Night 22 of "The Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween"

A special welcome to everyone from the Fanciful Twist Halloween Blog Party. We hope you enjoy the Halloween fun we've been having here at Laughing Vixen Lounge.

Welcome to night 22 of "Attack of the 31 Nights of Halloween". Tonight we have a review of the next movie on our Halloween Movie List. Make sure to stop by our GIANT Giveaway and enter to win a goodie bag full of frightfully good treats from 17 different shops! But first lets get to our featured item of the night from Laughing Vixen Lounge.

Tonight's Featured Item - Haunted House Charm Bracelet

Haunted House Charm Bracelet $48

Purchase this item from Laughing Vixen Lounge during October and get 10% off. Use code OCTOBER10

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Night 22 - The 'Burbs

 
Tagline - Life In The Burbs Will Never Be The Same
              Again!

              He's a stranger in an even stranger land...
              Suburbia
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Joe Dante (The Howling and Gremlins) directed this comedy-thriller released on February 17, 1989 by Universal Studios. Suburbanite Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) is setting in for a week long vacation of relaxing at home. That is until strange things start to happen in the house next door. The Klopek family, a very "private" people, have just moved in and they don't take kindly to their nosey neighbors. Ray starts to suspect something is not right when the neighborhood grouch goes missing. Despite his wife Carol's (Carrie Fisher) insistence that he needs to leave the house and take a real vacation, Ray is determined to stay at home and solve the mystery. With the help of Art (Rick Ducommun), the neighbor who helps himself to the contents of every one's fridge, and Rumsfeild (Bruce Dern), the over-excited ex-soldier, Ray will set out to find out just what is really going on next door.
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This movie is a great example of when comedies were slightly silly but very funny and Tom Hanks was goofy and made you laugh. The scene where he eats the anchovy just makes me laugh so hard I about cry. The sound effects are priceless and just add to the unpleasantness of it.


Yes, it's a bygone era that is very much missed. OK, so maybe I don't miss Corey Feldman too much (yep, he's in there too). It's always nice to have comedy mixed with a little spookiness. If you haven't seen it you should.
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Some trivia about the movie...
1. The back lot at Universal where they filmed "The Burbs" has been used for many TV shows and movies. It was the street for "Leave it to Beaver" and most recently it is Wisteria Lane for "Desperate Housewives". Keep an eye open for the Munster's house. I believe it's the house Corey Feldman's character lives in. I know you can see it at the beginning when the camera pans the street. It's was a light blue at that point in time.
2. When the Peterson's son Dave is eating breakfast you can see a box of "Gremlins" cereal on the counter in the background. Joe Dante directed Gremlins in 1984 and Corey Feldman was also in it. Did they really have a Gremlins cereal? Wow, how did I miss that?
3. When Ray and Art break into Walter's house, a picture of Walter (Gale Gordon) and Lucille Ball is on the table. Ball and Gordon co-starred in the 1948 radio show "My Favorite Husband" and TV's The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and Life with Lucy.
4. In the Klopek basement there is a sled with the name Rosebud - a reference to Citizen Kane.
5. The movies that Ray watches while lying down are Race with the Devil, _The Excorcist (1973)_, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2.
6. This is the only Universal film to include the Universal logo at the end of the film.
7. Prop master Mark Jameson was charged with making fake dog poop when the actors complained that they didn't want to step in the real thing. He made a mixture of canned dog food, bean dip, and other items. It was loaded into caulking tubes and squeezed out where needed.