In the same year as Transformers, new face Shia LeBeouf scored another hit with Disturbia, a "smart and involving" voyeuristic thriller. It's inspired by Hitchcock's Rear Window, but aimed squarely at the ASBO generation with LeBeouf as the teen under house arrest who suspects his neighbour of murder.
Through The Viewfinder
In a standard behind-the-scenes featurette, director DJ Caruso relates that fabled story of 'The Day Steven Spielberg Called Me...' Caruso still had a job convincing the Spielmeister that he could do the story justice, combining elements of romantic comedy with a suspenseful plot. LeBeouf echoes that sentiment and says they looked to the films of John Cusack for inspiration in straddling the genres. There's a lot of mutual backslapping between actor and director, but we also get to hear from supporting players like Carrie-Anne Moss on how they teased out the more emotional aspects of the story.
Sadly, much of the teary-eyed drama between mother and son wound up on the cutting room floor, but you can see it all on this DVD. It starts with LaBeouf out-sulking Kevin the Teenager before moving on to a blaring row and finishing with a touching heart-to-heart. For light relief there's the outtakes reel, which features LeBeouf getting to 'first base' with a corpse.
See No Evil
Caruso is joined by LeBeouf and actress Sarah Roemer (the girl in the window) for the film commentary. If you hear any slurping, sucking sounds that'll be Roemer tucking into a whole chicken. She then goes on to complain about looking "so fat" in her semi-naked scenes. But Caruso nobly jumps to her defence with, "Sarah had her period that day." Apart from these intimate confessions, the trio do offer notes on the day-to-day business of production.
More backstage titbits are revealed in a trivia track along with priceless pearls like, 'Fishing with a hook and a line is called angling.' A music video and photo gallery complete this tidy package, which all things considered, is worth looking into.
EXTRA FEATURES
Disturbia is out now.
