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Funny Games is a disturbing movie that criticizes the audience's thirst for violence. The American remake is almost identical to the original German version, with the only difference being the performances. Michael Haneke remade the film to reach a wider audience and highlight the ignorance of American audiences towards non-English international cinema.

Funny Games is one of the most disturbing movies ever made, and viewers get the chance to go through the painful experience twice, as Michael Haneke directed both the original 1997 German version and the 2007 American remake. One shouldn't be fooled by the title; there's nothing funny about the games played in the movie. But what's funny is the acid irony behind Haneke's determination to make fun of the audience's thirst for violence.

Both movies are centered around an idyllic family — mother, father, and son — and the two unhinged young men who take them hostage in their vacation home,...

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,...

Horror films and controversy often go hand in hand. Historically, no genre has pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable onscreen as much as horror, with authorities like the MPAA and the BBFC constantly stepping in to protect filmgoers from extreme content.

Controversies abound in horror, with countless examples of censorship, intrusive cuts, or outright bans. Other times, films can provoke a visceral reaction from the audience; "Audition" prompted people to faint in the initial screenings, for example, while "The Exorcist" gained everlasting notoriety for the apparent hysteria it caused in cinemas.

Rather than a comprehensive list, this represents a broad spread of different types of controversial deaths in horror films. It might best be summed up as 14 of the most interesting controversial deaths, rather than necessarily all of the most obvious choices. As such, please take the order with a pinch of salt. Lots of spoilers below, so beware!

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,...

It’s widely held that Michael Haneke is a singular, powerfully disturbing, and provocative voice in European cinema, and he gained international recognition with the controversial Funny Games. Released in 1997 and followed a decade later by an equally unsettling American shot-for-shot remake, Haneke’s purpose (the aim of most of his work) was to provoke audiences by presenting them with a dialogue of violence between those watching and the characters carrying out the horrific events unfolding on-screen. The story concerns two dandy-mannered outcasts, Paul (Arno Frisch) and Peter (Frank Giering), violently dismantling the upper-middle-class family unit via torture, humiliation, and murder. Haneke broke the mold in how he reconstructed the type of villain usually operating within this genre: The sociopaths here defy the traditional brutal and hypermasculine home invaders of horror cinema’s blood-spattered past. When the antagonistic duo isn’t meta-speaking directly to the viewer or tormenting the inhabitants...

With Halloween fast approaching, EW is picking the five best films in a variety of different horror movie categories. Each day, we’ll post our top picks from one specific group—say, vampire movies or slasher flicks—and give you the chance to vote on which is your favorite. On Oct. 31, EW will reveal your top choices. Today, we’re ready to talk about those movies that hit a little too close to home. All horror movies prey on the psychological premise that there's beastliness roiling within everyone. But let's get real: You don't see news reports about werewolves, vampires,...