Cast: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet

Director: Michael Haneke

Screenplay: Michael Haneke

Genre: Horror/Suspense/Drama

Running time: 1 hr 52 mins



CRITIQUE:


Two relentless psychotic interlopers invade a peaceful home of a middle-class family in vacation and terrorise them through playing cruel games. That’s the whole précis of the plot of FUNNY GAMES, and it carries throughout the rest of the movie. If you fancy a feel-good film night then hurl yourself away from this cinematic shocker, as it doesn’t present some fluffy stuff. This is hardcore material, eerily disturbing, psychologically unsettling, and deeply violent – a massive slap to the cascade of Hollywood horror films that never really becomes truly horrific. Ironically, Michael Haneke’s remake of his own film, the Austrian-version FUNNY GAMES of 1997, is a justifiable rebel to the genre where it belongs. Labelled a horror film, it does not walk on the terrain of gore such as the recent SAW and HOSTEL franchises but rather plays on the consciousness of its audience and presents where real horror begins, terror in a household.


And damn right, it’s effective. In fact, so effective that it’s gut-churning, so harrowing that you feel incredulous why other horror films rarely become as good as this. It doesn’t hurry in its delivery and as we are shown the family, comprised of housewife Ann (Naomi Watts), husband George (Tim Roth) and son George (Devon Gearhart), being tortured by their assailants, the audience sit back as we are being visually tortured too. It borders on the unwatchable, scenes that are almost unbearable to take a glimpse.


Audience who are not used to this genre will emerge shocked, in art-house style. What is more, the performances are riveting. Naomi Watts is in her extreme, passionate form, engaging not only in emotional upheaval but in physical efforts. It must be an emotionally and physically exhausting performance, but she remains consistent throughout. What an incredible actress. Tim Roth plays the livid husband, with a broken leg, and a patriarchal failure who couldn’t do anything to save his family. Even the newcomer Devon Gearhart is an excellent child actor. However, what really remains haunting after watching the film is the film’s two villains, Paul (astoundingly creepy yet incredible performance by Michael Pitt) and Peter (Brady Corbet in a lesser yet never inferior assistant). Two clean-cut young lads in pristine white shirts and shorts while sporting white gloves is an image you’ll never want to see in front of your house. Their image is as immaculate as possible, but smirking devils they are. Not since the caper of CLOCKWORK ORANGE’s Malcolm McDowell have we seen a screen presence so cacophonously frightening in the form on Michael Pitt, whose boyish manners conceal a menacing grin.


Haneke’s vision is not to please audience, but to give something that would cause some sleepless nights to some. William Arnold of Seattle-Post Intelligencer calls it “an unpleasant, unsettling, cruelly manipulative and finally hateful experience” and gives FUNNY GAMES a D-grade. It’s an unjustifiable argument as it’s what the film is for in the first place, that is why it is effective in its execution. There’s also a scene which might cause a commotion from the audience, as the character of Pitt presses a remote button and everything rewinds back, satisfying their whims and the rules of their game. To this point, not only the victims are being played, but the audience too. Loathe it or love it, this is an astonishing suspenser.


VERDICT:


FUNNY GAMES, not funny ha-ha but funny-peculiar, is not your ordinary, run-off-the-mill horror collision course. This might be one of the most disturbing films you’ll ever see: heart-pounding and relentlessly thought-provoking. Watch out for the men-in-white outside your house.



RATING: A-