12 Great Directors Who Helmed Terrible Movie Remakes

Haneke almost had a good reason for remaking his own film, 1997's Funny Games: it was originally aimed at American audiences, but few Americans actually saw it due to what Haneke later realised was a distain for reading subtitles. As such, the German filmmaker decided to mount an American version in the hope that more people would see his "extremely violent but ultimately pointless" horror film.

The 2007 version is a shot-for-shot remake in the strictest sense; Haneke literally regurgitates Funny Games, albeit with Naomi Watts and Tim Roth in the lead roles and Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet as their tormentors, who take the couple and their kids hostage and force them to participate in increasingly sadistic games.

Haneke, whose shocking and subversive films have been acclaimed the world over, doesn't seem like the sort of guy who would care or entertain the idea of remaking one of his own pictures, especially when the original Funny Games achieved exactly what the filmmaker set out to do in creating an unnerving portrait of senseless cinematic violence that left you feeling cold.

Despite the fact that it's essentially the same film, though, the US version of Funny Games lacks the inherently clinical, European strangeness that made it such uncomfortable viewing in the first place. The original Funny Games was a pointless film on purpose; the remake winds up being pointless by accident.