ustrian writer/director Michael Haneke's Funny Games - a scene for scene, if not word for word, remake of his 1997 German home-invasion film toys with the way violence is portrayed and how we perceive it. The film also invites us along for the ride, in pure ambulance-chasing style, complete with the morbid pleasures of observing a family, however fictional, being tortured nonstop on the screen for two hours.

The storyline is about two deeply disturbed young men who hold a family hostage and force them to play increasingly sadistic, violent, torturous games in order to stay alive. The family is the beautiful Ann (Naomi Watts, who is one of the film's executive producers), her meek husband, George, (Tim Roth) and their preteen son, Georgie (Devon Gearhart). We meet them as they're on vacation, driving to their expensive, perfect country house for sailing and relaxation.

But, once there, they notice neighbors (Boyd Gaines, Siobhan Fallon) acting oddly, with a couple of young men with them. Soon the pair of clean-cut young men, wearing white gloves, are at George and Ann's house to borrow some eggs - which is all fine and dandy, except what's with the white gloves? And why, after a few eerie mishaps, won't they leave?

The boys, Paul (Michael Pitt) and Peter (Brady Corbet) - at least that's what they call themselves most of the time - then begin a brutal game. These two are like monster preppies, with their immaculate white gloves and their emo haircuts and Lacoste tennis shirts. The ultimate game: the “guests” bet that the family will be dead within 12 hours (by 9:00 the next morning). The Farbers are betting that they will remain alive. Guess who wins.

Their motivations are unclear but they have nothing to do with robbery or material gain. Sadists at heart, they threaten the couple by stabbing, shooting or some other horrible means. Smashing George's knee with a golf club (FYI, that's not a spoiler — they're just getting started), And lucky us - we get to watch. Indeed, much of the violence - and there is much of it - takes place either off-camera or just beyond the frame. But, Haneke forces us to watch, almost in real time, the aftermath of shocking acts, something you just don't see in most horror films. While certain key events occur off-screen, the movie is full of long, uncomfortable takes. Even during some of the quieter scenes, the sense of impending doom is thick in the air.

As sadistic and nihilistic as it is, "Funny Games" is also masterfully made; Haneke plays the audience and its expectations like a master fiddler (albeit a merciless one). Tim Roth and Naomi Watts prove their skill by vivifying their characters’ limited emotional scale; Watts brings a taut intelligence to the proceedings, but her character, like Roth's, is more archetype than actual person. Meanwhile, Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet do solid jobs playing the roles assigned to them as sickening junior psychos.

Despite its stellar cast, Funny Games is bound to fail commercially; even the original was seen mostly by people in the global arthouse circuit. Still, one thing you can say about Edgy auteur Michael Haneke's brutal thriller, is that it's an unpleasant, unsettling, cruelly manipulative and finally hateful experience, but an experience nonetheless. Don't say you weren't warned.