10 Movie Openings That Wanted To Piss You Off
9. Death Metal Outta Nowhere - Funny Games
Michael Haneke's Funny Games - both its 1997 original and 2007 English-language remake - are committed exercises in pissing the audience off as much as possible.
Though sold to viewers as standard home invasion thrillers, both films take that simple setup to deliver a savage takedown of both sadistic "entertainment" and our own complicity in it.
The films not only betray the expected narrative structure of such a story - spoiler: the outcome's not a happy one - but one of the antagonists even reveals the ability to break the fourth wall and literally rewind the movie for a more favourable outcome.
Haneke makes it clear from the film's very first scene, however, that he's going to be messing with us throughout. The opening credits of both films show the fateful family driving to their holiday home, accompanied by quaint, peaceful music.
But then, all of a sudden, the soundtrack changes to an ear-splittingly cacophonous death metal song - "Bonehead" by Naked City, to be precise - all while the family continues their seemingly peaceful drive.
Basically, Haneke wanted to draw attention to the movie's artifice, to remind audiences of the falseness of cinema, by assaulting them with the least-conventional musical choice possible.
It certainly works, pissing a lot of people off as was clearly the intent.