Treading similar ground to David Lynch's 1986 film Blue Velvet though in a markedly different tone, Joe Dante's riff on suburban dysfunction is an unhinged summertime delight. Tom Hanks gives one of his best comic performances as Ray Peterson, a man spurred into increasingly irrational action by his manic and paranoid neighbours, who have collectively become convinced the new arrivals to the neighbourhood are Satanic psychopaths. With a stellar supporting cast (including Bruce Dern, Dick Miller and Carrie Fisher) it has the anarchy of Gremlins and the bite of The Howling.

Every month 20th Century Flicks Video Shop select a favourite film from their massive archive that has been overlooked, under-screened or just plain misunderstood.