Joe Dante, by this point in his career, had moved more into comedy and science fiction, but his return to dark comedy would prove to be bit uneven.
Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) is your average white collar guy. He has a week off from work, and he'd like nothing more to relax, maybe bum around the house. His wife Carol (Carrie Fisher) is equally mellow, but their next door neighbor Art Weingartner (Rick Ducommun), after raiding their fridge and generally pestering them, brings up a new issue of concern.
First, they have a new family that moved into the old house next door to Ray. The Klopeks seem...odd. Dr. Klopek (Henry Gibson) is antisocial at best. Uncle Reuben (Brother Theodore) has the tendency to only take out the trash at night, but only after beating the sack thoroughly with a hoe. Hans (Courtney Gains) just seems like a creep.
Sure, they're odd, but there's nothing illegal about being odd, is there? Except that the Klopek's neighbor Walter (Gale Gordon) vanishes without a trace. Even his toupee was left behind. Ray tries to spin it off as normal, but Art seems convinced that the Klopeks have done something with or to Walter.
Then they find a femur in the backyard. Can Ray get to the bottom of the mystery without going crazy? Is there even a mystery?
Like I said, uneven. Art seems like the type of neighbor who only exists in sitcoms. The jokes seem to be building to a massive twist, then subvert that at the last minute with a 'nope, the story is going exactly where you think'.
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