Tuesday, October 24, 2017

13 Nights of Shocktober: The 'Burbs (1989)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 6: Horror-Comedy Night
“I love this street.”
The ‘Burbs (1989)
The ‘Burbs is a spooky fun horror-comedy set in a slightly goofier version of everyday suburbia. Director Joe Dante is right at home in horror-comedy having previously directed 1984’s Gremlins and 1981’s The Howling, both of which played with genre conventions and tropes. The ‘Burbs is no different. With shades of Rear Window, the classic Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” and classic horror movies of the 30s and 40s, The ‘Burbs has a genuine admiration for the movies it draws inspiration from while also having fun with them.
Tom Hanks stars as Ray Peterson, an average, sensible everyman spending his vacation just hanging around the house. He gets bored, as you might imagine, and starts watching his neighbors. Something suspicious seems to be going on at the out of place old, creepy house next door. The new neighbors, the Klopeks, are rarely seen except at night and there are strange lights coming from the basement. Ray and his neighbor friends then start to speculate that the Klopeks killed the previous owner of the house and another elderly neighbor that suddenly disappeared.
The cast of The ‘Burbs is a list of great performers in major and minor roles. Aside from Hanks in the lead, Carrie Fisher plays his wife, Carol, the voice of reason. The great character actor Rick Ducommun—you may not recognize the name but you'd certainly recognize his face—plays Ray’s annoying, not too bright neighbor friend that fills his head with paranoid ideas. Bruce Dern plays the military veteran neighbor that still thinks he’s in the military. Henry Gibson—another great character actor whose face you’d certainly recognize—is the unassuming, but believably sinister, Dr. Klopek. Courtney Gaines, the menacing Malachi from Children of the Corn, is funny as the oddball Hans Klopek. Corey Feldman rounds out the cast as the young cool dude on the block. He also serves as a sort of narrator/guide to the world these people have created out of their block of suburbia. He invites his friends over to watch Hanks, Ducommun, and Dern poke around the Klopek house and sits back for an entertaining show.
The ‘Burbs has a pretty broad sense of humor. It draws on horror movie situations for comedy and never takes itself too seriously. Some of the gags are even cartoonish. When Hanks and Ducommun discover part of a skeleton, the camera frantically zooms in and out on them as they scream in terror. These goofy moments are all part of the fun. 
The ‘Burbs is not quite a meta horror film, but the influence of horror films of the past is ever present. The Klopeks being new, potentially dangerous, neighbors from eastern Europe is meant to be reminiscent of Dracula. Cory Feldman compares what the street is experiencing to the horror film The Sentinel. The score by Jerry Goldsmith is meant to evoke the grand ominous music of horror films of the 30’s and 40’s. The only genuinely scary moment in The 'Burbs comes when Hanks has a nightmare after watching parts the horror films Race with the Devil, The Exorcist, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 on TV. The characters in The Burbs are aware of horror movies, so they know how outlandish it seems that the new neighbors are serial killers. This movie is heavy on laughs and light on actual scares, so even if you don’t like horror movies you’ll still be able to enjoy this horror-comedy. 

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