Disturbia (2007) - Thrilling mystery horror

Before I watched this film I was looking forward to it because Shia LaBeouf was in the cast. After seeing Transformers in 2007, I adored Shia LaBeouf as an actor and decided to see what other films he was in.
Not expecting much after seeing Transformers which everyone seemed to have loved, I watched it anyway and I was surprised. Disturbia is not an amazing film at all, but it is not a bad film. Ratings across the web support my view that it's just a decent film as shown below:

• IMDB - 6.9/10
• Rotten Tomatoes - 68%
• MetaCritic - 62%

As you see the official ratings across the internet support my view. This mystery thriller lasts approximately 105 minutes which is a decent run time. After the death of his father in a car accident, Kale Brecht (Shia LaBeouf) becomes a troublemaker and aggressive teenager. When he punches his Spanish teacher at school, he is sentenced to three months of house-arrest during his vacations. Kale snoops his neighbors with a binoculars and video camera for killing time, and becomes a voyeur of his next door neighbor Ashley Carlson (Sarah Roemer). When Ashley sees Kale and his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) at the window, he tells out of the blue that their neighbor Robert Turner (David Morse) seems to be a wanted serial killer from Austin, Texas. The trio sneaks around his house, and Kale begins to suspect that Mr. Turner might really be the murderer.

What I liked about this film is that the acting is very good. Whilst Kale and Ronnie continuously attempt to find some concrete proof that Mr Turner is a serial killer, Robert Turner continues to act in a very professional manner by basically mocking Kale for his beliefs and attempts to build a solid relationship with Kale's mother. His acting was so good to the point where I believed there was a murderer, but it may be someone else in the neighborhood. The suspense and tension in the film is also built perfectly well especially from the moment Ronnie is trapped in Mr Turner's house, as Kale runs outwith the range his tracker on his foot can cope with in order to desperately save his friend.
A limitation to this film is that some of the scares were very predictable. For me, predictable jump-scares are a weakness to a horror film. There was one point in particular where Kale and Ronnie were looking about the house with the binoculars and the music went all silent. I won't ruin any more but what happened next was very predictable. Aside the predictable jump-scares, I don't believe there is really anything to criticize this film about.
Overall, Disturbia is an average thrilling film which revolves around the mystery of finding out who the serial killer in the neighborhood is. Whilst it has few limitations, it also has many strengths which easily outweigh the negative aspects of the film making it overall an average horror. The tension and suspense is developed very well accompanied with fantastic acting - very few negative aspects.
Overall Rating - 7.2/10