Funny Games (2007 film)
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''Funny Games'' (alternatively titled ''Funny Games U.S.'') is a 2007
psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre frequent ...
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, G ...
, and a
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 ...
of his own 1997 film of the same title.
Naomi Watts Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...
,
Tim Roth Timothy Simon Roth (born 14 May 1961) is an English actor and producer. He began acting on films and television series in the 1980s. He was among a group of prominent British actors of the era, the "Brit Pack (actors), Brit Pack". He made hi ...
,
Michael Pitt Michael Carmen Pitt (born April 10, 1981) is an American actor, model, and musician. Pitt is known in film for his roles in ''Murder by Numbers'' (2002), Bernardo Bertolucci's '' The Dreamers'' (2003), Gus Van Sant's '' Last Days'' (2005), and M ...
, and
Brady Corbet Brady James Monson Corbet (; born August 17, 1988) is an American actor and filmmaker. Corbet is known for playing Mason Freeland in the film ''Thirteen'', Brian Lackey in the film '' Mysterious Skin'', Alan Tracy in the 2004 film '' Thunderbird ...
star in the main roles. 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 that is transferred almost completely identically from the original work without much interpretation. Production uses In the film industry, most ...
remake of the 1997 film, albeit in English and set in the United States with different actors. Like the original, the film follows a
middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
family as they are captured and tortured by two young criminals on their vacation. Exterior scenes were filmed on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
. The film is an
international co-production A co-production is a joint venture between two or more different production companies for the purpose of film production, television production, video game development, and so on. In the case of an international co-production, production companies ...
of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Italy. 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 neighbor, Fred, is seen with two young men, Peter and Paul. They find Fred reacting somewhat awkwardly. Fred and Paul come over to help put the boat into the lake. After they leave, George and Georgie stay outside by the lake, tending to their boat. Georgie asks his father why Fred was behaving so strangely. While Ann is in the kitchen cooking, Peter visits and asks to borrow some eggs. Ann gives him the eggs but Peter clumsily drops them. Feeling a little annoyed after Peter accidentally knocks her phone into the sink filled with water, Ann gives him another four eggs and he leaves. Soon afterwards she hears Lucky barking and finds Peter and Paul inside together. Lucky had jumped on Peter, causing him to break the second batch of eggs. Paul asks her to try out one of the golf clubs outside, and she begrudgingly agrees. In the boat, George and Georgie hear Lucky barking hysterically when suddenly the barking stops. Peter and Paul request more eggs, and Ann becomes frustrated, but George arrives and tries to force the men to leave, slapping Paul. In retaliation, Peter breaks one of George's legs with the golf club. The two young men then take the family hostage. Paul guides Ann on a hunt to find the family's dog, which he had killed with George's golf club. When their neighbors, the Thompsons, visit, Ann passes Paul off as friends, just like what Fred had done before. After returning to the house, the Farbers are forced to participate in a number of
sadistic Sadism may refer to: * Sadomasochism, the giving or receiving of pleasure from acts involving the receipt or infliction of pain or humiliation * Sadistic personality disorder, an obsolete term proposed for individuals who derive pleasure from the s ...
games in order to stay alive, in hope that Fred would visit them as scheduled so they might be rescued. The two young men try to "apologize" to George, but when neglected by George and Ann, they beat them. Paul asks if George or Ann wants to bet that they will be alive by 9:00 in the morning, and says that he and Peter are betting they will not be. Paul frequently ridicules Peter's weight and lack of intelligence, and describes a number of contradicting stories of Peter's past, although no definitive explanation is ever presented as to the men's origins or motives. During the "games", Peter and Paul put Georgie's head in a bag and ask Ann to strip naked. Georgie is nearly suffocated until George asks Ann to follow the men's instructions. When released from the bag, Georgie escapes the house with the help of his parents. He goes to the house of Fred, where he discovers bloody corpses. Meanwhile, Paul pushes Ann, whose hands have been tied by tape behind her back, onto a sofa that is some space away from George, and ties her ankles by tape as well 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 untape 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 the house of Fred and Paul tells him to go ahead and shoot him with it, but the gun fails to go off. Paul returns him to the living room, and gives the shotgun to Peter. 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 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. After 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 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. From the 16th cen ...
. 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. Around eight o'clock in the morning, Paul nonchalantly pushes her into the water to drown, thus winning their bet. They knock on the door of the Thompsons' house and request some eggs. Paul glances at the camera with a smirk.


Cast

*
Naomi Watts Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...
as Ann Farber *
Tim Roth Timothy Simon Roth (born 14 May 1961) is an English actor and producer. He began acting on films and television series in the 1980s. He was among a group of prominent British actors of the era, the "Brit Pack (actors), Brit Pack". He made hi ...
as George Farber *
Devon Gearhart Devon Gearhart (born May 5, 1995) is an American actor. Early life Gearhart was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and began acting at the age of seven, landing national commercials with Burger King, PBS, Pizza Hut and the Cartoon Network ...
as Georgie Farber *
Michael Pitt Michael Carmen Pitt (born April 10, 1981) is an American actor, model, and musician. Pitt is known in film for his roles in ''Murder by Numbers'' (2002), Bernardo Bertolucci's '' The Dreamers'' (2003), Gus Van Sant's '' Last Days'' (2005), and M ...
as Paul *
Brady Corbet Brady James Monson Corbet (; born August 17, 1988) is an American actor and filmmaker. Corbet is known for playing Mason Freeland in the film ''Thirteen'', Brian Lackey in the film '' Mysterious Skin'', Alan Tracy in the 2004 film '' Thunderbird ...
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'' (1981-1984). Early life and education H ...
as Fred, the Farbers' neighbor *
Siobhan Fallon Hogan Siobhan Fallon Hogan (pronounced , born May 13, 1961) is an American actress and comedian. She has appeared in films such as ''Men in Black'', '' Forrest Gump'', ''The Negotiator'', ''Holes'', ''Daddy Day Care'', ''Going in Style'', and '' The Ho ...
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 Brook ...
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

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, G ...
wanted to make a film set in the United States, but for practical reasons he had to set the original 1997 film in Austria.Koehler, Robert.
Funny Games
"

'' Cineaste''. Retrieved on 12 October 2013.
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 Jurgen Jurges (for the 1997 version) or the great
Darius Khondji Darius Khondji ( fa, داریوش خنجی; born 21 October 1955) is an Iranian-French cinematographer. Khondji has worked with a number of high-profile directors, including David Fincher, Woody Allen, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Gus Van Sant, Roman Po ...
(for the new film)—Haneke is fundamentally his own cinematographer exercising considerable control over the entire look of his films."


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. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
premiere at the
London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...
on 20 October 2007. Its
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
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 ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
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 The Istanbul Film Festival ( tr, İstanbul Film Festivali) is the first and oldest international film festival in Turkey, organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. It is held every year in April in movie theaters in Istanbul, T ...
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, Unite ...
'' writer Geoffrey Macnab included ''Funny Games''s lack of success among the reasons for the closure of
Tartan Films Palisades Tartan is a British/American film distribution company, founded by US-based Palisades Media Group to take over the film library of film distributor Tartan Films after it folded in the summer of 2008. History Tartan Films, established i ...
, 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 kind ...
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 The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
were released on 28 July with the extra material being the original
theatrical trailer A trailer (also known as a preview, coming attraction or attraction video) is a commercial advertisement, originally for a feature film that is going to be exhibited in the future at a movie theater/cinema. It is a product of creative and tech ...
, Q&A with producers Hamish McAlpine and Chris Coen, interviews with the cast,
viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...
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 fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
. 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-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, and Stephen Wang ...
reported that 52% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 144 reviews. 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 a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
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'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game 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 distri ...
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 328 cities in 58 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition becam ...
'' called the film "a sour project that defines anti-imaginative."
A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' 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, having directed the films '' Cabin Fever'' (2003) and ''Hoste ...
, 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, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared b ...
'' movies have brought nothing but scorn from responsible critics." ''
The Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' review of 14 March 2008 gave the film a mere half-star out of a possible four. ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' 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 or end credits are a list of the Cast member, cast and Film crew, crew of a particular Film, motion picture, television program, or video game. Where opening credits appear at the beginning of a work, closing credits appear clos ...
is "Bonehead" by the band Naked City from the album '' Torture Garden''.


See also

*
List of films featuring home invasions There is a body of films that feature home invasions. Paula Marantz Cohen says, "Such films reflect an increased fear of the erosion of distinctions between private and public space... These films also reflect a sense that the outside world is mo ...


References


External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Funny Games 2007 films 2007 crime thriller films 2007 psychological thriller films American crime thriller films French crime thriller films English-language French films British crime thriller films German crime thriller films English-language German films Films set in the United States Italian crime thriller films English-language Italian films Films directed by Michael Haneke American remakes of foreign films Films shot in New York (state) Home invasions in film American serial killer films Film4 Productions films Entertainment One films Torture in films English-language Austrian films Remakes of Austrian films Shot-for-shot remakes 2000s English-language films 2000s American films 2000s British films 2000s French films 2000s German films