Five reasons why "Funny Games" is Postmodern

1. Paul and Peter, two good-looking villains-sadists of “Funny Games”, control the screen action. The characters of the film decide for themselves which way the narrative will develop, they oppose themselves to the logic of the script, setting their own rules of the game. They even have a remote control, which can rewind back unplanned storylines, rewind back his surrounded reality, going beyond it.


2. There is a demolition of the fourth wall in this film. During the film characters address to the audience a couple of times. Thanks to this clever trick, the viewers actually become accomplices in crimes committed by the characters. Director Michael Haneke wanted to make this story look more real – he wanted to make viewers fully involved in it, he dragged them into the triangle "victim - torturer - viewer".


3.  “Funny Games”, according to director Michael Haneke, is not a thriller, but a "film about thriller".


4. This film is not “about what?” but "for what?". This film is for perception, and not for answering questions like "why they were killed?" or "how these two young guys came down to a life like this?". The main mission of the film is to show the audience the world beyond their normativity.


5. Paul says "Let's make a bet!" (He says it to the viewer) according to which the family will not survive till morning. Naturally, throughout whole movie the viewer will think about that the family will survive. Events where the main heroine picks up a gun and kills one of the sadists shows us what the audience really want and expect to see, but afterwards thanks to the magic remote control, a deconstruction begins: the whole film rewinds back, the real push out the desired.