I don't have much desire to see the new version of "Funny Games"

or for that matter, Michael Hanecke's original German language version. Torture porn, regardless how intellectual it may be, is still torture porn and NOT my cup of tea. I'm not a huge fan of violence in films, unless it's highly stylized. I didn't even watch "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for the first few seasons because I didn't groove on the violence, cartoony though it may be. (I love it fine, now, thank you)

But "Funny Games" has always had a certain allure for me, due to these images.


In fact, I loved that image so much, I used it in a painting I did over a year ago. It's not a great painting, because I'm not a great painter and I don't have an image available to show to you, but I'm kind of proud of the painting. For some reason, that image of the boy in the pillowcase, and the no goodnik hoodlum next to him, (who's about to do some serious harm to the boy) really resonates with me. But, I've always liked imagery involving masks and hoods; a lot of people do, obviously, and NO, I don't have a kink for masks or hoods. In practice, they both make me claustrophobic and sick. But they fucking look cool in pictures and paintings.

Here's another image from that scene:


And a shot I've never seen before.


The box cover of the DVD.


And the poster for the new English language version with Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and Michael Pitt. Normally, I'd bitch that they went with an image featuring the beautiful woman in peril, but this is a really gorgeous image.