Not So Funny Games

Imagine this: your stern, elderly uncle is telling you off for some petty misdemeanour, all the while wagging his finger in your face patronisingly and doing exactly the same thing that you got into trouble for in the first place. Imagine all that, and you have an idea of what it is like to watch Michael Haneke's Funny Games. It was recommended to me ages ago by somebody whose opinion I trusted, but upon finally watching it recently, it was one of the worst viewing experiences I have ever had.

Ostensibly a horror film, Funny Games sees a family terrorised, held hostage and tortured by two nondescript adolescents who often break the fourth wall and show little regard for cinematic conventions. The idea is clearly to make a profound statement about our relationship with screen violence, pointing out that the terrible events that unfold do so for our entertainment. Rather than put this point across in any interesting or meaningful way however, Haneke (who has actually gone on to make some very good films in the years since) decided to just tell the audience off. For two hours. He seems to have a genuine contempt for the film's audience, and while watching it I kept expecting him to burst into my room with crossed arms and a haughty, patronising gaze, demanding to know why I was watching it. The whole movie feels like a stern lecture, which probably wouldn't be quite so annoying were it not such a nasty and violent movie itself. It's like someone trying to point out to you how cruel fox hunting is by ripping apart a live fox right in front of you and then waving it's corpse around on the end of a stick.

This is all made even worse by the simple fact that the film didn't even reach the audience that Haneke wanted to force his opinions down the throats of. The fact that it was a foreign language film, shown at Cannes and talked about as an intelligent commentary on cinematic violence meant that the mainstream horror audience it was targeted at ('targeted' seems appropriate for such a vicious attack of a film) didn't even see it. Realising that he was preaching to the converted, Haneke went through the effort of remaking the movie, shot-for-shot, in English. Clearly he felt that the audience really, really needed to be told off.

Despite the smug claims of those who champion the film, it's questions and comments aren't even particularly original. Many films have said the same things far more stylishly, subtly and effectively. The idea of the audience as voyeurs, complicit in the crimes being perpetrated on screen can be seen as far back as the brilliant 1960 cult classic Peeping Tom. And then there's the endlessly disturbing Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, the brilliantly ambiguous Man Bites Dog, or even films that questioned the way in which the media marketed violence in general, such as Natural Born Killers or Videodrome. With Funny Games, Michael Haneke was not just raising old questions, he was going to bizarre lengths just to have a go at his own audience. So if you want to be patronised, bullied and accused by an old Austrian bloke for two hours, watch Funny Games. Otherwise, just stick The Texas Chainsaw Massacre back on.