Is Funny Games Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 7 out of 10. It's the slow kind of cruelty, with very few jump scares.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
7 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
High
Expect it to sit with you for a few days.
DOG
Dog: not fine
not fine, and it happens early.
Ruling: Skip it before a trip to a holiday home, and read the plot instead.
Funny Games runs 109 minutes and takes place at a lakefront holiday home in Austria. A young man comes over to borrow some eggs and drops them almost immediately, which is the last small mistake anyone in the movie gets to laugh off.
The premise, briefly
A family arrives at their lakefront holiday home in Austria, and two young men who come by to borrow eggs refuse to leave.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Paul and Peter kill Georgie and Georg, and Paul drowns Anna the next morning around 8:00, winning his bet that nobody would last until 9:00. The movie ends with Paul at the next house, asking to borrow eggs.
The scene you're dreading
In the middle of the movie, Georgie panics and runs during a counting game, and Peter shoots him dead. Paul then complains that Peter was too quick on the trigger, and the pair talk about leaving.
The dog
The dog does not make it. Rolfi, the family's dog, is killed early in the movie, before the family is taken hostage.
Funny Games has almost no jump scares, so the fear is in the cruelty, and knowing the plot only tells you that nobody gets out.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
Borrowing eggs goes badly
Georg Schober and his wife Anna bring their son Georgie and their dog Rolfi to their holiday house on a lake in Austria. While driving in, they pass their neighbors Fred and Eva, who have two young Viennese men with them that the family doesn't recognize, and at the house they notice their daughter Sissi isn't there. A few minutes later Fred stops by with one of the men and presents him as Paul, whose father is a friend of his. While Georg gets the boat ready, the other man, Peter, wanders into Anna's kitchen to borrow eggs for Eva. He drops them and knocks the family's phone into the sink, which looks like an accident. Paul then swings one of Georg's golf clubs to test it. Anna tells them both to get out, and Peter answers by breaking Georg's leg with a golf club. He also tells Anna that they killed Rolfi, and the family is now held hostage.
For the next several hours Peter and Paul make the family play cruel games. Paul bets that the family won't be alive at 9:00 the following morning. He pulls a pillowcase over Georgie's head and leans on Georg to order Anna to take off her clothes. She does it, and the men then tell her to dress again. Georgie slips away to Fred's house and discovers Sissi's body. He aims a shotgun at Paul, but it has no ammunition, and Paul walks him back to the house. This is the scene people dread, in the middle of the movie: Peter leads the family in a counting game and Paul is busy making sandwiches, Georgie panics and bolts, and Peter shoots him dead. Paul scolds Peter for acting too fast, and the two of them agree to go.
The remote control
After a period of grief, Anna runs out of the house to look for help while Georg tries to fix the broken phone. Peter and Paul find her and bring her back. During a later game Anna gets hold of the shotgun and shoots Peter dead. Paul then picks up a remote control and rewinds the movie, which erases what Anna just did and puts Peter back where he was. Paul then shoots Georg dead. That leaves Anna alone with both men, and the morning is not far off.
The ending, explained
Early the next morning Paul and Peter take Anna out on the family's boat. Around 8:00 Paul pushes her overboard to drown, which wins him his bet. Sissi was already dead, Georgie and Georg are dead, and Rolfi the dog was killed at the start, so none of the Schober family or their pets are left. Paul then visits the home of a woman named Gerda and asks her for some eggs, saying Anna sent him. While Gerda goes to the kitchen, Paul turns to the camera and smirks.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: not fine, and it happens early.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Funny Games scary?
Yes, Funny Games is a 7 out of 10. It has very few jump scares, and the fear comes from the dread and cruelty of two men taking a family hostage, which tends to last a few days.
How does Funny Games end?
Paul and Peter kill Georgie and Georg, and Paul pushes Anna off the boat to drown around 8:00, winning his bet, and then knocks on a neighbor's door asking to borrow eggs.
Does the dog die in Funny Games?
Yes, the dog dies in Funny Games. Rolfi, the family's dog, is killed early in the movie, before the family is taken hostage.
Is there a post-credits scene in Funny Games?
No. Funny Games has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
What does the remote control do in Funny Games?
After Anna shoots Peter, Paul finds a remote control and rewinds the movie, which undoes Peter's death. Paul then shoots Georg instead, so the rewind works in the villains' favor.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Funny Games is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You don't have to sit through 109 minutes of Funny Games to know how it goes. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror like this before you see it.
