Home Alone: Uncle Frank Is A Criminal Mastermind & 9 Other Intriguing Fan Theories

Home Alone is one of the classics of the holiday season. The story of a young boy whose family accidentally strands him alone on Christmas has become a staple of the television during lineup during the holidays, and the film was largely responsible for making Macaulay Culkin one of the biggest child stars of the 1990s.

What you may not know is that this seemingly wholesome family film has also given rise to a truly staggering number of fan theories, ranging from the plausible to the far-fetched.

10  Uncle Frank Is A Criminal Mastermind

There’s no doubt that Uncle Frank is a very unpleasant character in both Home Alone and Home Alone 2, and he comes across as a man that is both incredibly selfish and very thoughtless. But what, this theory asks, if he is really a criminal mastermind? What if, in fact, he was the one pulling the strings of Harry and Marv during the course of the film? It’s an intriguing idea, and a very elaborate one. And, to be quite honest, it makes Frank a much more interesting figure than he is in the movie itself.

9 Peter Is In Organized Crime

There seems a real desire among the Home Alone fan base to see criminality around every corner, and that includes seeing Peter McCallister is part of organized crime. There are some compelling pieces of evidence in this theory, including the fact that we never really learn what it is that Peter does for a living. The most compelling piece of evidence that the poster uses is the fact that Peter seems to have an awful lot of money—and the McCallisters seem to live in an awfully nice house—so it’s definitely possible that there’s more to them than meets the eye.

8  The Devil Is In The Gus

One of the most unappreciated parts of Home Alone is the appearance of John Candy as Gus, an affable musician who gives Kevin’s mother the key that she needs to get back to her son. What if, even if we can’t see it, there’s something more sinister going on?

What if, in fact, Gus is really the devil at the crossroads? The evidence here is actually pretty compelling, including the fact that she says that she will literally sell her soul to the devil if it means that she can get back home to her son.

7 Gus Is Actually An Angel

On the flip side of the Gus dynamic, there is also the possibility that he’s Mrs. McCallister’s guardian angel. The evidence here is just as strong as that he’s a demon, and it’s particularly convincing that he appears over her right shoulder as soon as she says that she would sell her soul to get back to her son. Let’s be real. It’s definitely a much more Christmas-appropriate theory to think of Gus as a guardian angel, a little strain of It’s a Wonderful Life rather than “The Devil and Daniel Webster.”

6 History Repeats Itself

The film explicitly mentions that Peter and Frank are brothers, but it doesn’t really dive too deeply into their relationship. However, it’s definitely within the bounds of possibility that Peter and Frank had the same pathological dynamic in their childhood as Kevin and Buzz do in the present. It is very easy indeed to see Frank being a jerk to Buzz in their childhood, especially since he seems so intent to be a jerk to almost everyone in his life in the present (including, it should be noted, his wife).

5  Kevin Is A Kid Genius

Part of the humor of the Home Alone films is the fact that the adults are so abysmally stupid. While this is certainly true of the two thieves, it’s also rather true of pretty much every other adult in the film (with the possible exception of Old Man Marley). What if, instead of them being stupid, it’s actually true that Kevin is a genius and the entire film is distorted through his perception. This is an especially convincing theory, as it makes us rethink the entire way that we think about this film and what it shows us.

4 The Mysterious Case Of Fuller

One of the running gags in the film is the fact that Fuller, Kevin’s cousin, wets the bed and is thus to be avoided at all costs. Though wetting the bed is an unfortunate event what if, in this instance, Fuller did it only once so that he could get an entire bed to himself?

Given how successful he’s been in keeping everyone out of his bed, you can’t help but think that it’s deliberate. And if he is a sinister genius, then he definitely fits in with the rest of his dysfunctional family.

3 That’s Dark

Maybe it’s not the case that Fuller is a genius. Maybe it’s the darker, more sinister possibility that he’s actually the victim of abuse and that his wetting of the bed is actually a response to that. There’s not a great deal to go on here, but it is definitely plausible that Frank would treat his son badly, considering how willing he is to call Kevin a jerk in front of the entire family. This really brings out how dark this film really is, once you scratch off its surface humor.

2 Time Travel, Of Course

No set of theories about a given film would be complete without one that involves time travel. In this theory, Old Man Marley is, in fact, Kevin of the future, who has come back to 1990 in order to correct some of the worst parts of his childhood. It’s an intriguing theory, and it’s a pretty elaborately constructed idea. There are a few holes in it, true, but then all but the best constructed time travel plots are full of them. And if it’s true, what happened to Kevin with his future self’s interference?

1 And It Was All A Dream

The “it was all a dream” plot device is, perhaps one of the most overused ones in the history of popular entertainment. In this instance, however, it might just be true. This theory smartly points out that there’s really no physical evidence within the film to suggest that everything that happened in the house was anything other than a figment of bored Kevin’s imagination. Given that we already know that Kevin is a very precocious child with a vivid imagination, it seems entirely possible that he would have dreamed all of this up in order to overcome his boredom after being left at home.

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