Michael Hanake clearly wants a reaction(good or bad) from people watching his remake of Funny Games. If you were to walk out of the theater while watching his film you’d be giving him the highest praise. Funny Games, be it the original germen film or the remake is not meant to be enjoyed and taken lightly, its an experience that whether you like it or not you’ll be thinking about it for weeks.

If you haven’t seen the original film, which clearly no one has since his reason for remaking his own film was to show it to a wider audience then don’t be fooled by the miss leading title. This movie is anything but funny. Understand that when you purchase a ticket you are in for a vicious, heart stopping exercise in manipulating the audience that will leave you no time to catch your breath. Both the original and this shot-for-shot remake are equally disturbing and thought provoking masterpieces of suspense.

Reading the reviews critics and viewers wrote about it this film it’s definitely split down the middle. Some loved and others hated it. Oddly enough though those who hated it disliked it for the same reasons why others loved it. This isn’t your typical suspense film. There is no happy ending, there isn’t a hero that saves the family from “the bad guys”, nor is there piles of blood being poured everywhere. Almost all of the violence is off screen. This is as real as horror can get, despite the one cartoonish moment near the end.
Horror for the art house fans most people call it. Well maybe so but I’d rather watch this and feel an emotion then watch these so called “torture-pron” films that American studios like to release every week and walk out of the theater feeling nothing at all.