Director Michael Haneke is best known for 2005's Caché, which used a cool, detached style to examine the effects of a stalker on a wealthy but dysfunctional Parisian family. This uncomfortable subject matter was explored by Haneke in much more bombastic fashion nine years earlier in Funny Games. A sort of meta-mixtape of Straw Dogs, Cape Fear, and A Clockwork Orange, the film wonders aloud why audiences respond to fear, violence, and torture.

The set-up is simple: a wealthy Austrian family head to their weekend home in the countryside. As they unpack, a man knocks as the door to borrow some eggs. And then all hell breaks loose. Through frequent use of breaking the fourth wall, Haneke forces the viewer to recognize that the violent and repulsive nature of the film is exactly what they came to see. And to add to one's discomfort, the film refuses to give the viewer much back, resulting in long, tense passages where nothing positive is happening yet no resolution looms on the horizon. It's truly a difficult film to watch, and while the "meta" concept has been used enough in the past decade to lessen the dramatic effect, Haneke still provides the filmgoer with a lot to think about on the way home. The AFS presents Funny Games as part of a Haneke retrospective that continues through late May.

AFS Presents Funny Games
Tuesday, April 24th
Alamo Downtown [map]
7:00pm
$4, Free for AFS Members [tickets]