Benny's Video

Benny's Video is a 1992 psychological horror film directed by Michael Haneke and starring Arno Frisch, Angela Winkler, and Ulrich Mühe. Set in Vienna, it centers on Benny, a teenager who views much of his life as distilled through video images, and his well-to-do parents Anna and Georg, who enable Benny's focus on video cameras and images. The film won the FIPRESCI Award at the 1993 European Film Awards.

Teenage Benny is obsessed with film recordings and cameras. His emotionally absent parents, Georg and Anna, provide him with televisions, cassette players, and recording devices to encourage their son's hobby, seemingly unaware of his fascination with filmed violence. Benny repeatedly views a home video he shot on a European farm, which captures the slaughter of a pig with a captive bolt pistol.

A party centered on a game called Pilot and Passengers is broken up by Georg and Anna when they return home. Eva, their daughter who lives separately from them, is the host of the party, and it is revealed through the questioning of Benny that Eva has taken advantage of her parents' planned absence to host the impromptu party in their house.

When Georg and Anna depart again for the weekend, Benny invites a girl he has seen outside the local video store to his home. After they watch the video of the pig slaughter, he unveils the slaughtering gun and kills the girl, which is captured on a video monitor. After choir practice, Benny returns home and arranges an evening out with friends before moving the dead body and cleaning up the blood, which Benny continues to capture on video. He goes to a dance club and stays overnight at his friend's house. On his way home, he has his head shaven.

At his home, Benny's father harangues him about his haircut. While the family is watching the news in Benny's room, Benny switches the video to the one he has made about him killing the girl. Benny reveals the body in his closet, and Georg removes the videotape. In the living room, Georg and Anna discuss their options and ultimately decide to dismember the body.

Anna takes Benny away on vacation to Egypt, and Benny seems barely affected by the murder he committed. They return home after six days and Georg has cleaned the apartment of any traces of the murder. When Georg asks Benny why he killed the girl, Benny replies nonchalantly.

On video, a pilot and passengers appear in a party hosted by Eva, this time with Georg and Anna's permission. In reality, Anna and Georg watch the video with Benny and discuss how well their daughter does playing the game. Later, Georg and Anna attend the concert of the choir Benny is in. Again in reality, Benny's recording of his parents discussing the disposal of the body is shown and a voice-over asks, "Why did you come to us now?" Benny is being interviewed by policemen, and he answers merely, "Because". With no following questions, Benny asks if he can leave now. Afterwards, Benny meets Georg and Anna in the hall and, after a long moment, says, "Entschuldigung" (translated as "Sorry"). On video, his parents are seen escorted by police officers.

Writing in The Pleasure and Pain of Cult Horror Films: An Historical Survey (2009), Bartłomiej Paszylk notes that Benny's Video captures the phenomenon of the "video culture" that began in the 1980s and was continuing to develop at the time the film was made.