Whilst it’s not one of my favourite horror films, Bryan Bertino’s 2008 psychological horror ‘The Strangers’ is a film that really gets under my skin and is one of the few horror films that genuinely scares me. Home invasion films are not ones that typically get me on edge, but there was something about The Strangers with the motivation of the invaders simply being that the victims were at home, and had they not been they would have moved on.
Since watching The Strangers a number of years ago, I’ve had multiple recommendations for Michael Hanake’s 1997 film, ‘Funny Games’. Similar to The Strangers, Funny Games is also a psychological horror about home invaders who seemingly have no motive. Whilst Funny Games predates The Strangers by over a decade, something that keeps Funny Games relevant is the interesting way it plays with the tropes of the home invasion genre, common storytelling structural devices, and the medium of film itself.
After arriving at their holiday home, the Schober family consisting of husband and father Georg (Ulrich Muhe), wife and mother Anna (Susanne Lothar), and their son Georg Jr. (Stefan Clapczynski), are approached by two young men, Paul (Arno Frisch), and Peter (Frank Giering), who claim to be staying with their next door neighbours, and have been sent over for eggs as they have run out.
It doesn’t take long however for Paul and Peter to charm their way into the house, cut off the Schober’s telephone line, verbally intimidate Anna and break Georg’s leg. Explaining to the family that they would like to play a game with them, they place bets that the family will likely not survive until sunrise unless they play by the rules (of which are vague, and seemingly ever changing), Paul and Peter than proceed to torture the Schober’s for their own amusement.
Since watching The Strangers a number of years ago, I’ve had multiple recommendations for Michael Hanake’s 1997 film, ‘Funny Games’. Similar to The Strangers, Funny Games is also a psychological horror about home invaders who seemingly have no motive. Whilst Funny Games predates The Strangers by over a decade, something that keeps Funny Games relevant is the interesting way it plays with the tropes of the home invasion genre, common storytelling structural devices, and the medium of film itself.
After arriving at their holiday home, the Schober family consisting of husband and father Georg (Ulrich Muhe), wife and mother Anna (Susanne Lothar), and their son Georg Jr. (Stefan Clapczynski), are approached by two young men, Paul (Arno Frisch), and Peter (Frank Giering), who claim to be staying with their next door neighbours, and have been sent over for eggs as they have run out.
It doesn’t take long however for Paul and Peter to charm their way into the house, cut off the Schober’s telephone line, verbally intimidate Anna and break Georg’s leg. Explaining to the family that they would like to play a game with them, they place bets that the family will likely not survive until sunrise unless they play by the rules (of which are vague, and seemingly ever changing), Paul and Peter than proceed to torture the Schober’s for their own amusement.
On the surface it seems like there’s very little going on with Funny Games. Initially it may seem cruel, meaningless, and just plain nasty. But once you start to really pay attention to the things that Paul and Peter say, as well as try to place Paul’s fourth wall breaking moments within the context of their games, it becomes clear that Funny Games actually has a great message at the middle of it all and plays with audience expectations in ways that I haven’t ever really seen before.
Conversations surrounding reality versus fiction, about whose death will illicit the greatest reaction, and encouraging betting on who will live or die all seem like strange things to be talking about and don’t feel as though they are happening in the same world as that of the Schober family. The reason for this, without spoiling too much, is that they aren’t really happening in that same world. The conversation is happening between Paul, Peter, and the viewer. They aren’t talking to each other; they’re talking to you. So then when things really start to kick into high gear for the end of the second act and then the film’s climax, the conversations they have been having are all about how to illicit the greatest sense of enjoyment for you, and the expectations you have brought into the film knowing it’s a home invasion horror movie.
It's a really interesting way of delivering the narrative, because as with any horror movie, although you’re instinctively rooting for the ‘good guys’, ultimately, you’ve come to watch it to see some of them get tortured and killed off. It’s not the Schober’s that are the main characters of this film, it’s Paul, Peter, and you. Crucially, none of this could happen without you.
Place that under the lens of analysing violence within the media and you have yourself a great film to peel back the layers, and whilst pointing the finger at the viewer and saying ‘It’s your fault this is happening’ is a little on the nose, the way Funny Games gets to that point is genuinely entertaining.
I really liked the performances of everyone involved, particularly Lothar and Frisch. Lothar takes on the leading lady role of sorts as she is the character, we spend the most time with, and the one to which most of the torture happens to. She is beaten and broken so much over the course of the film, and yet she continues to have the tenacity to keep getting back up and trying to fight for survival.
Frisch meanwhile is a real nasty piece of work, but the way he manages to include the viewer as a part of the film even when he’s not actively breaking the fourth wall is great. The way he frames himself, and the way he delivers lines is always done in a way that makes it seem like there’s an extra person in the room, that person being you, and that is not an easy thing to pull off without it looking forced, and yet he manages it perfectly.
Funny Games is a film best experienced first-hand. I don’t think it’s possible to effectively communicate how surreal of an experience watching this film is, especially when you begin to realise that you’re complicit in the actions of the antagonists. The film did have a 2007 US remake, also directed by Hanake, but I’ll cover that in its own review.
Funny Games isn’t overly gory, and it leaves a lot of its violence to the imagination, but it is certainly an uncomfortable watch. But it is one that if you commit to is immensely rewarding, perhaps more so than any other home invasion film I have ever seen, and that makes the horror strike in a whole new way.
Conversations surrounding reality versus fiction, about whose death will illicit the greatest reaction, and encouraging betting on who will live or die all seem like strange things to be talking about and don’t feel as though they are happening in the same world as that of the Schober family. The reason for this, without spoiling too much, is that they aren’t really happening in that same world. The conversation is happening between Paul, Peter, and the viewer. They aren’t talking to each other; they’re talking to you. So then when things really start to kick into high gear for the end of the second act and then the film’s climax, the conversations they have been having are all about how to illicit the greatest sense of enjoyment for you, and the expectations you have brought into the film knowing it’s a home invasion horror movie.
It's a really interesting way of delivering the narrative, because as with any horror movie, although you’re instinctively rooting for the ‘good guys’, ultimately, you’ve come to watch it to see some of them get tortured and killed off. It’s not the Schober’s that are the main characters of this film, it’s Paul, Peter, and you. Crucially, none of this could happen without you.
Place that under the lens of analysing violence within the media and you have yourself a great film to peel back the layers, and whilst pointing the finger at the viewer and saying ‘It’s your fault this is happening’ is a little on the nose, the way Funny Games gets to that point is genuinely entertaining.
I really liked the performances of everyone involved, particularly Lothar and Frisch. Lothar takes on the leading lady role of sorts as she is the character, we spend the most time with, and the one to which most of the torture happens to. She is beaten and broken so much over the course of the film, and yet she continues to have the tenacity to keep getting back up and trying to fight for survival.
Frisch meanwhile is a real nasty piece of work, but the way he manages to include the viewer as a part of the film even when he’s not actively breaking the fourth wall is great. The way he frames himself, and the way he delivers lines is always done in a way that makes it seem like there’s an extra person in the room, that person being you, and that is not an easy thing to pull off without it looking forced, and yet he manages it perfectly.
Funny Games is a film best experienced first-hand. I don’t think it’s possible to effectively communicate how surreal of an experience watching this film is, especially when you begin to realise that you’re complicit in the actions of the antagonists. The film did have a 2007 US remake, also directed by Hanake, but I’ll cover that in its own review.
Funny Games isn’t overly gory, and it leaves a lot of its violence to the imagination, but it is certainly an uncomfortable watch. But it is one that if you commit to is immensely rewarding, perhaps more so than any other home invasion film I have ever seen, and that makes the horror strike in a whole new way.