Funny Games
Fox Lorber Home Video, 1998
2001

review by Terry Wickham

A couple arrives at their lakeside home to spend vacation time with their child and dog. Things go from rosy to bleak, when pair of clean-cut, yet strange (how many guys wear see through rubber medical gloves) young men come to play deadly games with the family.

This isn't an easy film to watch because of the subject matter and the slow purposeful filmmaking style. Director Michael Haneke doesn't rush anything forcing us to digest the torture and torment the family are forced to endure. He really gets you to want to scream out to the characters on the screen, to try and help them escape their situations. Haneke won the Best Director award at Chicago International Film Festival.

The film has nice photography by Jurgen Jurges, though it's somewhat simple and not overly stylish. The film doesn't have much music; only a few hardcore thrash songs are used.

I would put this in the same category of films like The Hills Have Eyes. Unnerving, no-holds barred brutality not glossed over.

Official Website:
http://www.winstarvideo.com

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