Review – Home Alone

In honour of this magnificent picture’s 25^th anniversary, we are treated to a sumptuous remaster at the cinema.

I trust anyone with any interest in modern cinema will have seen this stark vigilante classic but the opportunity to devour its cold brutality on the big screen is something to be treasured.

I make my way into the bright winter’s morning, sunlight slicing the through the chill air like the lasers of a fictional alien might slice through some ham.

Horrified, I find the cinema full of children. I am aghast that parents would feel comfortable with their offspring witnessing a psychotic small boy torturing to men for his own entertainment.

The film begins and immediately I am sucked into this dreadful seasonal world of nihilism.

The parents casual disregard of their son signals the future horror he will go onto inflict.

Freed from the familial structure the boy descends into feral madness and crime, first talking to the cellar heater and then stealing a toothbrush.

But, in a stunning and audacious move. The boy goes on to protect his neighbourhood, his madness channelled into an orgy of violence meted out to the hapless criminals in a morally dubious finale that recalls Scorsese’s magnificent Taxi Driver.

The film still feels relevant today and is a clear precursor to Haneke’s work and the nightmarish We Need To Talk About Kevin (The names of the titular characters surely no coincidence)

I leave the cinema emotionally shattered as ever.

The carcass of a badger lies at the side of the road.

Somehow, I am not surprised.

Screen Idle star rating ***** The bit when Kevin hits the man in the face with an iron is well funny.