50 Movies Where Evil Won

Plot: Many inexplicable tragedies unfold in a German village in the years just before World War I begins. 

Michael Haneke's stunning, Palme d'Or-winning knockout is the kind of subtle, slow-paced picture that'll quietly sneak up on you and terrify you senseless by the end.

In Haneke's words, it's a movie about the origin of evil. The many unexplained crimes occur in a troubled community ruled over by corrupt, puritanical hypocrites who abuse those beneath them, especially the village children. Things are disturbing throughout, yet it gets even worse by the end when the village schoolteacher (Christian Friedel), who also narrates the film, tells the village's corrupt pastor that he believes the village children are responsible for the various acts of violence throughout the story. 

The pastor is enraged and threatens him with prison if he ever repeats this accusation, so the crimes remain unsolved and the village spirals further into paranoia. Several prominent characters disappear without a trace towards the end, and it seems all too possible they were murdered to keep them silent about these crimes, although, in typical Haneke style, nothing is ever definitively answered. 

Nevertheless, whether you assume these crimes as the actions of the village adults or their children, this movie can be read as a haunting look at how a corrupt society breeds evil actions and shelters those who commit them. Put it this way: it is so easy to imagine that those children grew up to become Nazis.