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Saw Director Weighs In on Whether Home Alone's Kevin McCallister Grew Up to Be Jigsaw

20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox | 20th Century Fox

Viewed one way, 1990's Home Alone is a charming story about a boy defending his home from burglars during the holidays. But if you rewatch the film with a certain sadistic fan theory in mind, it takes on a much darker tone. According to the theory, first posited in 2014, Kevin McCallister's experiences in Home Alone lead him to grow up to become Jigsaw, the antagonist of the Saw films.

The two characters share more in common than an enthusiasm for torture dressed up as "pranks" or "games"—they build similar traps, both have blond hair and blue eyes, and both seem to enjoy recording their victims. Now the director of Saw (2004) has finally weighed in on the connection between Jigsaw and adorable little Kevin.

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While promoting his new film Aquaman (2018), James Wan shared his thoughts on the possibility of a character connection with HuffPost. "It's amazing," he said. "I should've known all along that Macaulay Culkin would grow up to be John Kramer … I'm very flattered that people take the time to have fun with all these fan theories. I think that's why I make these movies. I want the fans out there to have fun with them."

The theory may have received recognition from Wan, but not everyone involved with the movies agrees. When Culkin mentioned the theory on The Tonight Show last year, he neither confirmed nor denied whether he believes Kevin and Jigsaw are the same person.

But if you take the time to delve deep enough into the theory, some coincidences become too striking to ignore. The basement where Jigsaw holds his captives in Saw II (2005) bears an eerie resemblance to Kevin's in Home Alone—right down to the menacing furnace. And in Home Alone, Kevin is obsessed with the possibility that his next door neighbor is a serial killer, which could explain why the character eventually grows up to become a serial killer himself. It's all pretty disturbing, but it's far from the only twisted Christmas movie fan theory out there.

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