'The Burbs'- an underrated classic

 

   Many people know Tom Hanks for his films like 'Forrest Gump', 'Apollo 13', 'Big', 'Turner and Hooch' and many more. But there are some films that you might be aware of that he starred in. One of them was a pretty comedy-thriller about a suburb with suspicious neighbors called... 'The Burbs'

        The Burbs is a movie about a neighborhood of interesting people. Corey Feldman stars as a teenager that is painting his house while Bruce Dern is a neighbor who, I guess, was in the Vietnam War and Tom Hanks is going through a mental breakdown and needed a week-long vacation. However, there are some neighbors that mysterious to every one of those neighbors, and suddenly, another neighbor disappears.

    Tom Hanks character, named Ray, has a friend who believes the new neighbors were responsible for their neighbor's disappearance as well as the people who previously lived in that house. Wanting to not overreact, he decides to find some clues. Carrie Fisher plays his wife who believes he has an overactive imagination and needs some well deserved sleep.

   The house with the new neighbors is decerped, old and even falling apart. It's a house with history inside as well as the outside. Tom, Bruce and a third friend decide to investigate the house after seeing people living inside it. After an old neighbor named Walter's toupee is found in their house, they think he was taken by the new neighbors and vanished,

   Eventually Carrie's character and another wife decide to end their husbands snooping around, they decide to introduce themselves. Three people are living in the house. One of the portrayed by Henry Gibson who is a doctor, but he also is hiding something dark. After the visit, Ray decides to stop snooping around for his wife's sake, only to lie when she and his son go out for a weekend alone

  Finding out more when venturing in the basement, Ray figures out that their grouchy old neighbor, as well as the original owners of the house, are buried either outside or in their basement. They check the basement and find things that should has stayed buried. Having the old house explode and Ray surviving, they soon find out that their old neighbor was ok. He had a minor heart problem and had to go to the hospital.

   Ray gets in a lot of trouble, fighting over his friend for what happened, losing his eyesight and not only having to go to the hospital, but maybe jail, Ray decides to give up. However...Henry Gibson's character reveals a dark truth that he indeed killed the recent owners of the house when they didn't want to sell.

   He threatens to kill Ray, but he's saved by a stroke of luck, and skeletons in the trunk of Henry Gibson's car.

   So why is this movie underrated while all other Tom Hanks films are more known than this one? Some moves from major stars become a hit while others stay unknown, but I feel now this underrated comedic horror film is starting to show its side and fame. No, it won't have funko statues of the characters in the movie, but you can see how this movie is becoming more known today thanks to the internet and Nostalgia coming back. I think this underrated classic is worth the watch.