Trama

An overstressed suburbanite and his neighbors are convinced that the new family on the block is part of a murderous Satanic cult.

He's a man of peace in a savage land: Suburbia. When secretive new neighbors move in next door, suburbanite Ray Peterson and his friends let their paranoia get the best of them as they start to suspect the newcomers of evil doings and commence an investigation.But it's hardly how Ray, who much prefers to drink beer, read his newspaper, and watch a ballgame on the tube, expected to spend his vacation.—purstris

This story takes place in a typical American neighborhood, when new neighbors come to live in the house next to Ray Peterson. These new people are really strange: nobody has ever seen them, their house is a real mess, and during the night weird noises keep coming from their basement. The only thing they know is their name: Klopek. One day Walter (an old man of the neighborhood) suddenly disappears and everyone starts to suspect the Klopeks.—Chris Makrozahopoulos <makzax@hotmail.com>

Ray Peterson takes a week off from work just to walk around in pajamas all day, read the newspaper, and lie low. However, Ray has some very peculiar neighbors. He actually has no "normal" neighbors, but one particular neighbor is especially strange. Therefore, Ray and the other neighbors decide to investigate what's wrong with the Klopeks, and the relaxing week off from work becomes something far from relaxing.—Lars J. Aas <larsa@colargol.edb.tih.no>

The Klopek family moves into an old house in a new neighborhood and act in very unusual ways. Everyone nearby is concerned about why these new people are acting strangely and the people have never seen them before. Plus, no one has greeted them for the month they've moved in there. Then three neighbors team up to see if they can figure out what is really going on with the Klopeks.—Atariman

The movie opens at night, on Mayfield Place, a Cul-De-Sac in the fictional suburban town of Hinkley Hills. Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) awakens to strange noises coming from the house of his mysterious new next-door neighbors, the Klopeks, and goes outside to investigate. On his way back inside, he sees the cigar-smoking Vietnam veteran Lt. Mark Rumsfield (Bruce Dern) watching the Klopeks' house from his bedroom window. The following morning, Ray watches Queenie, the dog of fellow neighbor Walter Seznick (Gale Gordon), defecate on Rumsfield's lawn. Then, we meet Ricky Butler (Corey Feldman), who lives across the street and is painting his house. Moments later, Rumsfield comes out and accidentally steps on it, causing a scene with Walter.

Later, Art Weingartner (Rick Ducommun), the Petersons' other next-door neighbor, almost kills Ray while attempting to shoot some crows, then invites himself into Ray's home for breakfast. Ray and Art attempt to speak with their new neighbors, but are thwarted by an attack of bees.

That evening, Art and Ray spy on the Klopeks with Rumsfield. With Ricky and his girlfriend watching them, the three men watch Hans Klopek (Courtney Gains) drive his dilapidated Pontiac from the garage to the curb, then pull a large, heavy garbage bag from the car, place it in a garbage can and bang it with a stick. During the night, Ray watches the Klopeks digging in their back yard with pick-axes in the middle of a rainstorm. The following morning, Art runs out to check the contents of the garbage truck as it is collecting the Klopeks' can from the previous night. He is soon joined by Rumsfield and Ray, but their search in the hope of finding human remains is futile.

Bonnie Rumsfield (Wendy Schaal) finds Queenie running loose and wonders if Walter went away and forgot to feed her. Ray, Art, Bonnie and Ricky go to Walter's house and Rumsfield, who removed a window pane, lets them in. Inside, they find Walter's toupee in the kitchen. Noting that the television was left on and a chair was turned over, Art and Rumsfield begin to worry. Ray collects Queenie and leaves a note for Walter explaining that he has his dog, seen by an older Klopek. The following night, Ray and Art have a meeting in the Petersons' basement and theorize about Walter's disappearance.

The following morning, Rumsfield and Art write a note to the Klopeks ("I know what you've done.") and slip it under their door. Art goes next door to tell Ray of the deed, which upsets him he was seen writing to Walter. As Ray talks to Art, Ray's dog Vince brings to them a bone he dug up from under the fence. Art identifies the bone as a femur, and believes it to belong to Walter. At the request of Carol (Carrie Fisher), Ray's wife, she, Ray, Rumsfield and Bonnie pay the Klopeks a visit. Art, intentionally not invited, snoops around in the Klopeks' back yard while the visitors meet Hans, Reuben (Brother Theodore) and Werner (Henry Gibson) inside. Later that evening, Ray has a meeting with Art and Rumsfield and reveals that he found Walter's toupee in the Klopeks' basement the previous day after he had earlier slipped it back through Walter's mail-slot. The trio agree to investigate the contents of the Klopeks' back yard when the owners leave in the morning.

As the Klopeks leave for a meeting at the university, Carol and son Dave (Cory Danziger) go to visit Carol's sister, Evelyn, leaving Ray free to explore the Klopeks' backyard. Their first order of business is to disable the Klopeks' security system. The result ends up almost electrocuting Art, but ends up disabling the alarm while also cutting off the power to the entire neighborhood. Art and Ray then jump over their fence into the Klopeks' yard while Rumsfield watches the proceedings from the roof of his house and Ricky invites his friends to watch Rumsfield. After hours of digging and finding nothing incriminating, Ray and Art venture into the Klopek house, where they discover in the basement a giant furnace with a capability of reaching a temperature of 5,000 degrees.

Ray then begins to dig into the loose soil that constitutes the basement floor, believing there may be dead bodies buried there. That evening, the Klopeks drive back to their home, only to reverse out when they see lights on in the basement. Not long after, Rumsfield, Art and Ricky are perturbed to see Walter return home. Then the Klopeks return with the police and Art tells Ricky to delay them while he goes into the Klopeks' home and rescues Ray. Ray hits a gas line with his pick-ax while continuing to dig out the basement floor. He yells for Art to flee right before the house explodes into flames with Ray still inside. A few minutes later, a disheveled Ray emerges from the flames just as his wife returns from dropping Dave at her sister's house.

Art talks to an officer, who explains that Walter had a medical problem and his family took him to the hospital. While away, Walter had made arrangements for the Klopeks to pick up his mail. When Ray had previously slipped the toupee back through the mail slot, it got picked up with the mail and newspapers. Ray is read the charges against him and ignores them in favor of admiring Carol's new hairstyle. Ray then snaps at Art and gives his "We're the lunatics, not them" speech, before lunging at Art and then throwing himself into an ambulance on a gurney.

As Ray has concluded that he and the neighbors were wrong about the Klopeks, Werner Klopek joins Ray in the ambulance a short while later. Werner, thinking Ray must have seen the skull of one of his former neighbors in the basement, attempts to murder Ray to collect his skull too, revealing that Art was right all along about the Klopeks. Hans assumes the role of the ambulance driver, but crashes into the Weingartners' house during the three-way struggle. The gurney, with Ray and Werner aboard, rolls out of the ambulance and down the street. Ray makes a citizen's arrest on his would-be murderer as Ricky uncovers a large selection of bones in the Klopeks' trunk. The Klopeks are then arrested and the charges against Ray are dropped.