Earl Keese (John Belushi) is used to his quiet life in the suburbs, but after 16 years, his life has become a bit boring a predictable, and he and his wife Enid (Kathryn Walker) just seem to be going through the motions. However, all that changes when some crazy, obnoxious new neighbors move into the house at the end of the street.

Earl doesn’t have any friends, so he is excited to meet the new neighbors, but is thrown aback when Ramona (Cathy Moriarty) starts hitting on him from the moment they meet. She immediately makes herself at home, making her way into his bedroom. And her husband Vic (Dan Aykroyd) is even more of an oddball, fast-talking Earl into giving him $32 to buy some food and loaning him his car, all within minutes of their first meeting. Earl quickly realizes he was conned, but his attempts to catch Vic in his lie just make things worse. The more he interacts with this couple, things just keep getting crazier and crazier, and Vic starts to question his own sanity. In one moment he wants nothing to do with the couple, but in the next he finds himself oddly drawn to them, even as things get progressively more insane.

I have a feeling this is a very polarizing movie. The tone of the film is quite unique, mixing the Twilight Zone theme into the score, making it feel like a mystery-horror. I’m sure it has its die hard cult fans who love it, but I was not one of them. There were some moments I did find funny, but I mostly found it bizarre just for the sake of being bizarre, like a bad SNL skit that just went on for way too long. To me it felt like a farcical play with constant misunderstandings and a situation that just kept getting increasingly more awkward and confusing. After one meeting with Vic and Ramona, any sane person would have just closed their door and never contacted those neighbors again. I don’t know what drew Earl to keep going back to these annoying and obnoxious people, unless he had some kind of Stockholm Syndrome feeling towards them.

Neighbors had been previously released on Blu-ray as part of the Sony Pictures Choice Collection, an on-demand BD-R disc format. Mill Creek has now released a much more affordable version on a standard pressed Blu-ray, with the contents of the disc seemingly the same. This is great news for fans of the film, and definitely the time to pick this up for those who felt the original Sony release was priced too high. The Blu-ray release provides a solid video presentation that looks quite good with minimal film grain. The film doesn’t feel nearly 40 years old. There was nothing really remarkable about the audio track, but it does provide clear dialog and showcases the film’s unique score nicely. There is no bonus material or digital copy included. The Blu-ray comes packed in a standard HD keepcase with a fun retro cardboard slipcover made to look like a VHS tape.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:35:08)

• 1080p / Widescreen 1.85:1
• Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio,
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:

There is no bonus material included

Final Thoughts:

Neighbors is a bizarre film that will likely be hit-or-miss, even for fans of Aykroyd and Belushi. Mill Creek has done a nice job of re-releasing Sony’s previous on-demand BD-R release on a standard disc and at a much more affordable price. Though, there is still no bonus material included. Mill Creek has also included one of their fun retro 1980s VHS slipcovers. This comes recommended for fans of the film as the video and audio presentation are pretty solid, but new viewers may wish to rent this odd film first.