It's one of our favourite Christmas movies but one Home Alone theory sheds potential new light on the 1990 film which sees Kevin McCallister (Macauley Culkin) left at home while the rest of his family head off on a Christmas holiday without him.
In the film, Kevin has to protect his home from two burglars - the 'wet bandits' - who are intent on robbing the house.
And now, in a thread originally posted on Reddit, one user asked the question we've been asking ourselves for years - who is the South Bend Shovel Slayer?
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In an early scene in the film we see Kevin's brother Buzz telling him the story of the shovel slayer, a man who was said to have murdered his whole family with his shovel in 1958.
Buzz claims their neighbour, Old Man Marley, is the shovel slayer, but we find out later in the film that he was just a lonely man who wanted to reconnect with his family.
So, who then is the South Bend Shovel Slayer?
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The thread, which originally appeared on Reddit, claims that there are multiple suspects.
The user asked: "So if it wasn't Old Man Marley, who was the South Bend Shovel Slayer?"
The top comment on the post claimed the shovel slayer could be Gus Polinski (John Candy) who drives Kevin's mum back to Chicago when she is unable to board a plane.
User 'dflovett' suggested the character could have reason to commit the crimes.
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They claimed: "Says he has traveled all over, laughs about leaving a kid in a funeral parlour 'by mistake', rides around in a transit van full of other men - deserves a closer look in another thread."
User 'esiedub' thought the tale was an urban legend made up about an old recluse, while another claimed Old Man Marley's son could have moved his family away because he'd figured out the truth about his father being a killer.
But user 'constantvariables' went one step further with a theory that others agreed with.
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"What if Old Man Marley is the SBSS," they claimed, "and his son was an accomplice to his crimes?"
"They have a falling out because OMM wants to quit but his son is way too into it at this point, so they argue about it and the son winds up leaving to carry on the murders somewhere else."
But perhaps, most shocking of all is the theory that the shovel slayer and Kevin's Dad, Peter McCallister, could be in on the crime together.
In one comment, it is argued that Kevin's Dad Peter could be the son of Old Man Marley and that the two were jointly responsible for the crimes.
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The thread then goes on to claim that somehow Kevin found out about this. He is a smart eight-year old, after all.
In this theory, the Redditer argued that Peter and his "dad" set Kevin up by leaving him home alone and hired the 'wet bandits' as hitmen to take him out, which they failed at.
So does this sound a bit farfetched or does it explain the plot in a new light? And could it really connect the McCallister family with the South Bend Shovel Slayer?
We don't know about you but this theory is really blowing our minds!
Featured Image Credit: 20th Century FoxTopics: Entertainment, TV and Film, Home Alone