380. Funny Games (1997)

Starring: Susanne Lothar, Arno Frisch, Ulrich Mühe

Director: Michael Haneke

Running Time: 109 mins

Funny Games is an Austrian film about two men who intrude in a family’s holiday home, and take them all hostage, forcing them to play sadistic games for the entertainment of the intruders.

A good word to describe this film is tiring. That’s what the viewing experience was like. The relentless cruelty of the intruders was on the one hand quite exciting and fascinating, however often very difficult to watch, due to the horrific nature of what they were doing as well as the sheer power it seemed to have over these innocent holidaymakers.

The whole idea of this story was mad. Initially, it was quite interesting to watch, and try and figure out what the hell was going on with these people coming so swiftly into the house, and causing a great deal of trouble just because they wanted some eggs.

There were flickers of madness from the antagonists all the way through the setting up of the story, which really made me worry and suspect them, as if they were about to turn insane on this family, which they did eventually, a very scary concept.

The hostage and ‘game’ phase of this film was also very interesting, if not psychologically and visually harrowing to watch, however it was the aftermath of the torture, where the intruders left, which was disappointing.

This part of the story consisted of one 30 minute long sequence with barely any dialogue, action or anything for that matter, culminating in one of the most boring pieces of cinema I’ve ever seen.

Nonetheless, it did pick up in the last 10 or so minutes to finish off where it had started so fascinatingly, with an intriguing ending, but it was that middle part of the film that makes it lose marks from me, so that’s why I’ll give it a 6.9.