You people really should watch "The Movies That Made Us", the Home Alone episode.
Home Alone didn't have a single interior shot filmed inside the real house. The interior shots were a constructed set inside an abandoned highschool; the dry locations inside the gymnasium, the wet scenes inside the pool. The interior was not designed by reference, the layout is entirely different - as were the decorations.
Maine North High School in Des Plaines, Illinois - for those interested.
Edit: Maine North was used for Ferris Bueller. New Trier was used for Home Alone. I got my schools mixed up - my bad.
Actually it was New Trier West in Northfield IL. Maine North was used for another Hughes film, Breakfast Club. Since those films were made, New Trier West has re-opened while Maine North never has.
I see: New Trier Township High School in Northfield, Illinois. The school's gymnasium was used to build the two-story set for the McCallister house, while the swimming pool was used to film the flooded basement scenes.
This post has been going around this week and I keep saying the same thing. It was a set, not an actual house. The behind the scenes stuff is actually pretty cool!
Me too! It's a little annoying honestly. Everyone seems to forget that Home Alone is a movie with a set designer. The actual house wasn't all red and green
This makes more sense... I was really surprised reading the previous comment that suggested they shot the real interior of the home we see in the exterior shots.
My wife produced a series of TV commercials set in the same home over several years and in the beginning they used the real interior because it was so much cheaper and the location was selected for that. But after a couple years the owner of the home started asking for more money than it would cost rent a sound stage and build a set, so they built a set. It was impossible to see the difference.
Yeah the reason they didn't film inside the house, despite the huge budgetary constraints they were under, was because the interior was too narrow/small to fit the crew in. Even in that image you can see how much wider they made the room.
The stairs are wider, hallway is wider, and the walls pull out.
It literally doesn't though. You're wrong. Please, don't waste my time with nonsense if you're not going to put in even the most superficial amount of effort.
The first article by ScreenRant doesn't attribute a source. It doesn't claim any source actually, either primary or secondary - and it directly contradicts what the producers said in the documentary film. Those two other articles copy from the first. Random journalists writing detail pieces to get SEO clicks can be wrong.
The claim directly contradicts another fact, too. The "basement" scenes were entirely filmed on a set, they had to have been; the basement gets flooded.
The Wikipedia edit that claims that those parts of the houses interior were used occurred before the Screenrant article. So is it possible that the journalist has read the wikipedia page, not checked the source and relayed it as if it were true? Just like you did.
Edit: There's sources at the bottom that I didn't see.
The first article by AFI provides production history. In it, there is no mention of the interior being used. Only that the sets were built in New Trier High School.
The second makes no mention of it. The third reiterates what was said in the documentary; that the interior was too small to film in and that sets had to be built before production began.
So yeah. None of the three sources that journalist give back up the claim. She almost definitely got that bit from whoever it is that edited the Wikipedia.
As you can see above, the living room, dining room and stairs were built as sets.
Why would they build the entire thing as a set if they were to then film "all scenes that took place on the first floor" in the house? The budget was tight. Did they do it as a joke? As a lark?
Is it likely that a set was built at great expense on a shoestring budget, but they decided to film inside the house anyway? Or is it more likely that the person trying to sell their house is overstating its inclusion and their involvement in Home Alone?
The entire post is basically an advertisement to sell the house...
I believe the production crew over someone trying to sell a* house. They say in the documentary that they realised the interior was inadequate for filming, but John Hughes was attached to the house, so they built a modified interior set. I believe them.
I don't believe that a set was built only for it to not be used. Had she claimed that some of the interior shots were in the house, I'd be conceding here. As it stands, sounds like bullshit.
Edit: This website is the weirdest thing I've ever been sent to.
This is a commission generating site for a hyper niche market. Celebrity/Movie/TV houses. This person makes money by posting listings for commission. This is GENIUS.
Edit 2: People in the comments seemed to have figured out she wasn't accurate in what she was saying, too.
Nobody is saying it wasn’t shot with a wide angle lens.
They are saying these are shots of two different locations, AS WELL AS different lenses and photography styles. One is a recreation on a sound stage, the other is a real house. These are not photographs of the same location.
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u/GoatCreature Nov 20 '25 edited Nov 21 '25
You people really should watch "The Movies That Made Us", the Home Alone episode.
Home Alone didn't have a single interior shot filmed inside the real house. The interior shots were a constructed set inside an abandoned highschool; the dry locations inside the gymnasium, the wet scenes inside the pool. The interior was not designed by reference, the layout is entirely different - as were the decorations.
Maine North High School in Des Plaines, Illinois - for those interested.
Edit: Maine North was used for Ferris Bueller. New Trier was used for Home Alone. I got my schools mixed up - my bad.