HOT: The 'Burbs

I first saw this film when I was younger and it sort of freaked me out. I don't think I have watched it in its entirety since then until I just recently watched it. This review/synopsis will have a ton of spoilers, so read only if you have seen or don't want to see.

Tom Hanks stars as Ray Peterson in The 'Burbs. He is married to Carol (Carrie Fisher) and live on a cul-de-sac in a suburban neighborhood.

It's your typical neighborhood as everyone is always in everyone elses business and the gossip runs pretty wild. But, nothing is too over the top and everyone, for the most part, gets along. One of the neighbors that the rest of the neighbors deal with, but don't really get along with is Walter (Gale Gordon), who has a dog that goes to the bathroom on people's lawns.

A new family, the Klopeks, move into the neighborhood and they are a big odd. They keep to themselves and really don't fit in with the rest of the neighbors. One night the rest of the neighborhood, including the Petersons, Lt. Mark Rumsfeld (Bruce Dern) and Art Weingartner (Rick Ducommun) head over the Klopeks house to introduce themselves. They meet Werner (Henry Gibson), Reuben (Brother Theodore) and Hans Klopek (Courtney Gains) and the suspicions of the men in the group grow even more after meeting them.

Once Walter goes missing the neighbors step up their snooping around, and Ray even believes he sees the Klopeks digging in the back yard of their house during the night.

When the Klopeks head out for a meeting at the local university, Mark, Art and Ray break into their house to do some more snooping around. When they venture into the basement they find a huge furnace that can get to as high of 5,000 degrees.

Stuck in the basement, and looking for dead bodies, the Klopeks discover the basement light on and call the police. While digging, Ray hits a gas line and the house explodes into flames. But, Ray is able to escape with only a few minor injuries.

While in the ambulance, Werner Klopek jumps into the back thinking Ray has seen skulls of the people they have killed in the basement. Werner tried to kill Ray and as they are fighting, Ricky (Corey Feldman) discovers a ton of bones in the back of the Klopek's trunk.

After rewatching it the film is actually pretty enjoyable. We've all seen this type of neighborhood, or at least have heard of it, the one where everyone is so gossipy and they are always looking at someone else as having issues. But, here the people actually did have issues - and the neighbors made themselves crazy and broke the law just to prove it.

The characters in the film were outstanding. I enjoyed all of them, especially Ray and Ricky.

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