Cheap Thrills (2013) Review

Cheap Thrills (2013) Review

Craig is an average family man who is down-on-his-luck. An eviction notice is posted on his door in the morning, and he’s let go from his job later that same day. He goes to the bar and runs into Vince, an old friend he hasn’t seen in five years. The two of them have some drinks with an odd rich couple, coked-up Colin and always-on-her-phone Violet. Colin randomly offers fifty bucks to whoever drinks a shot first. Vince does it, he wins the cash, and Craig isn’t sure what just happened. And so begins a night they’ll never forget, of increasingly bold, stupid, and disturbing dares for larger and larger sums of money. 

Cheap Thrills is a perfect title for this film. It’s a very low-budget production with a minimalist approach, and works extremely well for building stakes and tension. The dialogue is very naturalistic, and the performances are solid. Things start out innocently enough, but with the sense that it’s going to take a dark turn eventually. Each beat of the story has the characters do something more extreme than the last thing, and keeps you watching. It gets increasingly unsettling as the dares get more and more out of hand, but also becomes pretty funny because of how absurd the situation becomes. It really makes you wonder what kind of things people are willing to do just for capital gain, and has a nice bit of social commentary worked in without being overbearing.

Craig is the protagonist, but the thing is, he’s kind of a shitty person to begin with, it just doesn’t really seem like it at first, especially in comparison to the others. You keep expecting him to walk away from these psychotic characters, but he doesn’t, and for the most part, it’s easy to buy into, but toward the end, things get so rowdy you sort of have to suspend your disbelief to accept that he’d continue to go along with Colin and Violet’s charade. A lot of people would probably walk away no matter how much money was at stake, but I suppose desperate times really do call for desperate measures. 

Cheap Thrills is an unusual, well-crafted little thriller. I don’t want to give away too many details of what, exactly, these guys do for the money, but it involves mutilation, disgusting consumption, and betraying those you trust, to give you some idea of what you’re in for. I can practically guarantee it’ll evoke a visceral reaction of some kind.