Wow, was this movie a find! As it has no official video release in the United States as of this writing, I had to make do with a blurry VHS rip on YouTube, but even in lower quality, this was still a suspenseful, dreamlike Christmas movie unlike anything I've ever seen. And yes, that includes HOME ALONE.
The director of this movie felt HOME ALONE was a ripoff of CODE PERE NOEL, but aside from the broadest possible definition of the premise (a kid uses booby traps and resourcefulness to fend off a home invader while his parent(s) are away during Christmas Eve), the two films could not be more different. HOME ALONE is above all else, a comedy. You never really believe the Wet Bandits will actually kill Kevin or be able to hurt him, even when they threaten to bite his fingers off. But the psychopathic mall Santa in this movie? Oh boy, the filmmakers let you know early on he isn't above harming children or killing the innocent.
CODE PERE NOEL may as well be a children's horror movie: it's paced like a slasher film and the way the suspense ramps up quickly makes it headier fare than HOME ALONE for sure. There is also a sense of the loss of innocence in the young protagonist's ordeals: he loses his beloved pet dog to the killer's knife and almost loses his grandfather as well. Mortality is very much a presence here, giving the story more weight, almost suggesting a fairy tale where the child hero becomes aware for the first time of the presence of evil in the world.
And yet, even the villain has his sympathetic side. He reminded me a bit of Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster, both able to kill yet lonely on an almost ontological level, little more than a child himself mentally. He is as much a loner looking for someone to love him as a beast bent on destruction, making his relationship with the protagonist much more complicated.
Anyway, enough gushing: this movie is excellent. Shout Factory should get on giving it a bluray release here in the States.
The director of this movie felt HOME ALONE was a ripoff of CODE PERE NOEL, but aside from the broadest possible definition of the premise (a kid uses booby traps and resourcefulness to fend off a home invader while his parent(s) are away during Christmas Eve), the two films could not be more different. HOME ALONE is above all else, a comedy. You never really believe the Wet Bandits will actually kill Kevin or be able to hurt him, even when they threaten to bite his fingers off. But the psychopathic mall Santa in this movie? Oh boy, the filmmakers let you know early on he isn't above harming children or killing the innocent.
CODE PERE NOEL may as well be a children's horror movie: it's paced like a slasher film and the way the suspense ramps up quickly makes it headier fare than HOME ALONE for sure. There is also a sense of the loss of innocence in the young protagonist's ordeals: he loses his beloved pet dog to the killer's knife and almost loses his grandfather as well. Mortality is very much a presence here, giving the story more weight, almost suggesting a fairy tale where the child hero becomes aware for the first time of the presence of evil in the world.
And yet, even the villain has his sympathetic side. He reminded me a bit of Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster, both able to kill yet lonely on an almost ontological level, little more than a child himself mentally. He is as much a loner looking for someone to love him as a beast bent on destruction, making his relationship with the protagonist much more complicated.
Anyway, enough gushing: this movie is excellent. Shout Factory should get on giving it a bluray release here in the States.