This is a very special movie. Director Heneke wants to make a point about the movie industry and the role violence plays in the audience’s mind. The way he makes his point is by giving us what we want in terms of violence, but subverting conventions and showing us that maybe we have been brainwashed by all those violent movies.
In order to discuss this film I will SPOIL it, that’s inevitable because I really want to get into it in detail.
The plot is simple: two gentle young men dressed in white invade a summer house and proceed to torture the owners, a couple with a boy. All the violence is off camera, but the screams and sounds are more than enough to scare us.
The villains are very unconventional, because they are very well spoken and good looking men who are playing games to pass their time. When Ann goes out and sees a car I thought it must be them, so go hide!! Which exactly what she does, except it wasn’t them and she lost an opportunity to find help. Then the second car comes, and the same dilemma presents. We only see them getting back home with Ann, but we know what happened.
The biggest surprise is when Ann shoots one of them we get a big relief, it’s the moment we’ve been waiting all along. However the other villain finds the remote control and rewinds themselves!! So now we are negated that relief!
Throughout the movie the bad guys look at the camera and directly address the audience talking about being entertained, as if they were there to entertain us. Which is the truth. However they also talk about reversal of expectations, thus not giving us what we want. They kill all members of the family one by one, negating us any type of satisfaction.
It’s an interesting commentary, making us think why we like certain movies. However this movie can also be enjoyed as one of those movies, I was totally tense throughout the film, and Heneke had my complete attention. But I also enjoyed this exactly for reversing all my expectations and making this a very different movie.
This is an excruciating movie to watch, even though there is absolutely no violence on camera. I enjoyed it for the tension, for the surprises, and for the commentary. But I do not recommend it to everyone.
Rating: 3.5 Stars