Hallowatch: The 'Burbs (1989)

Watched:  09/29/2024

Format:  YouTube (it's streaming free.  Go figure)

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  Joe Dante

Selection:  Jamie

I saw this one in the theater back in the day, and then on VHS and cable after.  But it's been some time since I watched this movie.  And while I liked the movie, boy - does it land now in a different way after living on the same suburban street since 2006.  

My memory was correct that this movie was poorly received upon its release, and it's funny - I think it would do fairly well now with reviewers no longer cloistered in urban centers and insisting on certain lifestyles which would, frankly, make them miss the joke of the movie except as a faint echo of their streets as kids.  Criticism and reviews play an important role, but I think this is just one where the vibe of how the curators of public opinion missed the mark, and it's not a mistake the movie is well-remembered 35 years later.

The film isn't quite a horror film, it is a comedy - and the whole thing feels very Joe Dante.  There's a hyper-realism to the the suburban setting that keeps the movie with one foot firmly planted in realism (the world Carrie Fisher is trying to anchor) while nuttiness abounds.  And Tom Hanks is our POV into what it is to move back and forth between those worlds.

The basic idea is that mild-mannered suburban dad, Tom Hanks, has new neighbors who they never see.  They don't take care of their yard, there's weird noises coming from the house.  No one ever sees them.  It is very literally the sort of thing that I can confirm is the focus of gossip on suburban streets.  Especially as the kids start telling stories about digging holes and other inexplicable behavior.

Hanks and his (bored male) neighbors begin investigating while the sensible wives just watch them go.

Tom Hanks was not yet the Tom Hanks we'd come to take super-seriously with Philadelphia.  He's still in "comedic actor" mode.  Carrie Fisher is playing a sensible suburban mother, Bruce Dern - the wacky ex-vet, and Corey Feldman the rock n' roll teenager archetype.

It's a Joe Dante movie, so we also have Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore, Robert Picardo, Dick Miller, and Wendy Schaal.

late edit:  I failed to include the extra paragraph I meant to on the late Rick Ducommun, who I expected would break out after this movie, and who did not.  He's kind of great in this, absolutely the guy nextdoor who won't let it go.  He's funny and works well, it seems, with everyone else.  I'll never know how or why Hollywood decides to not keep making someone a star.  Maybe he didn't want it?  Maybe he just wasn't right for movies in the 1990's.  I don't know.

The movie is a light comedy, to be sure.  I do recall all sorts of reactions to it, including that it was "dark", which, fair enough - it is a horror-comedy in its way, a sort of thriller akin to cult movies of the 1970's.  I didn't get the response at the time, but this was a reviewer of a certain period who expected movies to stay in certain lanes.  Tom Hanks was in Big.  He made feel-good movies.  And while I'd argue - from a horror-fans perspective, or a generally dark-hearted baby Gen-Xer, that's what this was.

Most of the movie has not only aged well, it feels like it could be now.  Yeah, we don't have the crazy Vietnam vet as a stock character anymore, but you can imagine the many modern forms that could take.  No, I never understood what the deal was supposed to be with Dern and the trophy wife, and have no more insight into that now.  And Art, the neighbor who keeps egging things on, could be anyone now.  As is Fisher's eye-rolling skeptic who just wants to go paddle around the lake.

The vibe is great, the pacing fantastic.

Do we have a Tom Hanks now?  Who is our everyman?  Because you know, now, this would be Kevin Hart for some reason.  Will Ferrell would have been our guy 15 years ago, but now?  I dunno.  

SPOILERS

Released in 1989, which was Satanic Panic adjacent, and in a period where movies insisted on a particular flavor of happy ending (one in which they realize a mistake was made about the supposed weirdos, and everyone ends up at the end of the movie drinking lemonade together while they welcome their weirdo neighbors while Hermann's Hermits plays over the final crane shot) this movie was like...

NOPE.  Those wacky neighbors *were* totally killing people in their basement.

To me, seeing this back in 1989 at age 13 - just about to be 14 - it was one my first, great, expectation-defying twist endings.  Because the movie is absolutely curving toward that sunny, feel-good happy ending.  We simply did not let comedies aimed at a broad audience, starring Tom Hanks!, do this.  From the moment the leads break into the neighbor's house, you're already seeing the telegraphed ending with Hanks in bandages flipping burgers for the neighbors while someone rebuilds their house nextdoor, and we know all will be well.  

And then Henry Gibson shows up with the needle and... boy howdy.  

It's absolutely great.  

The movie is hilarious up to this point.  I forgot, honestly, how funny it is.  But that it knows what you're thinking and then doubles back on itself?  Chef's kiss.

Reddit tells me people wish they didn't do this, and those people are wieners.

The ending doesn't feel tacked on - it feels intentional.  Wikipedia tells me there were multiple possible endings and Dante wasn't satisfied with any of them, but I love what they gave us.  But it keeps feeling unnecessarily like a reshoot because the kid is missing and they keep mentioning Fisher got a haircut that I doubt I would have noticed.  So I suspect something was up.

Lastly, Carrie Fisher is gorgeous in this movie. It's just a fact.

 

*that was never really a thing quite how movies wanted to portray young rocker dudes, as a sort of Jeff Spicoli copy-of-a-copy