Fiddler, Michael ORCID: 0000-0002-0695-6770 (2017) Cutting through the fourth wall: the violence of home invasion in Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. Horror Studies, 8 (1):17. pp. 79-95. ISSN 2040-3275 (doi:https://doi.org/10.1386/host.8.1.79_1)

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Abstract

The home is central to the Western imaginary. It is of foundational importance to the shaping of identity. It is where we begin to construct the story of our selves and where we first learn to navigate space. Yet, it is also a site of shadows and fear, of hidden desires and ambivalence. Within the cinematic “home invasion” genre, this is heightened by the presence of an antagonistic Other. They render all categorically interstitial. As with the Lacanian notion of extimité, the invading Other confuses interior and exterior boundaries. In Michael Haneke’s (1997 original and 2007 remake) Funny Games this is further problematized by the lead antagonist’s “movement” between the diegetic world and that of the viewer. This article examines this “fourth wall” breaking and unpacks how the audience’s consumption of violent media is critiqued as the lines between the home of the film and that of the viewing audience become blurred.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The uploaded document is the version that has been accepted, but the author has been given the opportunity to make small changes in response to the reviewers' feedback.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Crime film, Home invasion, Uncanny, Other, Domestic space, Representations of violence
Subjects:	K Law > KD England and Wales
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > School of Law & Criminology (LAC) Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences > Crime, Law & (In)Security Research Group (CLS)
Related URLs:	Publisher
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2021 00:11
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/15233

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