MOVIE · 1997

Funny Games

CrimeDramaHorrorThriller109 min

At a lakeside vacation cabin, a mother, father, and son are taken hostage by two young men who force them into a series of humiliating, violent “games.” Susanne Lothar and Ulrich Mühe are the parents, trying to hold their family together as one of the intruders, played by Arno Frisch, shifts from careful politeness to open sadism. Michael Haneke keeps the setting ordinary and domestic — meals, manners, small talk, a holiday home by the water — while the captors’ white-gloved ritual and abrupt breaks of the fourth wall make the violence feel controlled, performative, and impossible to escape.