The 'Burbs

The ‘Burbs

1989

Director- Joe Dante

Cast- Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, Rick Ducommun, Cory Feldman, Wendy Schaal, Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore, Courtney Gains, Rance Howard, Dick Miller, Robert Picardo

           

This movie is a comic gem and my favorite Tom Hanks comedy after Dragnet. It features a great cast at the height of their comedic games. Modern audiences think of Hanks as a dramatic actor, but in the 80s his bread and butter was comedy.  Joe Dante, in The Howling and Gremlins, showed the ability to infuse horror with humor. In The ‘Burbs he gives us a comedy with a dark horror slant.

This film is not so much about Satanism as much as suburban paranoia. Hanks is a middle class suburbanite who is taking a week long staycation at home. Carrie Fisher is his long suffering wife. His next door neighbors are veteran comic actor Rick Ducommum  (Groundhog Day) all-star character actor Bruce Dern and Wendy Schaal (Francine in American Dad).  Rounding out the neighborhood cast is an apparently parentless teen (Cory Feldman) who spends his days amused by his neighbors hijinks. Making guest appearances as a pair of garbage men are genre favorites Dick Miller and Robert Picardo, both of which appeared in Dante’s earlier work, The Howling.

Enter the new next door neighbors, the Klopeks. Initially the only visible member is the inbred looking Hans (Courtney Gains who played Malachai in Children of the Corn). Joining him later are Henry Gibson (the head of the Illinois Nazis in The Blues Brothers) and Brother Theodore (who, among other things was the voice of Gollum in the animated Hobbit movie). The Klopeks are strange. They have a vaguely eastern European air and are up at all hours. Late at night, strange lights can be seen emanating from their basement accompanied by a humming sound.

When an old man in the neighborhood goes missing, the suburbanite men jump to the obvious conclusion that foul play has occurred and begin snooping around (to the consternation of their wives). Ominous clues turn up (the dog finds a femur bone, Hanks observes his neighbors digging holes in the yard at night) and they theorize that the Klopeks are a Satanic cult (including a hilarious chant “I want to kill everyone, Satan is good, Satan is your pal”).

After seeing some horror movies on TV (Race with the Devil, The Exorcist and Texas

Chainsaw Massacre 2), Hanks has a nightmare where he is surrounded by the Klopeks, decked out in Satanic robes and regalia, as they prepare to sacrifice him on an oversized grill. Their suspicion of the Klopeks leads the suburbanites to progressively more extreme methods, but is their fear founded in reality or just baseless paranoia? You’ll have to watch to find out.

As I said, this film really isn’t about Satanism, but if you recall the 80s, you will recall the pop culture paranoia surrounding it, and this film satires it. Don’t watch this with any expectation of scares. However, if you want a dark comedy, and a chance to laugh at middle American neuroticism, then check out The ‘Burbs.