--- title: "Funny Games: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/funny-games/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/funny-games" critics_score: 64 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Funny Games (1997): what the critics said Critics' score 64 from 8 reviews: 4 positive, 2 mixed, 2 negative. 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. ## Empire — Kim Newman Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. Haneke delivers a remarkable film that encourages identification with the victims while making the villains creepily unforgettable. Its sparing on-screen violence and protracted scenes make it one worth seeing despite being arguable. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/funny-games-review/) ## Little White Lies — Stephen Puddicombe Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 18 May 2017. The critic praises Haneke’s meta home-invasion film as a chilling, technically masterful satire on screen violence that still shocks through its naturalistic tension and fourth-wall breaks. It singles out the film’s ability to implicate viewers in the violence while delivering genuine horror despite its didactic intent. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/articles/funny-games-michael-haneke-satire-screen-violence/) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 30 October 1998. Haneke subverts thriller conventions by keeping violence off-screen and forcing the audience to imagine terrors and witness aftermaths. The result is an immensely disturbing piece of cinema that makes viewers complicit through direct address and rewinding tricks. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/funny-games-review/) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 16 May 2006. Haneke's 1998 Funny Games is a masterful home-invasion thriller designed to drive people out of the theater or punish those who stay. It succeeds by being deeply unsatisfying through its relentlessly sadistic story of a bourgeois family tormented by two young psychos. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/four-films-by-michael-haneke-1798201677) ## Variety — David Rooney Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 25 May 1997. Festival review. The film is a chilling psychological thriller about a family subjected to sadistic torment, continuing Haneke's examination of violence and media. However, it outstays its welcome and feels overly knowing in its manipulation of genre expectations. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1997/film/reviews/funny-games-1117329710/) ## The New York Times — Stephen Holden Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 11 March 1998. The critic sees the film as a blood-curdling portrait that uses Brechtian devices to confront viewers with their voyeurism toward violence. It ultimately comes across as a sophisticated act of cinematic sadism rather than a genuine moral challenge. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1998/03/11/movies/film-review-an-exploration-he-explains-of-reactions-to-torture.html) ## Slant Magazine — Derek Smith Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 22 May 2019. The critic views the film as a bullying thesis statement that scolds viewers for enjoying thriller violence through metatextual tricks, resulting in a dour and grueling experience of condescending sadism. Haneke is faulted for refusing to implicate himself in the violence he condemns. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/funny-games-blu-ray-review-michael-hanekes/) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 19 January 2001. The critic describes the film as skin-crawlingly terrifying and more frightening than conventional horror due to its quiet, realistic psychological torture of an upper-class family by two polite young men with no motive beyond power and humiliation. [Read the review](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/funny-games-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/funny-games.md