When I was in high school, I didn’t take my dates to scary movies for the exact same reason I didn’t take them to amusement parks – I didn’t want them to see me reduced to a quivering pile of sweaty, crying, screaming, eye-covering hysteria. Trust me, I’m 32 and I felt I was betraying some film critic’s rule of conduct by closing my eyes during the screening of “Disturbia.”

“Disturbia” stars the up and coming actor Shia LaBeouf, who is probably best recognized for his role as Stanley Yelnats in the 2003 film “Holes.” That was four years ago and now viewers are privy to a grown-up, serious actor in LaBeouf. In fact, this summer might be his catapult into Hollywood Hunk status, as he’s set to voice a penguin in “Surf’s Up” and star alongside the robots in disguise in “Transformers.”

In this Hitchcock-meets-the-iPod thriller, LaBeouf plays Kale Brecht, a smart, goodhearted teenager living alongside Hollywood’s vision of the Utopian family. This is cemented by the opening scene of Kale and his father (Matt Craven) fly fishing and sharing laughs and Cokes. This tidy little world comes to a grinding halt when they are involved in one of the most horrific on-screen car wrecks I have ever seen.

Flash forward and we find Kale on a different, darker path since his father’s death. His schoolwork is in the toilet, he’s been arrested several times and his latest infraction – punching the Spanish teacher – has him sentenced to house arrest for three months, his entire summer vacation. Kale’s mom (Carrie-Ann Moss) is at a loss, so she cancels his XBOX Live, iTunes and even cuts the cord on his TV. So, as it is with most folks, when you’ve got nothing to do and nowhere to go, grabbing the binoculars and spying on your neighbors is a great diversion.

Kale becomes an anthropologist from his bedroom window, watching the neighbor’s lives unfold, making assumptions and seeing secrets. He watches a man have an affair with the housekeeper and sees adolescent boys watching porno movies and deceiving their mom. However, his favorite target is Ashley (Sarah Roemer), a recent transplant to the suburbs and the neighborhood babe. From his peeping, Kale learns that Ashley is an avid reader, looks great in a bikini and has a troubled home life, as the impression is given that her dad is an alcoholic and a womanizer. But Kale can’t go past his front lawn, so his dream of charming Ashley is wishful thinking.

Luck turns Kale’s way when Ashley discovers him and his friend Ronnie (Aaron Yoo) gawking through binoculars during her afternoon swim. Kale is mortified, but soon the threesome is spending each day and evening in Kale’s room, eating pizza and spying. They begin to believe their next door neighbor, Mr. Turner (David Morse), is a serial killer from Texas and this is the point where the tension is ratcheted up 360 degrees. Some of the scares I saw coming a mile away, but the best part was the director, D.J. Caruso (“Taking Lives”), used very little blood and gore to induce eye-covering.

I won’t reveal the crux of the plot, but it basically follows the same thread of Hitchock’s “Rear Window.” Is Mr. Turner a victim of a crazy teenager’s wild speculation, or is he a cold-blooded killer? You can probably guess which side of the fence he resides (no pun intended), but the journey to the conclusion is where the fun resides. And when I say fun, I really mean soiled pants, chewed fingernails and sweaty pits.

Overall, there isn’t one particular element that drives “Disturbia” into a three-star film, rather a conglomerate of goodness highlighted with the acting. Shia LaBeouf pulls off the angst-ridden teen with ease and David Morse pulls off creepy just by showing up. The end result is a surprisingly deft thriller that is certainly worth the full price ticket.

Watch the trailer for “Disturbia” at Apple.com.