There were obviously a considerable number of similarities between Disturbia and Rear Window, but I enjoyed Disturbia a lot more (well, maybe not 'enjoyed', it was a bit scary and made me jump.... in a good way though).
I much preferred how in Disturbia, Kale (protagonist), Ronnie (sidekick) and Ashley(protagonist's potential girlfriend) had a lot more contact/conversation with Robert Turner (the villain character --- who, by the way, was really freaky). I thought that the conversations made things a lot more tense and suspenseful, particularly when Turner locked himself and Ashley in her car, that was quite disturbing and made the audience (and me) worried as to what he was going to do to her. The extra link between Turner and Kale's mother also made things even more tense.
I also liked the whole location of the film. The suburban location with disturbing things going on behind closed doors [Disturbed+Suburbia=Disturbia] was very effective in playing on society's fears. And scary though it is, Disturbia's tagline is quite true: 'Every killer lives next door to someone'.
In Disturbia, there were also quite a few 'close call' moment: e.g. when the camera flash goes off and Turner realises that he's being watched and when Ronnie breaks into Turner's house and the audience thinks that he's been caught. These really helped to build tension, which was soon broken down as the situation was resolved.
The acting was also really brilliant. Shia LaBeouf, Sarah Roemer and Aaron Yoo all worked very well together and were all very good at portraying their characters. And David Morse was also very good at acting as a serial killer who's pretending to be a normal guy (he freaked me out a bit though... but I guess that's the idea).
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I just watched the theatrical trailer and it's awesome. Showing here:
The trailer gives a good general overview of the film, while also being very enigmatic, so the audience feel more inclined to go out and see the film.
The trailer starts off like a normal the trailer for a normal teen film, and then as it goes on there is a lot of build up to the final minute and a half of the trailer. In that final minute and a half, the main points of the plot are established. Tension is built in the final 30 seconds through use of sound and choppy editing.
Also, the text screens are beige with moving strips of black going across the text. This resembles window blinds, which links to the films theme of voyeurism through a window.
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Disturbia Poster Deconstruction
Movie title:
- a play on the word 'suburbia' and linking to theme of film --- Disturbed + Suburbia = Disturbia
Tagline ('Every killer lives next door to someone'):
- links to one of the main themes of the film and plays on society's fears
Colours:
- black, white and red - links to genre of film. Black connotes darkness, which is quite scary. Red connotes blood and danger
Main image:
- Close up of a white male's face.
- Gesture code: holding binoculars to face. Links to theme of voyeurism in the film.
- The gesture also makes the main character's face somewhat unrecognisable, since the binoculars cover most of his face. The binocular holding also plays on conventions a bit, as in Disturbia the voyeur is the protagonist, not the antagonist. Similarly, the main character's face is partly in shadow, which is normally a signifier of an evil streak in a character, whereas in this case the person in shadow is the protagonist.
- In the lenses of the binoculars you can see a white female's face in the foreground and a silhouette holding a knife in the background. The expression on the female's face is one of fear, which links to the genre of the film. It would also appear that the female may not be aware of the silhouetted person, which creates dramatic irony. The silhouetted person appears to be holding a weapon, which further links to the thriller genre.
- At the bottom right hand side of the image, under the characters neck, there is a row of suburban houses in darkness. This links to the location of the film. The houses being in darkness also links the main theme of dark things going on in locations which seem normal from the outside.
