Rating: PG | Runtime: 102 minutes
Release Date: February 17th, 1989 (USA)
Studio: Universal Pictures
Director(s): Joe Dante
Writer(s): Dana Olsen

Oh, pardon my blood.

The suburbs are a unique beast in that houses are neither as closely packed as in a city nor as spread apart as the country. So, you’re just insulated enough to believe in your own privacy while being so on top of your neighbors that they aren’t afforded the luxury to have their own. To combat that duality, you must create tiny cliques that bring specific community members sharing similar pet peeves into one bubble to commiserate and complain about everyone else.

Dana Olsen’s script for The ‘Burbs understands this dynamic so perfectly that he’s able to make his paranoid trio’s straight man as crazy as the lunatics surrounding him. Because Ray (Tom Hanks) is generally ruled by rationality. He’s the one who can talk sense or perhaps shame Art (Rick Ducommun) and Mark (Bruce Dern) into not following their worst impulses. The more they whisper into his ear, however, the more feral he becomes. Paranoid hive minds are dangerous things.

Everything branches out from there whether Ray’s wife (Carrie Fisher’s Carol) clearly seeing his descent into frenzy, the block’s indifferent pariah (Gale Gordon’s Walter) ignoring them all, or the mysterious new neighbors (Courtney Gains, Theodore Gottlieb, and Henry Gibson’s Klopeks) acting strangely. They are respectively relegated to killjoy, bully, and victims. The men deride Carol, begrudge Walter, and seek any means possible to terrorize the Klopeks.

Beyond the easy “fat” jokes lobbed towards Ducommun, this childhood fave held up immaculately in large part because Joe Dante directs it with tongue firmly planted in cheek. The “horror” score by Jerry Goldsmith. The wild camera zoom when Ray and Art are screaming. The “aw shucks” demeanor from Art and Mark when Carol won’t let Ray come out and play. Even Corey Feldman’s audience insert literally eating popcorn as the insanity unfolds.

That the narrative is also dramatically sound in its twists and turns—each propelled by these three idiots jumping to the wildest conclusions available due to becoming stir crazy from the doldrums of suburban life—feels miraculous. But that’s what’s possible when you stay true to the authenticity of your characters and let them play within their absurd scenario absurdly. They’ll dizzy themselves so thoroughly that any potential rug pull becomes the ultimate cherry on top.

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Rick Ducommun, Corey Feldman, Tom Hanks, and Bruce Dern in THE ‘BURBS.