Dante's Peak

The Burbs (1989)

You’ve got to hand it to Joe Dante. After upsetting everyone’s parents and scaring kids senseless with Gremlins(1984), here he gives us the only PG horror movie, disguised as a Tom Hanks comedy. Featuring serial killers, Satanism(what was it with Hanks and Satanists in the 80s- he was also chasing them in Dragnet(1987), and possibly cannibalism, the Burbs skirts deliriously close to bad taste for much of its running time. Although the tale sometimes seems too slight for Dante’s talents, he unleashes every trick in his considerable arsenal to keep it interesting, including a great soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith aping his own Patton(1970) score everytime Bruce Dern appears. You can see why regular audiences didn’t know how to take this but for film nerds(who will wet themselves seeing Dick Miller and Robert Picardo as arguing binmen), this is manna from heaven, from the Spaghetti Western clichés to breakfast cereals called Freakies, and of course Gremlins. Dante would go on to top even this with Gremlins 2 the next year. 10/10