Cast: Naomi Watts, Michael Pitt, Tim Roth, Brady Corbet, Devon Gearhart

Dir: Michael Haneke

Rating: 2/5

Ten years after the release of controversial Austrian thriller Funny Games it's director Michael Haneke makes a shot for shot remake for an American audience.

What starts out as a perfect holiday for Anna (Watts), George (Roth) and son Georgie soon turns into a nightmare when two strangers dressed in white enter their holiday home.

The family are subjected to both physical and mental torture as the hostages takers, Peter and Paul, play a series of games with the terrified captives.

Before I criticise the movie the performances are excellent as Naomi Watts throws herself into the role completely as Anna who tries desperately to protect her family.

But the real scene stealers are Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet as Paul and Peter, Pitt in particular, are chilling to the bone as two young men who are willing to subject this family, in particular the young boy, to this torture.

The main purpose behind this movie is simple we have become so use to the horror porn movies that we seem to have become immune and comfortable with images of extreme and graphic violence and Haneke is here to remind the viewer that torture isn't fun and is something we shouldn't really be wanting to watch.

So in a bid to ram this point home the majority of the violence takes place off screen but by doing so the audience feels that it is only witnessing the victims plight from a distance rather than feeling their terror with them.

Haneke has been quoted as saying that he wants his movies to make people think but instead he has produced an art house Hostel that hides behind the idea that it is delivering a moral message.

This film is neither smart nor powerful, in fact I defy you to not nod off, it's a miserable topic that does nothing but insult and disrespect the audience.

It's not a violent and uncomfortable as it thinks it is and most of us do not need a near two hour lecture on how wrong violence is so while their performances are strong this is a pointless exercise from Haneke.

Funny Games is out now

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw