentum, spliced with modern-day effects and ideas, but unlike “What Lies Beneath,” here we find a lack of decision. Is it Hitchcock, or is it a horror film?

Overall: A standard horror/thriller that is worthy of a jump or two, but offers us no surprises or originality. Made watchable by the actors, and nothing else, it would be a decent movie for a Friday night fright, but nothing more after that.

Ellis J. Wells is a senior in performing arts from Portishead, England.