George, Ann, and Georgie (Tim Roth, Naomi Watts, and Devon Gearhart respectively) have just arrived at their beautiful lakeside vacation home in a well to do lake community and are looking forward to a relaxing two weeks, when two polite, well spoken young men arrive at their door and ask for some eggs.  Ann gives the men the eggs and expects them to leave.  Unfortunately, they do not.  Instead, the young men want to stay and wager a bet with their unwilling participants.  They bet that George, Ann, and Georgie will be dead by 9 am the next morning.  The family's lakeside paradise becomes a living hell as they frantically fight to stay alive.  The clock is ticking...

The thing that impressed me the most about this movie was the acting, especially that of young Georgie (Devon Gearhart).  He had a very difficult role, and he pulled it off brilliantly.  Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet, who played the villains Paul and Tom, did wonderful jobs as the very charming, yet cold blooded killers.  They didn't over do it.  Tim Roth and Naomi Watts also did excellent jobs in their roles as the terrified parents.  All of the emotions projected in Funny Games seemed very genuine. 

Funny Games did, indeed, have blood and violence, but it wasn't a "splatter fest."  It was more of a psychological horror film.  The mosters in this movie were  more interested in playing head games with their victims, than hacking them to bits with an axe or a machete.  The movie took sort of a unique turn as Paul would occasionally look into the camera and address the viewer. In another scene, Paul actually rewound the part of the movie and changed the outcome when things didn't go his way.

I decided to give Funny Games five stars, primarily for the acting, but also for terrifying plot.  This is not an easy movie to watch.  I'll admit some scenes left me a bit frazzled, and I have a pretty high schock level. 

Funny Games isn't one of my favorite horror films (just personal taste), but it's still very well done, and I recommend it to any one who's in the market for a good jolt of horror.