Home Alone has the same plot as a French movie released the Christmas before

Home Alone is a Christmas classic, as well as being one of the most successful movies of all time. But the year before its 1990 release, a much nastier festive flick hit screens, with a very similar plot.

Home Alone is a film with twin storylines. The first concerns the McCallister family preparing to spend Christmas in Paris, but oversleeping on the day they are due to travel, waking up in a panic, rushing to the airport, boarding their flight, and taking off before the mom realises they’ve left eight-year-old Kevin at home.

The second story strain sees Kevin waking up to no parents, and having a wild time while on his lonesome, until a pair of thieves try to break into his house. At which point Kevin turns protector and enforcer as he defends the home via a series of traps.

It hit screens on November 16, 1990, and went on to gross nearly $500 million, from a budget of just $18 million. But if you lived in France at the time, you would have found it strangely reminiscent of a film released the previous year…

Home Alone has the same plot as Deadly Games

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Deadly Games is a French film that was called 3615 Code Père Noël when it first started screening in May of 1989, which became Dial Code Santa Claus internationally, and then Deadly Games.

The film also tells two stories – one about a lonely boy called Thomas who misses his late father, and handles his grief by disappearing into the world of Hollywood action movies. While when the story begins on December 24th, Thomas is using his computer to try and communicate with Father Christmas.

The other concerns a disturbed homeless man who lands a job as a Santa at the store where Thomas’s mother works. He soon loses that job for slapping a child, then steals the Santa suit, paints his hair and beard white, and heads for Thomas’s home, with murder on his mind.

Thomas initially thinks that he’s the real Santa, until the man murders his dog. Then, it’s quite literally on, with Thomas aping his action heroes by going into combat mode, using a bunch of gadgets – and setting a series of traps – to take the psychotic Santa down.

Meaning the second half of the movie is near-identical to Home Alone, though the tone is more downbeat, the violence more extreme, and the ending more disturbing than the heartwarming American version.

Dial Code Santa Claus director tried to sue

Home Alone writer John Hughes said he had never seen the French film, while 20th Century Fox also denied any similarity between the movies.

But that didn’t stop writer-director René Manzor from calling foul play, with a New York Times article claiming he threatened legal action against the studio, while there are also reports that he unsuccessfully tried to settle out of court.

But the film got Manzor noticed in America, and he was soon working with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on The Adventures of Indiana Jones.

While although Deadly Games didn’t gross Home Alone money, a cult has built around the movie in the intervening years, with a restoration playing festivals and theaters in 2018 courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive, and the film now regularly popping up on streaming services.

So if you fancy changing things up from your annual Home Alone watch this Christmas – and don’t mind something a good deal darker – give Deadly Games/Dial Code Santa Claus a go. Or for more festive recommendations, check out our list of best Christmas movies ever.