Film Synopsis

A succession of "sadistic, insufferable, clever and relentlessly compelling" (David Sterritt, Film Scouts) games between victims and perpetrators -- and between auteur and spectator -- Funny Games opens with an aerial shot of an SUV maneuvering through an idyllic landscape. Inside the vehicle, Anna (Susanne Lothar; The Piano Teacher), Georg (Ulrich Mühe; Benny's Video) and their son Georgie play a guessing game en route to their lakeside vacation home. But a soporific rural escape rapidly turns into a home-invasion nightmare as Paul (Arno Frisch; Benny's Video) and Peter (Frank Giering) break into their house, claiming to be neighbors' relatives. Young and articulate, the serial-killer duo of Peter and Paul inexplicably imprison this upper class Austrian family, irrationally switching from physical assaults to moments of emotional harassment and vicious psychological tortures.