The 'Burbs (1989) on Netflix
Ray Peterson plans a week of vacation at home. He and his neighbors Art Weingartner, Mark Rumsfield and Ricky Butler come to suspect the reclusive Klopeks next door of murder.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.8/1093,503 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes53%
Trailer
Plot summary
Ray Peterson is home in his suburban neighborhood for a week-long vacation. Late at night he notices odd noises from the basement of the reclusive Klopeks next door. The youngest Klopek mashes an oversized garbage bag into the curbside can, and during a rainstorm Ray watches the Klopeks dig in their backyard. Ray's neighbors Art Weingartner, Vietnam War veteran Mark Rumsfield and teenager Ricky Butler suspect the Klopeks are ritualistic murderers. Ray, Art and Mark sift the garbage truck's load for human remains and turn up nothing. Bonnie Rumsfield finds Walter Seznick's dog Queenie running loose.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The 'Burbs (1989)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
An earlier draft ended with the hero killed and driven away in an ambulance by the man he had been persecuting, who then turns out to really be guilty, an O. Henry twist. The ending was rewritten once the decision was made to hire Tom Hanks.- Screenwriter Dana Olsen based the script on his own childhood in a middle-class town that had, as he put it, its share of psychos: a legendary hatchet murder in the thirties and local paper headlines like 'LIBRARIAN KILLS FAMILY, SELF.'
- The film was shot on Universal's Colonial Street set, used in 1987's Dragnet, which also starred Hanks; when The 'Burbs began production the same street was in use as the location for The New Leave It to Beaver television series.
- Dante recalled shooting three endings for the picture, none of which he thought really worked, and said the writers' strike meant they had to make it up as they went along; the preview audience disliked the original ending, which was more critical of the lead characters.
- The film opened at number one at the box office, taking in $11,101,197 over its opening weekend in February 1989.
