Funny Games (2008)★★★★☆

I like this movie, but it is hard to watch.

(I think maybe spoilers)

Like, this is just a brutal movie. From start, to finish, to…replay?

Naomi Watts and Tim Roth are believably terrified and terrorized throughout. Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet are believably terrifying throughout.

It reminds me a bit of The Strangers with that “brutal but random” bent. Interestingly, we get a LOT more of the perpetrators in this one. Hell, they even talk to the camera at times.

There’s also something especially terrifying about how Paul keeps referring to Peter by different names and nicknames throughout? Is he Tom (to Paul’s Jerry)? Peter? TUBBY? Michael Pitt is fantastic at playing that ingenu-cum-psychopath character, actually, with those big blue eyes of his.

This is apparently a shot-for-shot, English-language version of the director’s own film from 1997. I’ve never seen the original, but again, given how hard this one is to watch in English, I can’t imagine watching a subtitled version would be better?

Anyway, this movie is almost two hours of…a lot. It’s hard to recommend to anyone who isn’t a fan of straight-up horror, basically torture porn films already. I mean, it’s almost hard to recommend to anyone who is. But I’ve rewatched this more than a few times so I can’t say I don’t like it.