10 Insanely Intense Films Any Horror Fan MUST See

Understatement of the year: arthouse director and Salo fan Michael Haneke makes dark, sad films that are hard work to watch. From Benny’s Video, a truly weird film about a young man’s creation of a home snuff film, to Amour, in which an aging man helplessly watches his wife slowly die in front of him, Haneke’s films always explore painful tragedy from unexpected perspectives.

Funny Games, though, whether you watch the 1997 original or the 2007 shot-for-shot remake (both versions by Haneke), is surely his most punishing work. A blameless family are kept prisoner in their holiday home by two very unpleasant young visitors, who proceed to savagely torture and murder them, smirking the whole way through.

Funny Games also has one of the harshest twists in cinema. If you think our heroes have any chance of survival, even after they’ve turned the weapons on their captors, then you’re in for a nasty surprise.