10 Perfect Horror Movies About Hollywood

Plenty of films have taken a look at the effects of violent movies on society, and numerous scholars have had their say, too. But never has a filmmaker made such a concerted effort to implicate the viewer in their cinematic violence as Michael Haneke in the intensely confrontational Funny Games.

The plot is simple. An affluent family drive to their lake house in Austria. They meet two polite young men, ostensibly staying with a neighbouring family. These men turn up at the house to borrow some eggs; instead, they capture, torture, and plan to systematically kill the family.

Haneke’s intention is to get under the skin of the moviegoer. Why do we watch films of this nature? What is there to gain? He torments the viewer further by having one of the killers, played by Arno Frisch, break the fourth wall, turning and smirking at the camera before revealing a terrible crime, at one point even rewinding the film itself after his accomplice is shot.

Funny Games is an intensely unpleasant, if impressively stylised film that divided audiences on release, but it’s far more than an academic exercise or a polemic.