''Funny Games'' (alternatively titled ''Funny Games U.S.'') is a 2007

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a Film genre, genre combining the thriller (genre), thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting ...

film written and directed by

Michael Haneke Michael Haneke (; born 23 March 1942) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. His work often examines social issues and depicts the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals in modern society. Haneke has made films in French, Ge ...

. The film is a

shot-for-shot Shot-for-shot (or shot-for-shot adaptation, shot-for-shot remake) is a way to describe a visual work based on an existing work that is transferred almost completely identically from the original work without much interpretation. Production use ...

remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...

of his own 1997 film of the same title, albeit in English and set in the United States with different actors;

Naomi Watts Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. Known for her work predominantly in independent films with dark or tragic themes, she has received various accolades, including nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime ...

Tim Roth Timothy Simon Roth (; born 14 May 1961) is an English actor. He was among a group of prominent British actors known as the " Brit Pack". After garnering attention in television productions '' Made in Britain'' (1982) and '' Meantime'' (1983), ...

Michael Pitt Michael Carmen Pitt (born April 10, 1981) is an American actor, model, and musician. In film, he has appeared in ''Hedwig and the Angry Inch (film), Hedwig and the Angry Inch'' (2001), ''Bully (2001 film), Bully'' (2001), ''Murder by Numbers'' ...

, and

Brady Corbet Brady James Monson Corbet ( ; born August 17, 1988) is an American filmmaker and former actor. He had roles in films such as ''Thirteen (2003 film), Thirteen'' (2003), ''Mysterious Skin'' (2004), ''Funny Games (2007 film), Funny Games'' (2007), ...

star in the main roles. Like the original, the film follows an

affluent Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an ...

family as they are captured and tortured by two young criminals on their vacation. Despite the film title labeled as "''U.S.''", ''Funny Games'' is an

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint vent ...

between the United States, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Germany, and Italy. It is the only Haneke film to not premiere at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

, instead premiering at several film festivals outside of Cannes including

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada * Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated pl ...

. Unlike the original, the film received mixed reviews and was a

commercial failure Failure is the social concept of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, and is usually viewed as the opposite of success. The criteria for failure depends on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One ...

. Haneke has stated that the film is a reflection and criticism of violence used in media.

Plot

George and Ann Farber, their son Georgie, and their dog Lucky arrive at their lake house. Their next door neighbour Fred comes over with two young men, Paul and Peter, to help put the boat into the lake, though Fred is behaving strangely. While Ann is cooking, Peter visits and asks to borrow some eggs. She gives him the eggs, he leaves, and once out of sight drops the eggs, then returning to apologize for his clumsiness and ask for more. She gives him four more eggs and he leaves, but Lucky jumps on him, breaking the eggs. To Ann's frustration, Paul implores her to test one of his golf clubs outside, and Peter requests more eggs. George arrives and tries to oust them, ultimately slapping Paul. In retaliation, Peter bashes George's knee with the golf club. The two men then take the family hostage. Paul guides Ann on a game of "Hot and Cold" to find Lucky, whom he had killed with the golf club. When their neighbors, the Thompsons, visit, Ann claims Paul and Peter are simply friends of theirs. After returning home, the Farbers are forced to participate in a number of sadistic games in order to stay alive, during which they put Georgie's head in a pillowcase and ask Ann to strip naked. Georgie is hurt by Paul until she complies. When released from the pillowcase, Georgie escapes and goes to Fred's house, where he discovers bloody corpses. Meanwhile, Paul ties Ann up before going out to search for Georgie, leaving Peter to watch over the Farbers. Ann asks why they do not directly kill them, and Peter answers that they should not forget the fun of the games. When Peter goes to the kitchen to get eggs, Ann jumps to George but George fails to free her before Peter comes back, and Peter beats her and breaks the eggs again. Ann begs Peter to let them go, but he refuses. Georgie finds a shotgun in Fred's house and Paul tells him to go ahead and shoot him with it, but the gun fails to go off, revealing the gun to be empty. Paul returns him to the living room, and gives the shotgun to Peter, and reveals the two missing shotgun shells. The men play a new game, saying whoever gets counted out will be shot. While Paul is in the kitchen getting something to eat, Georgie panics and runs, which results in Peter shooting and killing him. Paul berates Peter for being trigger-happy, and the two men decide to briefly leave. George and Ann are grief-stricken over their loss, but they eventually resolve to survive. Ann is able to free herself and flee the house while George desperately tries to make a 911 call on the malfunctioning phone. Ann fails to find help, only to be re-captured by Peter and Paul, who bring her back to the house. The next level of games begin with Peter stabbing George. They tell Ann to say a prayer before making a choice for her husband; a painful and prolonged death with the "little" knife, or a quick and brutal death with the "big" shotgun. While Paul is talking, Ann seizes the shotgun on the table in front of her and kills Peter. An enraged Paul grabs the shotgun and starts looking for the television remote. Upon finding it, he rewinds the last occurrences back to a moment before Ann grabs the shotgun, breaking the

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...

. On the "do over", Paul snatches the shotgun away before she can grab it and admonishes her, saying she is not allowed to break the rules. Peter and Paul kill George and take Ann, bound and gagged, out onto the family's boat. Ann tries to free herself but is caught by Paul and Peter. Paul nonchalantly pushes her into the water to drown. They knock on the door of the Thompsons' house and request some eggs. Paul glances at the camera with a smirk.

Cast

as Ann Farber *

as George Farber, Ann's husband * Devon Gearhart as George "Georgie" Farber Jr., Ann and George's son *

as Paul *

as Peter *

Boyd Gaines Boyd Payne Gaines (born May 11, 1953) is an American actor. During his career, he has won four Tony Awards and three Drama Desk Awards. Gaines is best known for playing Mark Royer on ''One Day at a Time (1975 TV series), One Day at a Time'' (1981 ...

as Fred, the Farbers' neighbor *

Siobhan Fallon Hogan Siobhan Fallon Hogan ( ; Fallon; born May 13, 1961) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. Known for her collaborations with director Lars von Trier, she has appeared in three of his features to date: ''Dancer in the Dark'' (200 ...

as Betsy Thompson *

Robert LuPone Robert Francis LuPone (July 29, 1946 – August 27, 2022) was an American actor and artistic director. He worked on stage, in film, and in television. He was the brother of actress Patti LuPone. Early life and training LuPone was born in Brookl ...

as Robert Thompson *Susanne Haneke as Betsy's sister-in-law *Linda Moran as Eve For 2007's American remake, the character of Gerda was renamed "Betsy", the second family to fall victim to Paul and Peter were given the surname "Farber" and the third family were given the surname "Thompson".

Development

wanted to make a film set in the United States, but for practical reasons he had to set the original 1997 film in Austria. After the 2007 film used the same house including props and tones, Robert Koehler of '' Cineaste'' wrote that this "proves for certain that—whether he uses the great cinematographer Jürgen Jürges (for the 1997 version) or the great

Darius Khondji Darius Khondji (; born 21 October 1955) is an Iranian-French cinematographer. He is known for his work with directors such as Jean-Pierre Jeunet, David Fincher, Michael Haneke, Woody Allen, James Gray, Bong Joon-ho, Wong Kar-Wai, and the Safdi ...

(for the new film)—Haneke is fundamentally his own cinematographer exercising considerable control over the entire look of his films." Exterior scenes were filmed on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

Release

The film made its

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

premiere at the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estim ...

on 20 October 2007. Its

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

premiere was at the

2008 Sundance Film Festival The 2008 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 17, 2008 to January 27 in Park City, Utah. It was the 24th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was ''In Bruges'' and the closing night film was ''CSNY/Déjà Vu''. Films ...

on 19 January 2008. It began a limited release in the United States and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

on 14 March 2008, distributed by Warner Independent. A wider release to more theaters came on 8 April 2008. The film was shown at the Istanbul Film Festival in April 2008. It did not receive a wide theatrical release in the United States before coming out on DVD. ''Funny Games'' was a box office failure, grossing a little more than half of its $15 million budget. ''

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...

'' writer Geoffrey Macnab included ''Funny Games''s lack of success among the reasons for the closure of

Tartan Films Palisades Tartan is a film distribution company with headquarters in both the United Kingdom and the United States. It was established by the Palisades Media Group following the collapse of Tartan Films in the summer of 2008. Palisades Tartan ac ...

, which co-produced the film and released it in the United Kingdom. In Germany, the film was released under the title "Funny Games U.S.". The film's poster, done by Akiko Stehrenberger, is considered by professional poster designer Adrian Curry to be his favorite film poster of the 2000s.

Home media

The

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

was released on 10 June 2008, in the US. The DVD does not contain any extra material but instead it includes both widescreen and full screen editions on one disc. In the UK, the DVD and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

were released on 28 July with the extra material being the original theatrical trailer, Q&A with producers Hamish McAlpine and Chris Coen, interviews with the cast,

viral video Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...

clips and film notes.

Themes

Haneke states that the entire film was not intended to be a

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

. He says he wanted to make a message about violence in the media by making an incredibly violent, but otherwise pointless movie. He had written a short essay revealing how he felt on the issue, called "Violence + Media." The essay is included as a chapter in the book ''A Companion to Michael Haneke.''

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported that 53% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Though made with great skill, ''Funny Games'' is nevertheless a sadistic exercise in chastising the audience."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

reported the film had an average score of 44 out of 100, based on 33 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Todd Gilchrist from

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

called the film "Unrelenting and brilliant, ''Funny Games'' is a truly great film – an incisive, artistic triumph that doubles as a remarkably thrilling and unique cinematic experience." Conversely, Joshua Rothkopf from ''

Time Out New York ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 333 cities in 59 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition became ...

'' called the film "a sour project that defines anti-imaginative." A.O. Scott of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' wrote: "At least with the remake ''Funny Games'', Mr. Haneke shows a certain kinship with someone like

Eli Roth Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, namely splatter films, having directed the films ''Cabin Fev ...

, whose ''

Hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory sleeping 4–20 people, with shared use of a lounge and usually a kitchen. Rooms can be private or shared - mixe ...

'' movies have brought nothing but scorn from responsible critics." ''

The Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily Non-profit journalism, nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation am ...

'' review of 13 March 2008 gave the film a mere half-star out of a possible four. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' of London ranked it #25 on its 100 Worst Films of 2008 list, calling it "art-house torture porn."

Soundtrack

The music in the introduction and the

closing credits Closing credits, aka end credits or end titles, are a list of the cast and crew of a particular motion picture, television show, or video game. While opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear close to or at th ...

is "Bonehead" by the band Naked City from the album '' Torture Garden''.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Funny Games 2007 films 2007 crime thriller films 2007 psychological thriller films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films 2000s British films 2000s French films 2000s German films 2000s Italian films 2000s satirical films Films about psychopaths and sociopaths American crime thriller films French crime thriller films British crime thriller films German crime thriller films Italian crime thriller films American psychological thriller films French psychological thriller films British psychological thriller films German psychological thriller films Italian psychological thriller films American satirical films French satirical films British satirical films German satirical films Italian satirical films American serial killer films French serial killer films British serial killer films German serial killer films Italian serial killer films American remakes of foreign films English-language German films English-language Italian films English-language French films English-language Austrian films Films set in the United States Films directed by Michael Haneke Films set on lakes Films shot in New York (state) Films about home invasion Films about vacationing Films about torture Film4 Productions films Lionsgate Canada films Remakes of Austrian films Shot-for-shot remakes Les Films du Losange films English-language crime thriller films