The 'Burbs (1989)
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A suburban man becomes increasingly suspicious of his eccentric new neighbors' activities while on a week-long vacation.
The story
Suburban homeowner Ray Peterson is home on a week-long vacation. Late one night, he hears strange noises coming from the basement of his new and reclusive neighbors, the Klopeks. Ray and his other neighbors—nosy Art Weingartner, Vietnam War veteran Mark Rumsfield and teenager Ricky Butler-suspect that the Klopeks may be ritualistic murderers. On another night, they observe the youngest Klopek drive an oversized garbage bag to their curbside garbage can and aggressively mash it down. Later that night, during a rainstorm, Ray sees the Klopeks digging in their backyard. In the morning, Ray, Mark, and Art search the garbage truck for human remains after the Klopeks' trash is collected but find nothing.
- First release year
- 1989
- Runtime (minutes)
- 101
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Joe Dante
- Writers
- Dana Olsen · writer
- Cast and characters
- Tom Hanks · Ray Peterson; Bruce Dern; Carrie Fisher; Rick Ducommun; Corey Feldman; Wendy Schaal; Henry Gibson; Gale Gordon
- Genres
- dark comedy
- Themes
- paranoia; suburban life
- Tone and mood
- dark comedy; suspenseful
- Premise and plot tags
- mystery; horror-comedy
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 57% · scale: percentage · review count: 46; Metacritic · score: 45 · scale: 100 · review count: 20
- Production trivia
- The script was based on the writer's childhood experiences.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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