Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Cheap Thrills Blu-ray Movie Review

Buyer's Market

Reviewed by Michael Reuben May 22, 2014

Cheap Thrills may be one of the nastiest pieces of cinema in recent years, and I mean that as a compliment. Horror-meister Clive Barker once observed that he goes to the cinema to feel something, and he doesn't care if the feeling is disgust. Cheap Thrills fits the bill nicely, and it does so in a way that's skillful and thought-provoking. Rarely has violence, both physical and psychological, been portrayed with such visceral impact onscreen. The performances may not win awards, but they'll stay with you for a long, long time. Even the sex scene is repellent.

Cheap Thrills is the directorial debut of E.L. Katz, whose background is writing and producing in the horror industry, where his credits include Tobe Hooper's Mortuary. The script was written by Trent Haaga, author of Deadgirl, and David Chirchirillo, an aspiring horror director; Katz provided uncredited rewrites. Despite these origins, however, Cheap Thrills isn't a horror film, although it borrows techniques familiar from the genre. Its makers consider Cheap Thrills to be a black comedy, although, as co-star David Koechner observes at one point, maybe viewers are laughing simply because they need to release their anxiety. Much of the film's inspiration comes from reality TV, which, it could be argued, has been covertly ripping off horror films from the beginning. Part of the fascination of reality TV is its ability to reveal people who look normal on the surface as freaks and monsters underneath. The same documentary style of photography that creates the illusion of reality for countless TV shows is also the trademark of "found footage" horror. Which came first, The Blair Witch Project or the first version of Survivor? (That would make a good trivia question.)

After premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2013, Cheap Thrills was acquired by those connoisseurs of the weird, Drafthouse Films (in partnership with Snoot Entertainment), which gave the film a limited theatrical release a year later. As with most of Drafthouse's library, the major form of distribution is on disc in one of the company's typically classy packages.

In basic outline, Cheap Thrills is a simple and diabolically clever story. Craig Daniels (Pat Healy, Rescue Dawn), is an ordinary guy with a wife, Audrey (Amanda Fuller), an eighteen-month-old son and a job servicing cars. He's a college graduate who wanted to be a writer, but those dreams didn't work out. Now he's barely scraping by. On the very same morning that Audrey presses him to ask for a raise, Craig finds an eviction notice stuck to his door, and his boss fires him because of "downsizing".

Craig stops at a bar to buck up his courage before going home to deliver the bad news, where he meets Vince (Ethan Embry, Showtime's Brotherhood), a high school classmate he hasn't seen in five years. A petty criminal, Vince works as a debt collector for loan sharks and has spent time behind bars. He, too, is barely scraping by.

When Craig returns from a trip to the restroom, he finds Vince sitting with Colin (David Koechner, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy) and Violet (Sara Paxton, The Last House on the Left), a married couple celebrating Violet's birthday. Colin is obviously loaded, throwing around money like it's so much paper. He orders an expensive bottle of tequila for the table and pours shots for everyone.

By tiny steps, at first, and then by giant leaps, Colin and Violet reveal their true agenda. Their object is to take two guys who reek of financial desperation—which isn't hard to spot with either Craig or Vince—and then see how far they can be pushed by the prospect of instant money. It starts innocently enough: Who can drink a shot first? Who can hit the bulls-eye on a dartboard? Who can offend a woman at the bar enough to get slapped? But as the evening progresses and the party relocates from the bar to a strip club and then to Colin's and Violet's lavish but bizarrely furnished home, the dares become progressively more dangerous. When Vince first senses what's really happening, he insists that he won't perform any sex acts with Craig, but Colin and Violet have nothing so banal in mind. Colin in particular is observing his two "contestants", noticing their sensitivities, aiming his dares at their tenderest spots. As the hours pass, it becomes clear that, while the couple may have planned this event, Colin has left himself free to improvise, depending on who exactly they lured into their game.

Craig is an ideal choice. He's strait-laced and a family man. All he wants to do is take care of his wife and son, but he keeps being enticed back into Colin's and Violet's clutches, because the prospect of winning their cash is his only available option to save his family from being homeless. Eventually he will betray every value he holds dear in the pursuit of economic security. Despite a superior education and a law-abiding life, he will be reduced to Vince's level—a point driven home when both of them end up bartering against one other, each offering to perform a gruesome act for a progressively lower price than what Colin initially offered.

And how does the evening end? It gives nothing away to say that the people with money eventually get what they want. For the details, you'll have to watch the film.

Cheap Thrills Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cheap Thrills was shot entirely in practical locations with the Arri Alexa by two cinematographers, Andrew Wheeler and Sebastian Winterø. The film was completed on a digital intermediate, from which Drafthouse's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced. As is typical of projects originated on the Alexa, the image is generally sharp and detailed with the film-like texture for which that model of camera is noted. Portions of the film are extremely dark, notably in the bar where the principal characters first meet, but this appears to be deliberate, since the scenes in Craig's and Audrey's apartment and in Colin's and Violet's house are more brightly lit. Blacks are solid, with shadow detail varying depending on the amount of light in the scene; here again, this appears to be a choice on the part of the filmmakers. The color palette is not so much desaturated as dulled; even the redness of blood is toned down. The sole exception is the red wash in the bar, which, as Katz explains in the commentary, reflects the built-in illumination of the location and could not be eliminated entirely in post-production.

The average bitrate of 24.98 Mbps is quite good for a digitally originated project. Certainly there were no visible compression errors and, other than an occasional instance of banding, no digital artifacts.

Cheap Thrills Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Cheap Thrills' original 5.1 track is presented on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA. Given the film's limited budget and its documentary style of photography, it's not surprising that the dialogue and sound effects remain front-oriented. The dialogue is always clear, and the effects are well done and often disturbing. The surround array has been effectively used to make the score by composer Mads Heldtberg (You're Next) almost a separate character. Unlike the typical mix, which spreads the score across the front soundstage, this one deliberately sets it toward the back of the soundfield, detaching it from the action and immersing the listener in what amounts to a musical commentary on the events that are unfolding. It's a creative use of the 5.1 format and an effective means to overcome budgetary limitations.

Cheap Thrills Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director E.L. Katz and Star Pat Healy: The director and star provide a lively commentary packed with details about the experience of making the movie, as well as insights into its themes, their artistic decisions and audience reactions. Both agreed from the outset that the film should not be preachy or didactic (thus distinguishing it from Michael Haneke's Funny Games, to which it has been compared), but should simply tell a story and let viewers draw their own conclusions.



• Vital Heat: The Making of Cheap Thrills (1080p; 1.78:1; 39:52): This comprehensive documentary chronicles the film's hectic twelve-day shoot from beginning to end, with a coda one year later at the Los Angeles premiere. It's a true "behind the scenes" account, with interviews on the fly with the director, crew and cast, as they move from one location to the next, coping with soaring temperatures, power outages, sheer exhaustion and, in one instance, the accidental erasure of key footage.



• Cheap Thrills at Fantastic Film Festival 2013 (1080p; 1.78:1; 6:14): In what some might regard as an ironic turn of events, the cast of Cheap Thrills participates in a publicity stunt where members of a live audience accept challenges that include getting a tattoo on the rear end (in public), eating a popsicle covered with crickets and dipping one's scrotum in hot sauce.



• Trailers
• Cheap Thrills Theatrical Trailer
• Klown
• Wake in Fright
• Wrong
• Graceland
• A Band Called Death
• The Act of Killing



• Booklet: An insert includes photos, reproductions of PR materials for the film (some genuine, some not), as well as film and disc credits.

Cheap Thrills Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Several members of the premiere audience interviewed in the "Vital Heat" documentary, including actor Elijah Wood, observe that Cheap Thrills is best seen with an audience, because group reaction to its most intense scenes improves the experience. They make a good point, but except for midnight showings at the Alamo Drafthouse, most viewers will experience the film alone or with a few viewing companions in the privacy of a home theater. My advice is to turn off the phone and not allow any interruptions. There's no fat in this taut little thriller, and it's not a ride you'll want to interrupt. A word of advice: Don't watch this with dinner. Otherwise, highly recommended.