SUBURBIA has always offered rich pickings to those wishing to shine a comical light on American society and its well hidden underbelly.

All those perfect white picket fences, neat and tidy cul-de-sacs full of big houses peopled with aspirational neighbours desperate to show off their fancy cars and neatly trimmed hedgerows just screams out for satirical re-invention. The 'Burbs first arrived on cinema screens in 1989 but a brand new Blu-ray release from Arrow Video proves how much quality comedy material can be squeezed out of that middle class world. The cul-de-sac in question here is Mayfield Place and the seemingly all American residents are the focus of a satire that is both very much of its time yet oddly still relevant today.

At the forefront of these characters are hard working everyman Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks), his dim-witted friend Art (Rick Ducommun) and their war veteran neighbour Lt Rumsfield (Bruce Dern). All seems hunky dory in the residents' world, bar a huge Gothic mansion that looms large over their cheery surroundings.

Inhabited by the mysterious Klopeks - three oddball outsiders who are forever digging up their garden in the dead of night and generally behaving suspiciously - the house is bringing down the neighbourhood and the good citizens of the area make it their business to find out why.

Joe Dante knows how to make a quality comedy and imbues our trips into the gloomy mansion with a kind of 1930s creepiness that's both fresh and funny. Shadows loom at windows, horrible creaking noises emanate from basements and blokes in dungarees lope clumsily along just like Leatherface in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

If the mood is Abbot and Costello Meet The Monster then much of the comedy on offer is of a similarly simple nature. Good oldfashioned slapstick is the name of the game here and barely a minute of screen time passes without a traditional pratfall, comedy explosion or cartoon-like chase taking place. Al the cast have tons of fun here with Tom Hanks in particular proving himself to be a natural for this sort of comic capering.

While everything plays out with a good-natured cartoonish attitude - so much so that you can easily imagine a feature length Tex Avery animation of the film - there are a few pertinent points being made here as well. Ray is essentially a coward whose life around the house is clearly forced upon him when he loses his job (something he doesn't get round to telling his family), Art is a traditional bully forcing his will on others and Rumfield is a blustering military type who's incapable of listening to anyone else's viewpoint bar his own. The witch-hunt they instigate seems sadly relevant today as well. There are excellent extras on offer in this re-issue including a full length Making Of documentary that is genuinely funny and revealing at the same time. There are commentaries, Dante's original working cut of the film and much more besides but, as always, it's the film that really matters.

As a dark, mirth making satire on American middle class values The 'Burbs delivers.