Welcome to Mayfield Place. Where the lawns are trimmed. The neighbors are nosy, and Satanic rituals might be going on next door. In The ’Burbs director Joe Dante takes a weed whacker to the white-picket-fence American dream. Unearthing a paranoid, slapstick horror-comedy that has become a beloved cult classic. It’s one of the earliest movies I remember loving as a young teenager and I still love it as an adult. This bizarre comedy just grabbed me and was a viewing staple growing up. I had a copy recorded off TV and I watched it so many times the commercials almost became part of The ‘Burbs experience for me as a teenager. And to this day my buddy and I still quote this flick.
Tom Hanks in his comedic prime stars as Ray Peterson. A suburbanite who just wanted a peaceful staycation. But instead, he gets suspicious noises at night. Shady neighbors. Killer bees and possibly a few buried bodies next door. Because when one of their neighbors goes missing. Peterson and his bumbling buddies will make it their mission to get to the bottom of the mystery. Because hey, we all decompress on vacation in our own way.
To Ray’s defense. His new neighbors, the Klopek’s, aren’t exactly throwing block parties. They’re paler than uncooked chicken. More than slightly creepy. And have the charming habit of carting garbage to the curb in the middle of the night and beating it with a garden hoe. Which is all it takes to send Ray and his band of nosy suburban misfits into full backyard surveillance mode. Enter Bruce Dern as the unhinged ex-soldier and neighborhood lunatic Mark Rumsfield. Rick Ducommun as the conspiracy-loving, snack-devouring sidekick Art Weingartner. And Corey Feldman as the ultimate Gen X slacker Ricky Butler. Who instead of painting his parents’ house. Turns the whole thing into live theater from his front porch. This is what happens when bored men don’t have cable, video games, or fantasy football.
Dante directs this madness like a cartoon come to life, mixing horror, slapstick, and just enough real-world paranoia to make you wonder what your neighbors are up to. And Tom Hanks? He’s perfect, playing the everyman slowly unraveling under cul-de-sac pressure. By the end, he’s sweaty, screaming, and quite possibly concussed. Hanks easily kills this performance, and he plays Ray like a man teetering on the edge of a homeowner’s association-induced nervous breakdown.
Now as for the plot. It’s gloriously unhinged. Mysterious backyard digging. Odd trash-handling habits and the sudden disappearance of a neighbor spiral into a series of increasingly outrageous antics. There’re secret notes under the doors. Breaking and entering, and more than one scene where Hanks looks like he’s questioning every life choice since Bachelor Party. It’s a mystery-thriller filtered through a cartoonish lens and yet it taps into something disturbingly relatable. Who hasn’t suspected their neighbor who lived in that one house in the neighborhood. That one house that just felt different than the rest.
It’s a simple premise yet manages to deliver a buffet of memorable moments. The scenes where Rumsfield falls off the roof and Weingartner electrocutes himself is great physical comedy. The entire sequence with the guys spying behind the garbage cans is amusing. Or the scene where Peterson eats the pretzel and the room temperature sardine. Because his wife leaves him out to the wolves. There are so many comical moments. Then the script comes in and delivers an endless supply of lol’s as well.
The ‘Burbs is just a nonstop ride of wild humor. And it escalates perfectly to a delightfully over-the-top closing act when Peterson blows up the Klopeks’ house. But despite all the comical situations, fun loving characters, and quotable lines. It’s the score from Jerry Goldsmith that truly sets this movie apart. And single handedly infuses everything with the atmosphere that would ultimately be what would turn this movie into a timelessly charming and moody ride of neighborhood nonsense.
I recently watched the Joe Dante Workprint Version on the Shout Select Blu-ray release. And it’s cool with all the additional deleted scenes stitched in. But what really stood out. Was how less impactful and engaging the entire viewing experience was without Goldsmith’s eccentric scoring. Which goes to show the impact music can have on a film because this movie is a vibe all to itself and it’s easily 80% because of what Goldsmith delivers here. Now behind the scenes, The ’Burbs was a production bubble of its own. Shot entirely on the Universal backlot, specifically Colonial Street. The same street later used for Desperate Housewives. This was also the home of shows like Leave it to Beaver, which would be used for Ray and Carol’s house. And The Munsters which was used for Ricky’s house. That would, to no surprise, never get painted during the story. And naturally for The ‘Burbs it was the perfect location to provide a quaint picturesque neighborhood to serve as the playground for this twisted story.
The ‘Burbs would be shot in sequence, and filming would actually take place during the writer’s strike of 1988. It, along with Fletch Lives would be the only movies filming at the time on the Universal backlot. Production had to be fast-tracked to avoid the WGA strike and principal photography would actually begin on the same day the strike would go into effect on May 19th, 1988. This would actually prevent writer Dana Olsen from making any contributions to the script while on set. So, this is where Dante would rely on his cast, and he let them improvise heavily. Especially Hanks and Ducommun. Whose comedic chemistry veers between Abbott and Costello, and two guys who would absolutely get banned from the Nextdoor App. Bruce Dern came up with the idea of ripping the wallpaper. Carrie Fisher came up with her and Hanks’ character playing along to Jeopardy. Rick Ducommun ad-libbed many of his lines, one of them being the famous, “Satan is good, Satan is our pal.”
Now Hanks allegedly wasn’t the first choice. He was actually brought in after Walter Matthau turned it down. Imagine that version. Less sprinting across lawns and more grumpy lawn-chair philosophizing. So as much as l love Matthau, Hanks was the better choice. Released in February 1989, The ’Burbs opened to lukewarm reviews and a modest box office haul—$11 million in its first weekend, finishing with a worldwide gross of $49.1 million against a reported $18 million budget. Not a flop, not a hit—just like Ray himself, caught somewhere between chaos and khakis. Critics were mixed, unsure how to categorize a movie that couldn’t decide if it was a horror film, a comedy, or a commentary on Reagan-era suburbia. When really it was all three.
But over time. The ’Burbs found its crowd. Home video and cable airings turned it into a VHS-era rite of passage. The Klopek’s, played with gleeful menace by Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore, and Courtney Gains became the gold standard for “terrifying weirdo neighbors” and Hanks’ unhinged monologue near the end. “I’ve been blown up! Take me to the hospital!” Remains one of his most underrated comedic freakouts. So, in hindsight, The ’Burbs works because it tapped into that universal suburban dread: the fear that your neighbor isn’t just a little odd, but straight-up Klopek-level strange. It’s Rear Window with garbage cans, and proof that the real monsters might just live two houses down. So, the next time your neighbor starts digging in the backyard at midnight—just remember you might not be paranoid. You might just be living in The ’Burbs.
Anthony J. Digioia II © 2025 SilverScreen Analysis & Movies Never Say Die
