Most critics agree that Funny Games is deeply disturbing, and that this is the point. The praise clusters on Haneke’s control: the violence kept off-screen so the audience has to imagine it, the long unbroken scenes of a family being tormented, and two polite young intruders who want nothing but power and humiliation. Several reviews single out the moments when the film turns to address the viewer directly, arguing that they make the audience complicit.
The spread is wide. The reservations cluster on the lecture underneath the thriller. Slant Magazine calls the film a bullying thesis that scolds viewers for enjoying what it shows and faults Haneke for exempting himself from the violence he condemns. The New York Times finds sophisticated cinematic sadism rather than a moral challenge, and Variety thinks it outstays its welcome and is too knowing about the genre. The dissent is entirely American; the British reviews are the warmest.