Deadly Games (1989)

John Hughes claims that he wrote Home Alone after making a list of things to take on a trip to Europe, only to be reminded that the kids should be included on the list.  From there he says he got the germ of the idea that became one of the biggest Christmas movies of all time, with Macauley Culkin playing Kevin McCallister, a young boy forgotten by his family while they head to Paris who must defend his home and himself from a pair of bumbling robbers.  Hilarity ensues, although in typical '80s fashion it is made clear that they will murder Kevin if they catch him.  It's a fun family movie, but things weren't as sugarcoated as television makes it appear. 

Things also aren't so clear cut on Hughes's origin story.  A few months before Hughes says he got the idea a horror film screened at Cannes called 36-15 Code Père Noël, written and directed by René Manzor.  The movie bombed in France and wasn't released in the United States until 2019, but it was a hit in Asia as well as other parts of Europe, going under many names including the English title Deadly Games.  While Manzor's film was a serious take on a child defending his home and himself from a killer the similarities weren't lost on him.  Deadly Games did get Manzor noticed by Lucasfilm, which resulted in him being hired to direct episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and, later, a number of episodes of the Highlander television series.  The similarities in the movies were enough that Manzor thought of suing, but figured taking on John Hughes and everyone behind the Home Alone franchise would be career suicide and, though vocal about what he considers plagiarism, let it drop legally.

Thomas (Alain Lalanne) is the son of Julie (Brigitte Fossey), an executive of the Paris department store Printemps.  He lives in an ancestral mansion that belonged to his late father, with his mom and grandfather (Louis Ducreux).  He's extremely intelligent and imaginative, building his own security system for the house and using his knowledge of the secret passages in the mansion to get around.  These come in handy when a man (Patrick Floersheim), fired from playing Père Noël by Julie, decides to pay Thomas a visit while his mother is away.

Thomas still believes in Santa Claus and part of the reason he built the system was so he could be the first kid to ever have actual proof of his existence.  What he is not prepared for is being pursued by a man with no reservations about killing everyone who is in his way.  Eventually, to stay alive and protect his grandfather, Thomas uses his know-how to booby trap the house in an effort to kill the person he still believes is Santa Claus, while his mother and her boyfriend (François-Eric Gendron) try to get back to the mansion, becoming concerned once everyone stops answering their phones.

While Deadly Games and Home Alone have some similarities it is probably a good idea Manzor decided to back off on suing Hughes.  The tone of both movies is wildly different, with Manzor's being slightly off from the beginning.  Even for a rich kid Thomas seems allowed too much leeway.  Deadly Games also predicts something much more sinister than a guy dressed as a cop casing a house.  The man who tries to kill Thomas as his family first finds him on Minitel, which was a coin-operated computer bulletin board system in the late 1980s - thus, primitive internet.  It was obvious even before it really took off what nefarious people may use it for. 

The other thing to note in comparison of the two movies is that Hughes most likely did steal a lot of Home Alone, but not from Manzor.  The two movies coming out around the same time seems more coincidence than anything else.  Toho Studios probably had a bigger case against Hughes if they had pushed it, since a good portion of Hughes's film seems lifted directly from the last third of the 1969 movie All Monsters Attack, the infamous sequel where Minilla comes to a young child in his dreams and helps him learn to stand up for himself.  In that film the young boy, Ichirô, must escape from two bungling thieves that he accidentally discovers hiding in a warehouse, and it is played much more for laughs.  That was also a much more widely known movie as it had run regularly on television in the United States for years. 

Leaving all that aside the problem with Deadly Games is that it is too hard to suspend disbelief when it comes to Thomas as a character.  He is just too strange to connect with throughout most of the movie.  He doesn't suddenly become a murderous mastermind, and in fact most of his attempts to stop the killer fall short, although when the opportunity comes to handle things in a simple manner he doesn't hesitate.  The later part of the movie, when Thomas acts more like a real child would in danger, is much more engaging than the pampered eccentric we see at the beginning.  

That said, those circumstances are mainly due to Manzor's writing and not Lalanne's portrayal.  Alain Lalanne is Manzor's son, so I can't blame him for giving him a bit of a fantasy world to be in, but son or not he was the right choice and puts in a wonderful performance.  Patrick Floersheim, who is best known for doing voice and dubbing work, says little, and that helps keep the tension up as his motives seem to change on a whim.  He is quite the memorable villain, although sometimes he seems to be in places he shouldn't.  That comes down to some pacing problems with the movie, as sometimes the series of events leading from scene to scene don't quite add up.  

I can see why this has becomes a bit more popular since U.S. audiences finally got to see it in recent years.  It has that '80s feel (I didn't know the mullet had made it to France), but also a lot of hallmarks of a more modern thriller.  It is also quite more willing to put Thomas in real danger than an American film would be.  It is much more than a movie that supposedly inspired an American Christmas classic and works well as a darker companion to Home Alone. 

Deadly Games (1989)

Time: 92 minutes

Starring: Alain Lalanne, Louis Ducreux, Patrick Floersheim, Brigitte Fossey 

Director: René Manzor