The Good Son (1993) ** (out of 4) When Mark (Elijah Wood) loses his mother and his father most go a business trip, he goes to stay with his family and at first everything seems great. That's until he starts to realize that his cousin Henry (Macaulay Culkin) isn't normal yet none of the adults will believe him.I still remember all the hype surrounding this film when it first came out. Everyone was wondering how the HOME ALONE star would do in a thriller. The critics pretty much hated the movie and many of them attacked the film for showing children in such violent situations. I was never a big fan of the movie when I watched it back then but I was only thirteen at the time so I was curious if my opinion would have changed after seeing it as an adult. Well, it actually didn't change any.There are many problems with THE GOOD SON but the biggest is the fact that it's a pretty boring thriller that just doesn't have enough thrills to make it work. The biggest problem is certainly the screenplay because it's a rather generic story where we see Henry do one bad thing after another while the parents of course don't believe the really good kid. The good kid is tormented and of course the parents only see whenever he goes back after the bad kid. The direction is so dry and so bland that there's never any real tension going on.As far as the performances go, Wood certainly steals the show and manages to turn in a very good performance. He's quite believable in the part of a young man who has lost his mother and is now dealing with even more trauma. David Morse is good during his few scenes as his father. Wendy Crewson is also good as the bad kids mother and especially during the finale. As far as Culkin goes, he's okay in the part. I thought he handled the brat side of the character quite well but I never really believed we went far enough in showing how crazy or demented this kid was.THE GOOD SON is mildly entertaining in a cheap "B" movie kind of way but there's no question that as a thriller it's a failure.

It must have taken some balls to make "The Good Son" - a change-of-pace if there ever was one - right at the peak of Macaulay Culkin's popularity as a wholesome, family-friendly child star, but the gamble paid off: this movie has held up very well over the years. Fluidly directed by the unheralded Joseph Ruben, with sweeping camera work and a vivid sense of place that makes the location another character, with a script that builds the suspense gradually towards a memorable cliffhanger (literally) of a climax, and further aided by a rich music score by the legendary Elmer Bernstein, this is one of the most successful thrillers of its era. Culkin is surprisingly good at being bad (and amoral, and manipulative), Elijah Wood is just as solid, and Wendy Crewson is the mother any (normal!) son would like to have. *** out of 4.

Maybe I just have bias, but this movie is awesome. I don't mean anything legit, just an entertaining movie to watch one evening. Siskel and Ebert panned this wondering why it was made and how it could be considered even remotely entertaining. The first reason why it is entertaining is because Macaulay Culkin's character is simply evil. There's lots of psychopaths in the world much like Culkin who were simply born that way. So in a way, this is a good sketch of a psycho. The second (and probably the biggest) reason this is entertaining is because Macaulay Culkin plays his most chilling role to date. Unlike Party Monster which had him playing a similar role, The Good Son was around the time he was doing The Pagemaster and Richie Rich--when he was still on top. Seeing somebody pull off a completely different role is always a ton of fun to see. Culkin happens to play an insane villain, so it may come as a bigger shock to, say, Jim Carrey in The Truman Show.Elijah Wood plays the protagonist named Mark who's mother just died and is sent to live with his relatives for a few weeks after his father (Morse) is sent away on business. At first, he and cousin Henry (Culkin) have fun, but soon sees what Henry is really about. Nobody believes Mark, but he must reveal Henry before his father comes to get him. The character of Henry is your classical case of a a naturally evil human: smart, cunning, manipulative, and senseless. And Culkin steals all the scenes he's in. The subplot with Mark and his mother is pretty interesting and it is nice to see it tie in with the main plot. Both Culkin and Wood are dynamite.

The Good son (1993)This not really horror movie, more of a very dark Thriller.The movie start off 12 year old boy Mark, who mother passes away and then in upcoming days his father as to take business.Then Mark had to live with aunt and uncle for bit, at first he seem to get along fine with his cousin Henry. As they do seem have a lot fun at first but then he when he see that Mark start to do some really bad and stuff, started to wonder , if is cousin is Evil as movie goes on it's dose more evil things.I found some scene really good in this movie, the pile up scene was really good a bit out dated a little, Ice skating scenes (I felt like I see that scene some were else before) I really liked the whole movie, I was not fan of the ending, I didn't not like how it ending at all and I hoping more for the aftermath.The acting was great from the youngsters8 out of 10