You know when I did my Top 30 Favorite Movies of All-Time? Probably for that period I was posing blog post after blog post and you were like "Dear God, just shut up. Nobody cares"? Trust me, I was ready to move on to new discussions, too even though it was just me sharing more about myself. Anywho, the top 30 is incorrect. I know, you're probably pissed off. There's a movie in there that needs get the boot and the movie that's going in the Top 30 is this one. An obscure, yet underrated, hilarious, chilling 80s classic with Tom Hanks and Corey Feldman...The 'Burbs: a movie about small-town neighborhood paranoia and the distrust of your neighbors. It showcases comedy and horror rolled into one and gives you very enjoyable romp. I now present to you my spoiler-ridden review. If you don't want the movie spoiled for you, stop here and go watch it. If you do not give a rat's furry ass, we can continue.
The 'Burbs takes place entirely confined in Mayfield Place, a cul-de-sac in the fictional suburban town of Hinkley Hills. Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) is on vacation from work for a week and is trying to learn more about his mysterious, new next-door neighbors, the Klopeks, after hearing strange noises emanating from their basement late one night. While Ray remains suspicious but passive, his dimwit next-door neighbor Art Weingartner (Rick Ducommun) believes the Klopeks are murderers. While snooping around one evening, Ray, Art and military veteran, Lt. Mark Rumsfield (Bruce Dern) watch Hans Klopek (Courtney Gains), the youthful member of the Klopek clan, drive his car from the garage to the curb, then carry a large garbage bag from the trunk to the garbage can and bang it into the can with a hoe. As rain comes, the three decide not to inspect the trash cans but to wait until first light to do so. During that very same night, Ray watches all three Klopeks digging in their back yard with pick-axes during a rainstorm, apparently trying to bury something. The following morning, Art goes to check the contents of a garbage truck as workers collect the Klopeks' trash can. He is joined by Rumsfield and Ray, but they find no human remains, suspecting that's what the contents of their garbage contained but they ultimately turn up nothing.
Meanwhile, Mark's wife Bonnie Rumsfield (Wendy Schaal) finds a neighborhood dog named Queenie running loose and realizes it belongs to another neighbor of theirs, an elderly man named Walter, and wonders if Walter went away since Walter never, ever lets Queenie run loose without him. Ray, Art, Bonnie, and the absent-minded teenager of the neighborhood Ricky Butler (Corey Feldman), who also believes the Klopeks may be serial killers, go to Walter's house and find his toupee in the kitchen, believing this to be a clue to Walter's sudden disappearance. Ray collects the dog and leaves a note for Walter, explaining the situation. The following night, Ray and Art have a meeting in the Petersons' basement and theorize about Walter's mysterious disappearance, all while Ray tries to ignore Art's reasoning for the Klopeks being satanists. "I Wanna Kill Everyone. Satan is Good, Satain is Our Pal."Carol (Carrie Fisher), Ray's wife, grows tired of her husband and his buddies snooping around the Klopeks' home like a bunch of juvenile dimwits and she requests that she, Ray, and the Rumsfields pay the Klopeks a visit to formally meet them and introduce themselves like normal people. There they meet Hans, his uncle Reuben (Brother Theodore), and Reuben's brother Werner (Henry Gibson) while Art snoops around in the Klopeks' backyard. Later that evening, Ray reveals to Art and Rumsfield that, he found Walter's toupee in the Klopeks' basement, which he had previously slipped through Walter's mailslot after the group found it inside his house a couple of days earlier. Deducing that the Klopeks must have entered Walter's house in order to retrieve the toupee, Ray and the others are convinced the Klopeks have murdered Walter, and the trio agree to investigate the Klopeks' backyard the next day, knowing the Klopeks would be gone for the day to discuss another possible reassignment and thus, move out of their neighborhood forever.
The next morning, Ray sends Carol and son Dave (Cory Danziger) to go to visit Carol's sister, leaving Ray free to explore the Klopeks' place with Art & Mark. After Art disables the Klopeks' security system after a near-fatal electrocution, he and Ray enter the backyard and begin digging for Walter's remains, all while "commando" Rumsfield stands guard on his roof. After hours of digging and finding nothing incriminating, Ray and Art enter the house, where they discover what they believe to be a crematorium in the Klopeks' basement. Ray then begins to dig into the loose soil that constitutes the basement floor, believing they must have incinerated Walter's body, then buried his bones in the soil. This is where the roots of comedy and horror start to get a little hazy. You don't really know what's funny and what's tragic. That evening, things go awry when the Klopeks come back, only to drive back out when they see lights on in their basement. While all this is going on, Walter returns home with his family, alive and well. Realizing they were wrong, Mark tries to warn Ray and Art out of the basement, but find that the Klopeks return with the police, Art goes into the Klopeks' home to get Ray who, after thinking he had discovered a crypt that contains Walter's remains, hits a gas line in the ground with his pick axe. He yells for Art to flee, right before the Klopeks' house explodes into flames, with Ray still inside. A disheveled and scorched Ray emerges from the flames just as his wife returns.
As the night begins to wind down and the emergency crews tend to Ray and the burning Klopek household, Art speaks to an officer who tells him that Walter had a medical emergency and that his family had taken him to the hospital, thus explaining his mysterious and sudden disappearance. While away, Walter had made arrangements for the Klopeks to pick up his mail for him. When Ray had slipped the toupee through the mail slot, it was picked up, mistakenly, along with the rest of Walter's mail. Ray snaps at Art and declares that they were wrong about the Klopeks, before lunging at Art and then throwing himself into an ambulance on a gurney. Joining Ray in the ambulance surprisingly enough is Werner Klopek. Thinking that Ray must have seen a skull that he kept in the furnace, he confesses that they murdered the previous owners of the house and that the skull belongs to one of them, thus revealing that everyone in the neighborhood had been right about the Klopeks after all. This scene is creepily paced for being a comedy movie. Werner attempts to murder Ray with a lethal injection and collect his skull to replace the one lost in the explosion, as Hans assumes the role of the ambulance driver, but crashes into the Weingartners' house during the struggle. The gurney, with Ray and Werner still struggling on, rolls out of the ambulance and down the street. Ray makes a citizen's arrest on his would-be murderer as Ricky uncovers a large collection of human skeletal remains in the Klopeks' trunk. The Klopeks are arrested and the charges against Ray are dropped. Ray tells Ricky that he and his family are going away for a while and that he needs him to keep an eye on the neighborhood....The 'Burbs is an absolute classic. It's got comedy, great characters, a fun setting, a more fun story and even a spooky amount of circumstances that result in one wild movie. Tom Hanks, Corey Feldman, Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore, Wendy Schaal and others all deliver spectacular, goofy performances. So many quotable lines come from this movie as well, especially with the banter between Ricky and Mark Rumsfield. Bruce Dern took that role and nailed it. The 'Burbs is a lot of fun, even if you just read my review and spoiled it for yourself. Even if it is some spooky kind of fun. I regret not including it in my Top 30, it really should be in there.
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