The modern home invasion genre has its roots in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, wherein Alex and his droogs torture and rape a well-to-do-couple while crooning along to "Singing in the Rain." It's still an unsettling scene 47 years later, in part because, despite Kubrick's penchant for elegantly composed shots, this particular scene is crudely handheld, forcing the viewer to become unwilling accomplices to the psychological carnage. It's just one of the lessons German director Michael Haneke lifts for his own self-aware take on the genre, 1997's Funny Games.Arriving at their lake house, Anna, George and their young son have their vacation rudely interrupted by a pair of well-dressed hooligans - Peter and Paul - who take them hostage and stage a series of games to amuse themselves. As the sadistic evening continues, Anna and George realize that there's no reasoning with their captors and a fight for their family's survival ensues.A full synopsis would ruin most of the cruel surprises and shock effects the film rather haphazardly lays out. Suffice to say that Funny Games is a movie that's meant to inflict damage, much like Kubrick's earlier work. But Haneke adds an element of fourth-wall breaking tom-foolery that both amplifies and alleviates some of the brutality, intermittently having his self-aware sociopaths directly address the audience and - at one point - change the course of the film.It's a gag that's not nearly as clever or genre bending as Haneke obviously believes it to be; his film is still an exercise in cruelty, despite claims that it's a comment on violent cinema in general. But his cast elevates the material to emotional depths that are often excruciating to watch. As Anna and Georg, actors Susanne Lothar and Ulrich Muhe are tasked with delivering 109 minutes of bitterly realistic suffering. Their performances are so good, Haneke leans on them for one extended 10-minute take that captures a particularly heartbreaking moment of loss.Funny Games doesn't blame its violence on social disparity, video games, or supernatural entities. And it's not entirely successful as either a straight-up thriller or convenient critique of the films that came before it. But measured by Haneke's intention to simply make a film that "hurt," there's no question it rises to the occasion.Criterion's director-approved Blu-ray edition features a new 2K digital restoration supervised by Haneke himself, along with new interviews and Q & A footage from the film's controversial premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.