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Funny Games
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Funny Games (1997) More at IMDbPro »

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Funny Games (1997) -- Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.

Overview

User Rating:
7.7/10   12,670 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 10% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Michael Haneke
Writer:
Michael Haneke (writer)
Contact:
View company contact information for Funny Games on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
11 March 1998 (USA) more
Genre:
Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller more
Tagline:
Ein Alptraum. more
Plot:
Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
4 wins & 5 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(34 articles)
Movie Deadpool To Break Fourth Wall, Talk To The Audience
 (From /Film. 3 July 2009, 11:00 AM, PDT)

The Seventh Continent
 (From LateFilmFull. 25 June 2009, 2:00 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
ah well, screw it more

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Additional Details

Also Known As:
Ölümcül oyunlar (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Brincadeiras Perigosas (Portugal) [pt]
Funny Games (Poland) [pl]
Funny Games (Finland) [fi]
Funny Games (France) [fr]
Funny Games: juegos divertidos (Spain) [es]
Horas de terror (Argentina) (video title) [es]
Paraxena paihnidia (Greece) [el]
Violência Gratuita (Brazil) [pt]
more
Runtime:
108 min
Country:
Austria
Language:
German | French | Italian
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby Digital

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Director Michael Haneke has said that he never intended 'Funny Games' to be a horror film. Instead his idea was to make a film with a moralistic comment about the influence of media violence on society. It's a subject that Haneke is quite passionate about. more
Goofs:
Crew or equipment visible: When Anna and Georg are driving in their car, a reflection of a microphone between the front seats can be seen on the window. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
[subtitled version]
Anna: Björling... Suliotis?
Georg: Almost. Björling is easy.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in 24 Wirklichkeiten in der Sekunde (2005) more
Soundtrack:
Cara Salva more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
122 out of 159 people found the following comment useful:-
ah well, screw it, 23 May 2003
Author: Jonathan Rimorin from Cormorant Island

I saw this movie again last night, for the third time, and once again had to keep watching each torturous minute until its chilling end. Going through the comments index, I see the expected responses: it was boring: it was pointless: it was too long: it's a satire: the games aren't actually that funny: it involved the audience in a neato way: it's nothing new: it's been done before. So I here offer an interpretation to add to the cacophany of reactions that FUNNY GAMES seem to engender.

What this movie reminds me of is the Book of Job, in the Bible, where God and Satan decide for their own amusement to torture this guy Job, killing his family, racking him with boils, and various other divine amusements. While watching this movie last night, I thought of another reference, this time from "King Lear": "Like flies to wanton schoolboys are we to the gods;/ They kill us for their sport." What this movie does is challenge the audience's own involvement in visual narrative -- usually, we watch movies from somewhere on-high and omniscient; we're invisible but we see all; we're voyeurs, just like God. In Haneke's film, we identify not with the victims but with the all-powerful killers as they set about their funny games. The two polite young men are performing their entertainments for us, the viewers; they're slaking our bloodthirst, our desire for gory spectacle - - after all, isn't this why we watch movies like this in the first place? Haneke, however, doesn't play the usual evasions; he makes explicit the audience's participation in violence; and he forces upon us the need to take responsibility for it.

I find this fascinating. I also find the negative comments here fascinating as well -- "not violent enough!" "the victims deserve to die..." "all the violence is off-screen..." "no gore at all, 'LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT' did it first, with more blood...." etc. as being inadvertantly revealing of those viewers' psyche. I especially love the comment made by that one Viking guy, who writes that Haneke's film has "no point," and goes on to say "...I just hope those people break into MY house, so I can break them in two!"

I think Haneke made his point.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Funny Games (1997)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
What was up with the fast rewinding? juliancardona
Differences between Funny Games and Funny Games U.S.? margarida_saramago
Weirdness re Australian classification tim_kroenert
Totally overhyped maxjohnson1971
Appearance of Peter and Paul Emperorglenuff
If you couldn't make it through... Ritz17
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