A Disturbing Rip-off

by Furious
September 8th, 2008

Image via Wikipedia

So, it seemed fairly obvious to me (and probably everyone else) that Disturbia was a rip-off of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, with Shia LaBeouf as the wienery version of Jimmy Stewart. A guy who is confined to his house spies on his neighbors and thinks he witnesses a murder- yeah, it’s the same thing, but, obviously, Rear Window is the far superior movie. Rip-offs may be looked down upon a little, but generally the relationship to the source is mentioned in passing since it’s not an official adaptation/remake/reimagining reworking of the story.

Once in a while someone will think that the rip-off is a little too close to the source and raise a stink. It took almost a year and a half, but the trust that holds the rights to the story on which Rear Window was officially based have filed a lawsuit alleging Dreamworks, Viacom, Steven Spielberg and others should have also secured the rights to the story. Since the rip-off phenomenon isn’t exactly new, it’s hard to say what the outcome of the suit will be, but since the movie found a decent audience and the parties named in the lawsuit have some deep pockets, it’s probably worth a shot.