Top 10 Home Alone Facts That Will Ruin Your Childhood

Top 10 Home Alone Facts That Will Ruin Your Childhood

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Home Alone Facts That Will Ruin Your Childhood.

For this list, we’ll be looking at details about this Christmas classic that’ll leave both hands on your cheeks, screaming like Kevin.

Do you have any “Home Alone” trivia to share? Let us know in the comments.

#10: The Wet Bandits Would’ve Died in Real Life

Like “Looney Tunes” and “Three Stooges,” “Home Alone” lives by the philosophy that the more painful the slapstick looks, the bigger the laugh. While the audience feels Harry and Marv’s suffering, their injuries look minor given everything they endure. Harry’s scalp would’ve been horribly scarred from the flamethrower trap while Marv would be left with more than just an imprint from the falling iron. If those traps didn’t kill them, the numerous slips and paint cans to the head would’ve. The question isn’t whether or not they would’ve survived Kevin’s house of horrors. It’s how many times they would’ve died! Several doctor reaction videos can attest to this. Kids may accept the Wet Bandits bouncing back, but they wouldn’t have lived to see the sequel.

#9: Chris Farley’s Failed Audition

It’s bittersweet watching “Home Alone” knowing that it’s one of John Candy’s last movies. The film almost featured a second comedy giant who we lost far too soon: Chris Farley. No, Farley wasn’t up to play Gus Polinski, but another jolly guy. Well, not that jolly. We all remember the disgruntled Santa impersonator that Kevin meets. He was played by Second City’s Ken Hudson Campbell in his debut film role. Farley also auditioned, but according to Chris Columbus, “he was not in particularly great shape.” Columbus personally knew Farley and thought he was the “sweetest guy.” Farley was seemingly exhausted, though, and the audition flopped. As funny as Campbell is here, Columbus thinks Farley also could’ve been great. It’s one performance we’ll sadly never see.

#8: “Angels with Filthy Souls” Isn’t a Real Movie

Arguably the most violent moment in “Home Alone” isn’t any of the booby traps, but the gangster flick “Angels with Filthy Souls.” Don’t you love what they could get away with in early 90s PG movies? The only downside is that the film doesn’t really exist. This snippet of the black-in-white movie within a movie was shot in just a day specifically “Home Alone.” Even more disappointing, we were deprived of a clever callback. In a scene that didn’t make the cut, the crime film would’ve been playing at a prison with Harry and Marv realizing that Kevin duped them again. The good news is that the film was inspired by a James Cagney classic, “Angels with Dirty Faces.” Just keep 8-year-old eyes away.

#7: Kevin’s Treehouse is No More

For most of the interior shots, the filmmakers constructed sets in New Trier High School’s gymnasium and swimming pool. This school was also used as a shooting location for another John Hughes production, “Uncle Buck.” While much of the mayhem occurred on sound stages, a real suburban house was used for the exterior shots. Anyone who wants to see the McCallister household can drive by 671 Lincoln Avenue, Winnetka, Illinois. The house - owned by the Abendshien family at the time of filming - hasn’t drastically changed since the 90s. Fans will notice a key piece missing, though: Kevin’s treehouse. This set piece was made just for the movie and got dismantled immediately after. So, any visitors hoping to take a zipline ride are in for a letdown.

#6: Buzz, Your Girlfriend, Woof!

Rummaging through his older brother’s belongings, Kevin stumbles upon a framed photo of his girlfriend, delivering this line. As funny as Macaulay Culkin’s reaction is, even the filmmakers realized that it would be too mean-spirited to cast a girl for this one-joke role where her appearance was the punchline. Columbus knew it’d make the actress “feel bad for the rest of her life.” According to Devin Ratray, who played Buzz, his character’s girlfriend was portrayed by the son of the film’s art director, Dan Webster. Webster’s son was in on the joke and was more than happy to participate. Of course, Ratray suspects that he might’ve had second thoughts about accepting the gig had he known what a colossal hit “Home Alone” would become.

#5: The Tarantula on Marv’s Face Was Real

In addition to criticizing Buzz’s girlfriend, Kevin accidentally destroys his brother’s room and releases his pet tarantula. This works out well for Kevin, as the tarantula provides a quick getaway when Marv snatches him. Nowadays, that spider probably would’ve been CGI. In the 90s, you’d think they’d use a practical effect. According to Daniel Stern, the filmmakers were going to use a mechanical tarantula when Kevin puts the hairy spider on Marv’s face. On the day of shooting, Stern found out that the replica looked too fake. So, they turned to the real deal. While an animal wrangler was present, they couldn’t remove the tarantula’s poison because it would die. Thankfully, the tarantula wasn’t startled by Stern’s high-pitched scream since it didn’t have ears.

#4: Columbus Gets a Lesson on How Not to Parent

For all the laughs Macaulay Culkin brought, his childhood wasn’t the easiest. This was largely due to his reportedly cruel father, Kit Culkin. When “Home Alone” was in production, Columbus didn’t have a ton of experience in the parenting department yet. Thus, Culkin’s real-life family environment wasn’t the first thing that came to mind. As the filmmakers started hearing “hair-raising” stories about the Culkins, Columbus realized his movie’s star had “a troubled family life.” This only became more apparent to Columbus in 1995 when the Culkins entered a bitter custody battle. Columbus said at the time, “If I were a kid, I’d want my parents to be fighting for custody of me because they love me--not for my money. It’s a little bit depressing.”

#3: Wet Bandits Struggle to Keep it PG

Being an early 90s PG movie, “Home Alone” got away with more casual swearing than you’d hear nowadays. This is one of the most restrained projects in Joe Pesci’s filmography, however. Being a frequent collaborator of Martin Scorsese, Pesci was used to dropping profanities every other sentence. According to Columbus, Pesci memorized his dialogue by putting a certain four-lettered at the end of each line. Then when the cameras rolled, Pesci uttered Yosemite Sam-esque gibberish to express Harry’s pain, but we all know what words he was thinking of. Honestly, anybody who took one down there would swear up a storm in reality. Daniel Stern also had trouble keeping it family-friendly with one accidental slip of a swear word making it into the movie.

#2: Stunt People, Unsung Heroes

Audiences still laugh themselves silly watching the Wet Bandits pratfall through the McCallister house. For the people on set, though, the experience was beyond nerve-wracking. The film’s stunt crew included Troy Brown doubling for Joe Pesci, Leon Delaney doubling for Daniel Stern, and Larry Nicholas doubling for Macaulay Culkin. Brown, in particular, described the experience as a lot of fun, but when Harry slipped on the icy stairs, the rest of the crew was terrified. Columbus even thought to himself, “this guy is not alive,” but Brown assured him that he was fine afterward. While the stunt guys were troopers throughout, Columbus recalled Nicholas getting jitters when Kevin fell from the collapsing shelves. We imagine Nicholas had more fun riding Kevin’s sled downstairs.

#1: Joe Pesci Actually Bit Macaulay Culkin’s Finger

Nine-year-old Macaulay Culkin could’ve used a stunt double for the scene where Harry and Marv finally catch Kevin. Hanging Kevin on the door, Harry prepares to bite off his tormenter’s fingers. Luckily, Old Man Marley shows up just in time to whack the Wet Bandits with his shovel. That was a real shovel according to Troy Brown, but the real pain came during rehearsals when Pesci apparently got a little too into character. Culkin claims that Pesci actually bit his finger and he still has the toothmark to prove it. Taking pride in his battle wound, Culkin doesn’t think Pesci intended to bite down that hard. Still, Columbus couldn’t help but suspect that there might’ve been a little “professional jealousy” on Pesci’s part.