Advertisement

What if the ‘Home Alone’ trailer were more honest?

It wouldn’t be the holidays without at least one viewing of “Home Alone.” Since its release in 1992, the family film about a plucky young boy (Macaulay Culkin) left at home by himself over Christmas vacation has become a holiday standard, thanks in large part to frequent airings on television in the years since.

It’s a classic, sure, but when you really start think about “Home Alone,” it's immediately clear just how messed up the movie actually is. For all its big laughs and memorable moments, “Home Alone” is, at its core, a film about serious parental negligence, juvenile delinquency, and the cruel and unusual punishment of criminals. Yes, nothing says the holidays quite like child endangerment and attempted murder!

That’s precisely the tack that the folks at Screen Junkies decided to take with their latest “Honest Trailer,” a no-holds-barred assessment of "Home Alone" done in the form of a fake trailer. In it, they illustrate how Kevin McCallister’s behaviour might indicate that he’s a sociopath, how universally awful his family is towards him, and the pain and suffering that the young boy inflicts on the truly hapless crooks Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel “The Voice from ‘The Wonder Years’” Stern). You may never look at this holiday classic the same way again.

The fake trailer also serves as a tear-inducing reminder for viewers of just how heart-warmingly sappy the scenes involving the McCallister's elderly neighbour Marley (Roberts Blossom) were. Excuse us, we have something in our eye.