Home Alone

January 2, 2026

Home Alone, baby!! Just in time for the HOLIDAYS!!!!!!!!!!

I've never watched Home Alone and the closest I got to watching it was through NorthernLion complaining about how sadistic the kid is. I forget the particulars, but this sadism is apparently more prominent in Home Alone 2. (No spoilers, please). And how Kevin's neighbor, the one who is rumored to kill children, is Jesus. (This is true. The second part at least).

It's a good movie.

Most of all, it's a good live-action kids movie. It's a grim reminder that children's entertainment has gone to hell. The modern day equivalent of Home Alone... well, I don't even have to grasp to find an example. Searching up Home Alone and sorting by views shows homemade recreations by "family channels" and "Dharr" "Mann." But I digress.

For all the hype that the scenes of Kevin's torturing gets, it was the most boring part of the film for me. Sure, maybe if I watched it blind, I'd be like, "Damn!" like everyone else.

But how can anyone discount the setup to it? Kevin's ingenuity comes out way before he's lighting heads on fire and setting spiders atop prone bodies. He's also doing stuff like making dancing automatons to look like the house is full and sliding on ice to get away with stealing a toothbrush.

There's a sense of wonder that comes from traversing the house and world through Kevin's eyes. Combined with the setting of Christmastime, where people have (more of) a reason to feel upspirited and the land is decorated with a blanket of snow and lights everywhere to see, it makes for such a nice cozy feeling. You see this with the guy hired as Santa, just finishing his shift and finally getting to smoke, immediately putting out his cigarette to play along with Kevin's request to ask the real Santa something.

The holiday season isn't anything. It doesn't guarantee goodness, but maybe it makes it easier to see the world through a lighter lens. It isn't always going to be like this, it's more like a view of what things could be. While its existence can hurt, it's not supposed to be a reminder of how horrible things are, but a reminder that there's a possibility to strive towards.

Something like that.

My last thought on this movie is that the mom escaped the Kenosha Kickers in too good of a state. She could have suffered a bit more, psychologically speaking. That's just what I think.