Skip to Content
Talkhouse home
Talkhouse home
Film

Anna Roisman Got Bored and Made a Shot-for-Shot Remake of Home Alone

When you're stuck in your apartment with your boyfriend, the only sane decision is to really channel Kevin McCallister.

2:00 PM EDT on April 24, 2020

I have been quarantined with my boyfriend Jared for well over a month now. We've mostly gotten along, but do dream of a day when we can have a bigger apartment (or house? do people still have those?) so that we can have our own space. The thing about being quarantined with someone is that you start to want to be home alone. And that's when the idea hit: what if we did a shot-for-shot remake of the iconic scene from Home Alone, but instead of making my family disappear, I made my boyfriend disappear?! Luckily Jared is a huge fan of Home Alone and didn't take this "alone" thing personally.

We love making parodies (he produced I, Nancy, a parody of I, Tonya that I wrote and we shot a few years ago.) So we planned a full nine-hour shoot day in our apartment. Is that insane? Yes! It wasn't easy, and I'm surprised we made it through! We kept saying how helpful it'd be to have a PA around, since we had to do everything from sound to camera to lights. But we've done it before! The last time we shot something very dumb in our apartment, it got into the Tribeca Film Festival (have you seen Owen Wilson Dates Himself?), so we persevered and made it happen. Jared has an incredible eye and edited it to look as close to the original shots as he could, given our limited resources and old phone cameras. But putting this video out in quarantine felt great because we made something fun that people can relate to! I've gotten sweet messages from people saying that it brightened their dark day! That's worth carrying lights around my apartment for no pay. I don't think my parents have watched it yet, but that's OK. As long as Chris Columbus has and plans to hire us, we'll be fine!

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

Related Stories

Three Great Things: James Ashcroft

The director of the new dark thriller The Whisper Man, which is now on Netflix, opens up about books, fashion and parenthood.

Ember Knight and Tristan Wheeler Talk About Being Evil

The filmmakers catch up about world building, shoestring budgets, and the Ember Knight Show.

August 27, 2026

Life Won’t Look Anything Like You Thought It Would

Writer-director Sophia Silver, whose debut feature Over/Under is out now, on filmmaking, motherhood and embracing unpredictability.

August 26, 2026

The Things That Echo: What Four Films Taught Me About Becoming

Writer-director Phyllis Toben Bancroft on women, the strange, non-linear nature of becoming and her anthology film Echoes.

August 21, 2026

Feeding the Babadook in the Basement

The Apology writer-director Alison Star Locke offers up a very personal take on "special needs moms in horror.”

August 19, 2026

“Noble, Upstanding, Nauseating Liquids”: On The Lost Weekend

In an excerpt from his forthcoming cinematic memoir, filmmaker Tony Gault considers Billy Wilder's Oscar-winning classic through the lens of his own personal history.

August 14, 2026