Clay seems like a normal, if not slightly introverted kind of guy. A chance meeting with a young woman named Susan sparks a relationship between the two. They seem happy at first. But after witnessing some strange behavior exhibited by Clay, Susan calls off the relationship. Little does she know how unstable Clay really is. Clay has a medical history of dealing with paranoid schizophrenia. He's all out of Thorazine, and his hallucinations probably won't help him cope with this breakup.
Most of the films I've watched this month are intended to be really over the top tongue in cheek horror films. This one however takes itself pretty seriously. The Disturbance wastes absolutely no time in dishing out Clay's hallucinations. He's already suffering from some pretty intense imagery about 10 minutes into the film. These hallucinations make up the bulk of the films scares and are actually pretty effective. It's hard to tell if any of these have any significance or if the director was just attempting to create unsettling imagery. I'm sure it's open to interpretation, but as someone who isn't all that deep and metaphorical, I won't be able to tell.
There isn't much actual gore in this movie. However, we do have some pretty good special effects. Clay imagines all sorts things like: Demons, eyeballs, corpses, and then just plain old rape fantasies (Or are they flashbacks?). The special effects were handled by Barry Anderson (I had a friend named that growing up), an understudy of the great Tom Savini. Special effects nerds like myself should take a look at this one.
The acting is a mixed bag here. The film largely relies on Timothy Greeson (Clay) to carry the load of the film and he delivers. Greeson's performance is surprisingly convincing and he displays a very wide array of emotions here. It's the rest of the cast that come up short. Clay's parents in particular deliver lines so void of emotion or any sort of interest that it becomes kind of awkward to watch them interact with him. The actress portraying Susan isn't terrible, but she's mostly there to just look good and her performance doesn't really stand out.
I don't usually mention music in my reviews but it is such a high point in this movie that I have to. As a director that always stresses the importance of the soundtrack in his films, it's easy to see one of the reason's why Tarantino was into The Disturbance. We get an oddball mixture of 80's pop jams mixed in with an extremely creepy score. I just love how tense scenes will just transition into something playing upbeat 80's pop. It sort of creates a sense of chaos, which is what is happening in Clay's mind so it fits.
It's easy to see why, despite all being really good films, that the serial killer sub genre never really caught on. It's much easier for audiences to follow an innocent protagonist trying to escape the evil killer rather than putting them in a position to sympathize with the killer. These films really put a question mark behind the word "evil". Is this killer an evil force? Or is he just human, imperfect like all of us but in his own way. These movies are too thought provoking for a mainstream audience. Which is a shame because The Disturbance proves, despite it's obscurity, that the genre almost always delivers.
Body Count: 2
Side Note: Clay's mother is played by Carol Garlin, the mother of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star, Jeff Garlin. Small world.
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