We continue our 31 frights of Halloween with The Good Son from 1993. Mark (Elijah Wood), a young boy who loses his mother, must stay with his extended family while his father is away on business. Mark becomes acquainted with his cousin Henry (Macaulay Culkin). However, the extent of Henry’s depravity becomes clear when Mark sees him kill a neighbor’s dog and intentionally create a traffic pileup on the highway. After a supposed mishap on an icy pond with Henry’s sister Connie (Quinn Culkin), Mark tries to reveal Henry’s crimes before it’s too late.
Everybody knows Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone, but how many people know him as a killer? Culkin, at the time, was playing funny, adorable kid characters, but this was really something special. It was a chance for him to play against type. The movie does a good job at delivering suspense throughout, with the idea that a child shouldn’t be capable of doing so many evil things.
What I like about this movie is that they don’t try to hide the fact that Macaulay is evil. As soon as he is on screen, you know something is wrong with him. He starts off causing minor accidents here and there, where one could maybe believe he is doing things just because he is a kid. The whole time, you know something is off, though.
Elijah Wood is who makes this movie. His performance is so believable. He plays Mark, who has sadly just lost his mother. He is traumatized, and when he is sent to live with his aunt and uncle, he feels it’s a way to be close to family. When he realizes that Macaulay is evil, he does all he can to save the family that he only just met. This is where most of the scares come from. Elijah Wood is so likable that you don’t want him to be blamed for things, and you don’t want anything to happen to him.
The Good Son is a movie that people do not think about when they think of Macaulay Culkin. It’s a shame because it is a solid thriller from beginning to end. We get a kid to root for, a kid to hate, and one of the most suspenseful endings of all time. Check it out if you haven’t.
The Good Son is available to watch on Amazon Prime.
Come back tomorrow for some more spooky reviews.
