Watching "Funny Games" (1997) directed by Michael Haneke for the first time was an unforgettable visceral experience. It was the horror that really scared, devastated, and stayed with me long after the final scene was over. I can't easily recall another movie that made me go through the same emotions as the innocent victims in the movie did, to feel the same helplessness, hopelessness, despair, humiliation, and horror. I could not stop thinking of how illusory and fragile nature of happiness and safety is and how easy it is to shatter and destroy them. Is it a blessing or curse not to know what lies ahead and not be able to change the future? It's been several years since I saw the film but it still makes me shiver just to think about it.

"Funny Games" can be first mistaken for yet another conventional thriller where the good guys always win in the end and the evil is punished. Wrong, not by Haneke. He shocks you, he hits you in the gut, and then, he shocks you again. Haneke's is a true horror for his monsters don't look like the creatures from hell. No, "they are among us", they are nice and polite, well read, shy and ironic, they have the names from the new Testament, Paul and Peter, they talk with the soft refined voices but they are monsters nevertheless who have no regard for a human life and who want to play their sadistic funny games to the extreme.

"Funny Games" is a controversial film and I've read many reviews and comments that call it "a failure", accusing the film and its creator of not having said anything new or original on the connected subjects of violence, the media, and voyeuristic audience. It may not be a new or original subject Haneke dissects in his film but how he did it, his matter-of fact approach to the material and the seemingly unemotional manner affected me deeply, and I don't think I would ever forget this film.

Georg, his wife Anna, and their son Georgie arrive at their lakeside vacation house. Two young men named Peter and Paul claim to be neighbors come for a visit. The situation deteriorates as the young men take the family prisoners.

The moment when Paul makes that bet is when the movie descends into hell. That's the moment when he turns to audience to break down the 4th wall. By directly talking to us, he makes us accomplices to their crime. It is a movie that refuses to have any happy ending. It is a way to torture the audience. That's why it is disturbing. It is actually bringing us into the movie and playing games with our minds. We may as well be tied up on that couch.

"Funny Games" is an Austrian 110-minute movie from almost 20 years ago. It was written and directed by Michael Haneke and is a prime example of his work, which gives us an insight into the dark abyss of human behavior and, as in many of his other works, there will be no happy ending. It's interesting how Haneke plays with the audience when, at the end, it is mentioned that one of the two is not able to swim and they are on a boat, so maybe will he drown and there will be some comfort at least for the viewer? Nope. But back to the beginning. We have a couple and their son and the two get kidnapped by a duo of psychopaths. After a short introduction, this film is at least 90 minutes of physical and emotional torture. This film is certainly very tough to watch and even if I thought it was a really tense, gripping and well-made work, I have no intention of seeing it anytime soon again.

Haneke worked with some actors here that he has worked with in the past already. For me, it was particularly difficult to watch this movie knowing about the untimely deaths of Mühe, Lothar (Mühe's wife actually) and Giering. Only Arno Frisch is still alive from the core cast. Well.. the child actor is as well, but he is not working in film anymore, has not appeared in a single film in the new millennium. It is not uncommon at all that Haneke's cast does include only a very limited amount of actors and I like that. It helps me focus better on the characters and it is also the case in "Amour" for example, a film I really really loved. It's not really the cast in "Das weiße Band", but also a very good film. "Funny Games" is a movie Haneke made long before these two that got great acclaim also from the Academy Awards in the USA.

Anyway, there are many really interesting aspects in "Funny Games", for example the breaking of the 4th wall on several occasions or the way one character uses a remote to move back in time and make something undone, literally turn back time. This is certainly not a film for everyone and you definitely need strong nerves to sit through it, because it's extremely shocking from start to finish. Still pay attention how you never see anybody dying in front of the camera, even if it is very obvious in all cases. Final note: Haneke made a US version 10 years later. I have not seen that one, but I'd be surprised if it's as good as this one here. The 1997 one has a remarkable script and great acting from the entire cast. Highly recommended.