Shia LaBeouf’s 2007 Thriller Is Suddenly Netflix’s New Big Hit

Netflix viewers know for sure what old movies from the streaming’s collection need to be brought to light, and this time they opted for a Hitchcock-coded psychological thriller that initially hit the screens more than 15 years ago.

Starring young Shia LaBeouf as a teenage troublemaker, Disturbia has climbed to number one position in Netflix’s top chart, according to the most recent data from FlixPatrol.

What Is the Movie About?

Initially released back in 2007, Disturbia is an homage of sorts to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller movie Rear Window as both flicks appear to share some similarities in their storylines.

Unlike Rear Window, where everything revolves around an injured photographer, Disturbia takes a closer look at outcast teenager Kale who, being strongly affected by his father’s recent death, gets into a fight with his school teacher after the latter had something to say about Kale’s late father.

The teenager then is placed under house arrest for three months and, with nothing else to do, he starts spying on his neighbors, with one of them giving a strong suspicious feeling that he has something to do with a serial murder.

Disturbia had come along several months before LaBeouf rose to worldwide prominence thanks to his role in Transformers, but the yet unknown star still managed to impress everyone back then.

Disturbia was met with accolades from both critics and viewers, garnering around $120 million against the initial budget of $20 million and landing solid scores of 70% and 77% respectively from professionals and the audience on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie’s streaming success 17 years after its theatrical release may be due to many reasons, be that Netflix viewers’ nostalgia for old flicks starring big actors who weren’t that big back then, or even the fact that LaBeouf is back to the cinema screens with a major role in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis.

Disturbia is available for streaming on Netflix in all countries except the US.