Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals.
It’s that time of year when the internet sprouts more bizarre theories and newly discovered details about Home Alone. The John Hughes (Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club) and Chris Columbus (The Christmas Chronicles 2) venture premiered more than 30 years ago in November 1990. Despite critics at the time not loving the massive blockbuster, it remains a staple on nearly everyone’s Christmas watchlist. And on December 13, 2023, it was added to the 2023 Library of Congress National Film Registry.
Macaulay Culkin and his movie mom Catherine O’Hara had a mini reunion at his Walk of Fame ceremony, where the actress said, “Home Alone was, is, and always will be a beloved global sensation. The reason families all over the world can’t let a year go by without watching and loving Home Alone together is because of Macaulay Culkin.”
Home Alone opens with the utter chaos of a family with 15+ people (mostly kids) getting ready to travel from the Chicago suburbs to Paris, France. It’s the cozy home of Kate (Catherine O’Hara) and Peter McCallister (John Heard) that has a warm glow and a bizarrely red and green interior, presumably all year long.
Meanwhile, everyone ignores Harry (Joe Pesci), the burglar posing as a police officer posted up in the house, who could’ve just robbed the place then and there and no one would’ve noticed. He’s just as invisible as Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin), the precocious eight-year-old inexplicably hated by everyone in his immediate and extended family.
Within the first 15 or so minutes, his siblings and cousins call him a dope, an idiot, a phlegm wad, and a disease. After his older brother Buzz (Devin Ratray) teases him, Kevin is scolded for retaliating. The person I loathe the most is Uncle Frank (Gerry Bamman), who says, “Look what ya did, you little jerk.” Which is apparently acceptable as no one, not even Kevin’s parents, say anything about it.
Because everything is his fault, Kate escorts Kevin to the attic without dinner, an outrageous punishment for a child. The two exchange words; Kevin’s full-on brat at this point, but honestly, I get it. He goes to bed wishing everyone would just disappear and wakes up to find the house empty.
As temporary king of the castle, he does what many of us would do at eight years old — everything we’re not supposed to — jumping on the bed, going through his brother’s stuff, indulging in an impressive ice cream sundae, and watching violent movies like Angels with Filthy Souls (not a real movie by the way).
The wish fulfillment fantasy fades a little, and Kevin starts adulting: grocery shopping, doing laundry, and cooking for himself. In this sequence, we get Culkin’s iconic aftershave-induced scream face, which was an accident, according to director Chris Columbus. But as the holiday loneliness starts settling in, Kevin stares longingly at photos of his objectively awful family.
Watching old movies through an adult lens usually changes our previously held opinion on characters and situations. We’re usually not on the kid’s side anymore. But with Home Alone, the entire family has few redeeming qualities if any. When Kate finally realizes one of her children is missing, she does whatever she can to make sure he’s okay. Peter, however, is completely unbothered. He does call the Parisian police, but they are unsurprisingly ineffective.
We follow three journeys — Kevin’s home-alone situation, Kate’s frantic need to get back to him, and the dim-witted Wet Bandits, Harry and Marv (Daniel Stern), planning their Christmastime crimes. Instead of moving on to other robberies, they fixate on the McCallister house, determined to loot the place even though the family may or may not be there.
Due to his previous run-in with cops for accidentally shoplifting a toothbrush (I’m assuming), Kevin doesn’t call the police when he realizes two men are trying to break in. His DIY traps, fashioned from items foreshadowed in the beginning, start silly but get unnecessarily brutal very quickly. I mean, what’s his obsession with nail-related weapons?
Kevin’s sadistic turn had viewers theorizing he shows signs of a sociopath (don’t even get me started on the whole Saw theory). But the seemingly fatal traps only slow Harry and Marv down, and the straight-up Looney Tunes physical comedy that follows takes up most of the third act.
Hughes and Columbus had a second go-around with 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, but this time everyone’s heading to Florida for Christmas. Although Kevin actually makes it to the airport, he’s too focused on putting batteries in his TalkBoy (remember those?) to keep up, so this one’s on him.
He mistakenly travels to New York, objectively a much better location to spend the holidays. Kevin checks into the gorgeous Plaza Hotel, another warm and inviting locale that becomes frightening for a kid on his own. There’s an infamously useless eight-second cameo by someone who bullied their way into the film but we won’t talk about him.
Because of the dreamy setting and the addition of Tim Curry, I’ve always been partial to Home Alone 2. It’s essentially the same story. However, they were wise to stick with the winning formula established in the original which was a hit at the box office, while utilizing an increased budget. There’s even another Marley-like (Roberts Blossom) character, a misunderstood person alienated from society for Kevin to fear and then befriend — Pigeon Lady (Brenda Fricker). And it ends the same with him reuniting with his suddenly kindhearted family.
New York is also the perfect city for the usual hi jinks because no one bats an eye when two disheveled criminals (Harry and Marv escaped prison, by the way) chase after a kid. Once again, the Sticky Bandits (formerly known as the Wet Bandits) find themselves in several of Kevin’s hellish traps. But this time the venue is a vacant house under renovation, so even more sadistic destruction can go down.
The Plaza Hotel employees led by concierge extraordinaire Mr. Hector (Curry) are just more adults for Kevin to torture with his greatest hits including gangster film noir trickery and anything (toys, ice, marbles) that’ll have them slipping and launching into the air. And boy, do they fall a lot.
From John Williams’ whimsical score to the budding talent of Macaulay Culkin, Home Alone is undoubtedly one of the most iconic Christmas movies ever made. Even with all its slapstick violence it radiates a coziness that makes the timeless classic synonymous with the holiday season. And while the sequel doesn’t get the same Christmastime love, it’s still a top-notch follow-up more than worthy of a double feature.
Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York are currently streaming on Disney+.
