When I think of films that defined my love of horror movies, Michael Haneke’s Funny Games immediately comes to mind.
In 2008, I was 13, and my curiosity for the genre was growing—I ravenously devoured whatever horror flick I could get my hands on at my local Blockbuster. After reading a review of Funny Games in People, my interest was piqued, and somehow I managed to smuggle a copy and pop it into my DVD player. What followed was a decades-long passion for this highly controversial film and its vicious, merciless message for its audience.
A shot-for-shot remake of Haneke’s own 1997 German-language film, Funny Games is a critique on violence in movies, and an atmospheric nightmare that documents the torment of the wealthy Farber family at the hands of two volatile and sadistic home intruders, Peter (Golden Globe winner and director of The Brutalist, Brady Corbet) and Paul (indie flick favorite and Boardwalk Empire star Michael Pitt, who steals the film with his eerie, unhinged performance).
The Farbers—Anne (Naomi Watts), George Sr. (Tim Roth, playing against type here), and George Jr. (Devon Gearhart) arrive at their idyllic vacation home in Head of the Harbor, New York. As soon as they arrive, they sense something is very off with their normally friendly neighbors, who are acting skiddish and are joined by two young men—Peter and Paul—who are dressed all in white.
Soon, Peter and Paul are at Anne’s door. The deranged duo is friendly, charming, and seemingly urbane, until Paul swipes George Sr.’s Callaway driver and beats him with it, announcing that they’re taking the family hostage.
Peter and Paul inform the family that they’re in for a night of torturous mental and physical “games” and that they must enter a sickening bet. Peter and Paul bet that by the next morning at 9 A.M., the entire family will be dead. The Farbers must bet that they’ll be alive. In the ensuing chaos, the family must fight for their life against these intruders—but there’s more to this bet than meets the eye.
Funny Games is a divisive film for several reasons, from its notably gruesome nature to its uncomfortable commentary on society’s appetite for violence in media.
Throughout the film, Paul breaks the fourth wall and mocks us for watching something so graphic without “plausible plot development,” implying that the audience has responsibility in the Farber family’s torture and is thoroughly reveling in it. And, in the film’s most iconic scene, just when we think the Farbers could have a chance, Paul rewinds the scene to take that hope away from us.
There is no hope, and the Farbers will suffer and continue to lose—but we keep watching.
While Funny Games criticizes horror, it ironically becomes a classic of the genre at the same time. Its deviation from standard rules and plot, as well as its deep understanding of audience behavior, allows Haneke’s film to stand the test of time.
Funny Games
2007
dir. Michael Haneke
111 min.
Funny Games screens at Coolidge Corner Theatre as the finale to Bleak Week on Sunday, June 15 at 7:15 P.M. Tickets are available here.
