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Silly Americans…

After concluding spooky season with a reappraisal of Rob Zombie’s Halloween II (the Director’s Cut), we’re moving into November by kicking off a new theme of episodes on toxic masculinity. First up is Michael Haneke‘s fourth wall-breaking film Funny Games!

In Funny Games, Anna (Susanne Lothar) and Georg (Ulrich Mühe) and their son Georgie (Stefan Clapczynski) visit their idyllic lakeside vacation home, only to be terrorized by Paul (Arno Frisch) and Peter (Frank Giering), a pair of deeply disturbed young men. Paul and Peter take the family hostage and subject them to the titular “funny games,” which doubles as a critique of (American) viewers themselves.

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Episode 254: Funny Games (1997)

Buckle up...

Stars: Ulrich Mühe, Susanne Lothar, Stefan Clapczynski, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering | Written and Directed by Michael Haneke

An innocuous sight opens this feature from writer/director Michael Haneke, as a car travels while containing the Schober family – made up of husband Georg (Ulrich Mühe), wife Anna (Susanne Lothar), young son Georgie (Stefan Clapczynski), and dog Rolfi. They pass the journey to their holiday home with a song guessing game, until one song stumps Georg. Much like the classical music playing on the car speakers, the film’s sound is then drowned out by hard rock, an effective indication of how any expectations of an arthouse feature is changed to something more hardcore.

While unpacking, the family are visited by two young men – Paul (Arno Frisch) and Peter (Frank Giering) – who ask to borrow eggs. The pair overstay their welcome as Peter clumsily breaks numerous batches of eggs and knocks the family’s phone into water,...

By now it’s safe to say that Naomi Watts is a bona fide Scream Queen. After more than a decade in small roles or B movies, the British actress finally found widespread acclaim in 2001 with David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. She followed this up with a star-making role in Gore Verbinski’s The Ring, and sky-rocketted to international fame. Watts has worked steadily since then, winning coveted parts like Ann Darrow in Peter Jackson’s King Kong, Oscar Nominated roles in 21 Grams and The Impossible, and franchise fame in the Divergent series.

Born in England, Watts and her brother moved around the UK with her Welsh mother before relocating to Australia at the age of 14 where she broke into acting. Despite this international upbringing, Watts is most known in the horror world for starring in American remakes of acclaimed foreign films. Her role in The Ring was just...

It’s time for a new episode of our video series Best Foreign Horror Movies, and with this one we’re looking back at a movie that is quite disturbing. The 1997 Austrian production Funny Games (get it Here). To find out what we had to say about Funny Games, check out the video embedded above.

Written and directed by Michael Haneke, Funny Games has the following synopsis:

An idyllic lakeside vacation home is terrorized by Paul and Peter, a pair of deeply disturbed young men. When the fearful Anna is home alone, the two men drop by for a visit that quickly turns violent and terrifying. Husband Georg comes to her rescue, but Paul and Peter take the family hostage and subject them to nightmarish abuse and humiliation. From time to time, Paul talks to the film’s audience, making it complicit in the horror.

The film stars Arno Frisch,...