From Home Alone to Shouldn't be left Home Alone with kids.

When I was 14 years old the local video shop in my home town went up in flames. Fortunately, the video shop was saved but many of the videos sustained 'smoke' damage and therefore the shop closed. The video shop itself soon become an Urban myth. The myth was as follows. Apparently if you knew where to look there was a way into the shop. It wasn't legal but it could be done with minimal effort. Before too long the the legendary VHS collection was beginning to be stripped from the shelves. Eventually the owner saved what was left by housing the collection in a storage unit. Many years later, while I was the owner of the local Cinema I was given an opportunity to come and collect the remaining VHS collection, my love for the format was well known in town and I guess the previous owner of the collection thought I would be the one to look after the collection now that he'd decided to pass it on. He was right, I did love the format and I still do. It was through obtaining this urban legend status VHS collection that I come about a forgotten gem, a diamond in the smoke damaged rough you might say.
The movie was titled The Good Son. If you haven't seen it and your a film fanatic than you should, it is however a piece of the darker side of cinema history. As of writing this it is currently available to watch in digital format on Google Play but unavailable every where else.  Luckily for me I had the VHS copy that was salvaged from the great video shop fire of the 1996 and luckily for me I had a projector that I could play the film on. So with a cup of Farmers Cottage Hot Chocolate I climbed onto the couch and pressed play on this sadistic little film. 
As the credits began rolling memories of having first experienced this film came flooding back. The first viewing happened purely by chance. We were on a family trip to Toowoomba, the closest city to my home town and when we arrived we decided to visit the local cinema to see what was playing. Fortunately for us there was a film starting within ten minutes of us having arrived and since we were pressed for time we decided to watch what was available within our time limit. And thats how it happened, thats how three sibling children were exposed to the evil that was The Good Son. It had only been a couple of years earlier that we had all watched Macaulay's Culkins more famous films Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.  And to be honest we all had high hopes of watching another enjoyable experience. We were however warned by the lady at the counter but we did not listen. All I remember from watching the movie all those years ago was that Macaulay Culkin played a sadistic little shit who deserved what was coming to him. It made me dislike the Home Alone kid and this evidently was not only dangerous to the Home Alone franchise but was dangerous to Macaulay Culkins future as an actor. If you want to see what has happened to his career since the release of the Good Son, click here. Don't get me wrong his Youtube comedy session was funny as hell but still a little weird right? Anyways we are getting off-track...
The plot to The Good Son is simple enough. Boys mom dies, boy goes to live with Aunty and Uncle while Dad goes off to work. Boy fits in well with new family at first but before too long the true nature of his evil cousin, played by Macaulay Culkin is soon revealed. Staring alongside Macaulay Culkin is a young Frodo Baggins aka Elijah Woods and both the boys are superbly acted. Macaulay's younger sister Quinn Culkin also stars in this film as his tormented fictional sister who's life is nearly always threatened by the demonic little shit that is her brother.
This film has it all, a bolt gun, a dead dog, a well, a bridge, an evil little shit and one hell of a cliff hanger. It is extremely well acted , in-fact it is so well acted you will soon forget that Macaulay Culkin was indeed the little boy from Home Alone. Viewers beware, this film is dark and a little over the top and totally off the cliff.