Not far removed from capturing the hearts of America in the Home Alone movies, child star Macaulay Culkin pivoted to horror with The Good Son. Lots of young actors have taken Hollywood by storm over the years, with some going on to successful adult careers, and others flaming out due to substance abuse and other personal issues. For a while, it seemed like Culkin was headed down that path, ending up in legal trouble, and having a childhood post-stardom that wasn’t exactly happy.
Thankfully, Culkin has managed to get his life on the right track in more recent times, carving out a respectable adult career as an actor, and seemingly overcoming his issues with drugs. Culkin will soon join the cast of American Horror Story season 10, although it’s unclear what kind of role he’ll play, or how big it will be. Still, being part of AHS is a huge opportunity for Culkin to raise his stock back up in the entertainment game.
Either way though, Culkin will likely never be bigger than he was as a kid, and that’s okay. Thanks to the success of films like Home Alone and My Girl, Culkin was legitimately one of the biggest stars in the world back in the early 1990s. Culkin specialized in playing cute, likeable characters, which is why his villainous turn in The Good Son felt so odd at the time.
Good Son: Why Macaulay Culkin Starred in Horror After Home Alone
In The Good Son, Macaulay Culkin plays Henry Evans, a 12-year-old boy with psychopathic and sociopathic tendencies who it’s revealed later on in the film actually murdered his own baby brother. It was an entirely out of left field role for Culkin to take at that time, but one man thought he would be perfect for it, his father (and manager) Kit Culkin. A true “stage dad,” the elder Culkin so wanted Macaulay to play Henry that he threatened to pull his son out of Home Alone 2 unless Fox agreed to cast him in The Good Son too. They agreed to the demand primarily because Macaulay had become such a bankable star for the studio.
As a result of this, The Good Son‘s production had to be delayed until after Home Alone 2 to accommodate Macaulay Culkin’s schedule, leading director Michael Lehmann (Heathers) to quit in protest. One good thing that did come out of the delay in filming was the availability of Elijah Wood, who had previously had to pass on the part of Henry’s compassionate cousin Mark. In the end, The Good Son earned mostly negative reviews, but did pretty well financially, grossing $60 million worldwide on a budget of $17 million. Macaulay and Kit Culkin would eventually have a falling out, leading to Macaulay’s temporary retirement from acting in 1994.
