How Long Is “Funny Games”?

Michael Haneke's American re-make of his 1997 German version loses none of the terror or horror in the translation. An all-American family - George, Ann and son Georgie - arrive at their summer cottage for a yachting holiday. Two polite young men, Paul and Peter introduce themselves as neighbours but suddenly and brutally instil a nihilistic, sadistic regime on the family, playing mind games and torturing them. Haneke famously makes the audience complicit to events, rewinding events, having Paul and Peter address the audience directly and making the violence happen off screen but having it still horribly audible in this claustrophobic nightmare.