When the Klopeks move into a run-down house in an otherwise spick-and-span suburb, Tom Hanks - playing a one-man neighbourhood watch scheme - starts to fret and frown. Just what are the Klopeks up to, digging in the garden and making all those clanking noises at night? They're so creepy, they may well be related to the Addams family. This light-hearted and often very funny comedy is an askew parable about small-town America, with Hanks as the ultimate conformist surrounded by weirdos. Director Joe Dante, who made Gremlins, excels at this sort of thing and delivers an intriguing picture, even though it threatens to stray into David Lynch territory but ultimately cops out. Bruce Dern and Carrie Fisher offer fine support to the affable Hanks.

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 evildoings and commence an investigation. But it's hardly how Ray, who much prefers drinking beer, reading his newspaper and watching a ball game on the tube expected to spend his vacation.