Film

The 'Burbs

Name: The 'Burbs
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Thriller
Released: 1989
Cast: Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Rick Ducommun, Wendy Schaal

Joe Dante's suburban horror-comedy turns a cul-de-sac into a battlefield when Tom Hanks and his idiot friends decide the quiet new neighbors are secretly murderers. It's slapstick pitched right at the edge of genuine dread — cartoonish, paranoid, gleefully mean to its characters. Great for anyone who wants their comedy with a body count and their horror played entirely for laughs.

TMDb rating

6.8

If you liked this

Gremlins1984

Same director, same love of turning a cosy small town into chaos, same gift for mixing genuine scares with pure slapstick. If you liked Dante's rhythm here, this is him doing it even bigger.

But It's a Christmas movie with teeth — some viewers find the tonal whiplash between cute and genuinely nasty a bit much.

Arachnophobia1990no page yet

Another small American town, another ensemble cast losing their minds over a threat next door, played with the same wink-wink horror-comedy tone. Great creature-feature energy.

But If you have any real spider phobia, this will not be a relaxing watch — it's engineered to make your skin crawl.

Tremors1990

A small-town ensemble comedy where the real joy is watching ordinary people improvise absurd solutions to an absurd threat. Kevin Bacon at his most charmingly unbothered.

But It's broader and sillier — less paranoia-thriller, more monster-movie romp. Different flavour of fun.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Rear Window1954

The 'Burbs is basically Rear Window rewritten as farce — same premise of suburban surveillance curdling into obsession, decades before Ray Peterson ever peered through a fence.

Hitchcock's original neighbour-watching thriller, and the blueprint for every 'what if the person next door is a killer' story since — cool, controlled, and quietly devastating in its tension.

But It's a slow-burn classic with zero jokes and none of the cartoonish chaos — pure sustained dread instead of comic release.

Fright Night1985

The original suburban-neighbour-is-secretly-a-monster premise, played with real wit and a surprising amount of heart. Perfect double bill with this one.

But It's a straighter horror film with less pure comedy — the laughs are drier and the stakes feel more real.

Disturbia2007

A more modern, teenage spin on the same premise — bored suburbanite becomes convinced the quiet neighbour is a killer, and starts surveilling him obsessively.

But It plays the paranoia completely straight as a thriller, so you lose all the comic relief that makes The 'Burbs so much fun.

Small Soldiers1998

Another Joe Dante suburban satire, this time with toy soldiers going rogue — same anarchic energy, same delight in wrecking a quiet neighbourhood.

But It's more of a family adventure film underneath the chaos, and lacks the adult paranoia and dark comic bite of The 'Burbs.

The Cable Guy1996

Jim Carrey unsettles an ordinary suburban life in a comedy that keeps threatening to tip into something genuinely disturbing — a kindred spirit in tone.

But It's meaner and more uncomfortable than nostalgic — some found it a bizarre miscast at the time, and it still divides people.

Edward Scissorhands1990

Suburbia as a stage set for absurdity, gossip and mob paranoia, filtered through Tim Burton's fairy-tale sensibility. A gentler cousin with the same satirical target.

But It trades laughs for melancholy fairly quickly — this is a much sadder, more romantic film than a horror-comedy.

Neighbors2014no page yet

Strips out the horror entirely but keeps the core joke: a suburban street war between people who've decided their neighbours are the enemy.

But It's a straightforward raunchy comedy with none of the horror-movie atmosphere or slow-build dread that gives The 'Burbs its edge.

Blue Velvet1986

Both films start from the same idea — the perfect lawn conceals something rotten — but where The 'Burbs laughs it off, Blue Velvet stares straight into the abyss and doesn't blink.

David Lynch's vision of white-picket-fence America hiding something monstrous underneath — the same premise as The 'Burbs, played with total seriousness and genuine menace.

But This is arthouse horror with disturbing sexual violence and surreal imagery, miles from the goofy comfort of Dante's film.

Parasite2019

Swap suburban Americana for a wealthy Seoul household and the engine is identical — outsiders invading a home, neighbours who aren't what they seem — but Parasite takes the class anxiety dead seriously.

A different culture, a different class of home, but the same anxious question: who's really living next to you, and what do they want? Bong Joon-ho's masterclass in tonal control.

But It's a subtitled South Korean film that shifts from comedy into tragedy with real emotional weight — nothing here is played for a punchline.