Saturday Night Live opened one of its Christmas sketches with a surprisingly faithful reset of Home Alone.
With all of the recognizable sets in place, from the exterior of the house to the foyer, staircase, dining room, and Kevin’s bedroom, everything feels warm and familiar. At the center is a genuinely convincing Kevin McCallister, played by Ariana Grande with an earnestness that immediately sells the premise. (Is there anything she can’t do?)
The parody begins almost beat for beat like the original film’s ending. Kate McCallister arrives home frantic and emotionally exhausted, she calls out for her son. When Kevin appears the reunion is warm relieved and intentionally sincere. For a moment SNL lets the audience settle into the comfort of a familiar holiday ending.
Moments later the rest of the McCallister family pours in and everything still tracks with the movie that audiences know by heart. It feels like the sketch might simply be a loving homage until Kevin has a realization that changes the tone entirely.
Kevin has not taken down the booby traps.
Worse he has upgraded them.
What follows is a fast escalation as each family member unknowingly triggers Kevin’s amped up defenses. The sketch leans hard into contrast the cheerful homecoming colliding with increasingly horrifying consequences. Each entrance raises the stakes pushing the parody further from slapstick and deeper into absurd over the top chaos.
Just as the situation appears completely out of control the sketch pivots. The carnage is revealed to be a figment of Kate McCallister’s exhausted imagination, a parental spiral born from the very real fear of what Kevin might have done to protect the house.
Relief sets in briefly.
Then the neighbor arrives.
That final beat flips the switch one last time injecting real mayhem and ending the sketch on a sharp unexpected turn.
The result is a clever, concise, high energy take on a classic.
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