A riff on Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window," but for the iPod generation, Disturbia is a clever psycho-next-door thriller about voyeurism, murder, and the dirt going on in the neighbours' houses. High schooler Kale (Shia LaBoeuf) lives in a tidy suburban neighbourhood, in a house stocked with product-placed energy drinks, laptops and videocams, various Apple products and tons of techno toys.

After witnessing his father's death, Kale is left a wounded soul. We catch up with him a year later, where he remains house-bound for slugging his Spanish teacher. An ankle bracelet limits his movements to his house and part of the yard. To compound his punishment, Kale's mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) shuts down his Xbox.

Out of video game isolation-induced boredom, he discovers the sport of spying on unsuspecting neighbours through binoculars, especially Ashley (Sarah Roemer), the girl who just moved in next door. The two strike up a flirtatious friendship, and she joins Kale and his buddy Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) on their neighbourhood voyeurism. Their inquisitiveness leads them to the nighttime activities of Robert Turner (David Morse), a creepy, lawn-mowing neighbour (David Morse) who seems to have a curiously large number of female visitors. He also drives a classic Ford Mustang, a car similar to one that has been connected to a serial killer.

Then, one night Kale sees something that looks like violence, possibly even murder, at Turner's house. With the help of cutting-edge surveillance gizmos - computers, walkie-talkies, designer cell-phone rings - available at their fingertips, the three start digging deeper into Turner's life, suspecting that he may be an elusive serial killer.