Somebody Saw Funny Games!

.

(Thanks to Dave at VotT for this link)

Over at Shock Til You Drop, there's a very, very, very early review of Michael Haneke's remake of his own 1997 film, Funny Games, which doesn't come out until January 2008.

They also share this new pic at the top there, which is really eerie in how strikingly it echoes an exact shot from the original. We'd heard the news that Haneke was doing this thing as a shot-for-shot remake, and using that picture as a judge that seems pretty damned accurate. Brady Corbett is freaking me out, he looks so right.

For more of me rambling about my insane expectations on the movie, click here. What STYD has to say about the remake, which stars Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Corbett and (ugh) Michael Pitt, is somewhat confounding because I can't really tell if the writer has seen the original film, but here's the jist:

"Leave it to German director Michael Haneke to swoop into our current atmosphere of no-nonsense, gory, torture-steeped horror and throw something back in our face that challenges it all with a deliberately-paced, equally no-nonsense revisit to his 1997 shocker called Funny Games...

... Haneke has delivered what's essentially an anti-Hostel; an answer to our current yearning for over-the-top violence and excessive, stylistic entertainment. The catch is, it's total art house fare and it will not play to everyone's tastes. But not since seeing the French thriller Ils earlier this year has a film made my palms sweat, my knee flinch in dreaded anticipation of the degradation to come, my tastes in entertainment truly called into question...

...Watts, Roth and [Devon] Gearhart turn in brave performances; Pitt and Corbett, meanwhile, turn on the charm but keep us on constant alert.

This is a film that can't come any sooner to turn the torture sub-genre on its head and serve as a crucial, poignant exclamation mark to its run. Brutal and altogether brilliant, I'm looking forward to seeing this again."

It had occured to me recently, with all the "torture porn" hullaballoo, that Haneke very well may've had these things on his mind with feeling the need to remake his own film. And, as often as I've felt myself forced into a position of defending the place for the Eli Roths of the world, I would put a bullet between Eli's eyes to hang out with Michael Haneke for five minutes and hear what he has to say about a culture of violence. So if Funny Games plays as some sort of game of "Chicken" with the current trend in horror, then bring it on. Cannot wait.
.