Our hearts go out to anyone who mistakenly popped this film on after only casually glancing at the title and thinking, "sounds like fun". Never judge a book by its cover, and most certainly never judge a film by its title. There is nothing funny about the games that appear in this film only hurt... terribly painful and depressing hurt. Michael Hanekes 1997 Austrian psychological thriller, and subsequent 2007 American remake, produces two characters that will forever be on your list of fictional people you absolutely despise. Meet Peter and Paul, two eerily cheerful and bone-chillingly weird youths. After infiltrating the intimate space of a loving familys holiday home, they hold them hostage while subjecting them to a series of sadistic games. Its not so much the actual murdering that cements Peter and Paul a space on this list, but rather their way of building up to the inevitable act. Conforming to cinematic convention, they intermingle their twisted games with making sure they stick to the pre-determined script even going so far as to literally rewind a scene when it doesnt go their way. We may hate their guts by the time the movies credits role, but its hard to deny that these two archetypes of evil werent lacking in their creativity when it came to constructing the murder of an innocent family. Memorable creative murder: A gut-wrenchingly twisted version of eeny, meeny, miny, moe.
