One of the earliest films of this type was Orson Welles's The Stranger (1946). In this film Welles plays Franz Kindler, a fugitive Nazi war criminal who has assumed a false identity and is living in a college community in Connecticut. The tranquillity of this community is upset by an outsider, and the ensuing chain of events exposes Kindler. The film reveals, however, that all of the main characters are strangers in their own ways. An air of suspicion pervades this community, leading people to conceal their true natures. [1]

The Stepford Wives (1975) is one of the few films to deal directly with gender relations in suburbia. The men of the suburban city of Stepford have conspired to replace their wives with sexually submissive, mindless lookalike robots. The film was regarded by some as a feminist picture, but it fails in this respect because, as John Simon puts it, "one of the wives is almost smart enough to avert her doom!" [2] The film reinforces the powerlessness of women, and simply preys on women's fears. The point of these films, along with dark comedies such as Neighbors (1981), Parents (1989), The 'Burbs (1989), and Serial Mom (1994), is that idyllic suburban communities cannot possibly be what they appear to be. Something must be wrong, perhaps even sinister in the way such communities function. Serial Mom kills her neighbors for not conforming. In The 'Burbs, Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) and neighbors become obsessed by the strange goings on in their new neighbors' house. Parents presents an even more twisted view of suburbia. The parents in Parents are cannibals who feed their child human meat, telling him it is "leftovers." What the film suggests is that in the effort to keep up with the Joneses, consumers are literally devouring one another.

How has the cinematic depiction of suburbia moved so far away from the image of refuge so widely portrayed in films in the years following World War II? Suburbia is often envied for many aspects of its lifestyle, especially when compared to the environment of a large city. Lower crime rates, cleaner air, homogeneous settings, home ownership, and good schools have drawn millions of Americans to this middle landscape. In the arts, however, cities continue dominate their suburban neighbors. The arts were never a part of the lure of suburbia, so, as C.G. Vasiliadis points out, "the relative absence of culture in suburbia is one of the major reasons for its stereotyped image of blandness." [3] Many films take the attitude that suburbia is simply a site for mindless consumerism with little regard for the plight of the neighboring cities. Suburbia, with its focus on self-gratification, bears the burden of responsibility for the violence and injustice of our society. Movies engaged in social commentary have meshed well with this outlook, emphasizing the emptiness of the lives of those who reside in the suburbs, despite their material comfort. On the other side of the issue, Brett w. Hawkins and Stephen L. Percy argue that stereotyped images of suburbs are also present in academic research. They point out that suburbs are not homogeneous and many have experienced decline, while policies of exclusion are also present within central cities. They argue that bias in suburban research is reinforced by central city politicians who "bash" the suburbs for political gain, and by academics who wish to promote cosmopolitan culture and because a larger central authority would facilitate income redistribution. Hawkins and Percy would argue that films critical of suburban life are merely promoting this left-wing, cosmopolitan agenda.