Unable to find a job that utilizes his new MBA, Raymond is forced to move back hometo live with his parents. His mother Eve is ecstatic about this and can't wait for him to arrive, while his father Donald believes Raymond to be a complete and utter disappointment and frequently berates him about this. To make matters worse, it seems that most of his high school classmates stayed in town and none of them are willing to let him forget that he was previously an overweight loser with a belief in the paranormal. Raymond does manage to connect with his former classmate Becca, who works as a local bartender. Things take a turn for the strange when the body of a young girl is unearthed in his parents' backyard during some construction, which ends up awakening a spirit intent on harvesting the souls of everyone in the town.
Cast
Matthew Gray Gubler as Raymond
Kat Dennings as Becca Thompson
Ray Wise as Donald
Barbara Niven as Eve
Muse Watson as Ambrose
Sally Kirkland as Virginia
Mel Rodriguez as Hector
Jeffrey Combs as Dr. Carpenter
John Waters as Cornelius
Ronnie Gene Blevins as Pope
Jack Plotnick as Cousin Freddy
Ray Santiago as Alberto
Shanola Hampton as Ticona
Mackenzie Phillips as Mrs. Richards
Mckenna Grace as Zelda
Jessica Camacho as Noelle
Reception
Critical reception for Suburban Gothic was mixed, with review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes assigning a score of 62% and an average rating of 6.05 out of 10. Frequent elements of praise centered upon the film's acting and script, which Film School Rejects cited as a highlight. Shock Till You Drop gave a predominantly positive review, but commented that they would like to see Bates "drop the humor and go right for the throat with a scary haunted house film or supernatural thriller." The Hollywood Reporter was more negative in their review, criticizing it for " out of steam in its second half" and stating that the romance between Gubler and Dennings was unsatisfying and that "The perfunctory resolution to their would-be romance is no more gratifying than a climax in which both spirit-world drama and Raymond's domestic conflict are wrapped up in a single tidy event." At Screamfest 2014, Gubler received an award for Best Actor for his performance.
