Cheap Thrills

Released Mar 21, 2014

1 hr. 25 min.

Comedy

Mystery & Thriller

List

88%

98 Reviews

Tomatometer

69%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

A series of escalating bets pits recently reunited friends against each other.

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Critics Consensus

Gleefully nasty and darkly hilarious, Cheap Thrills lives down to its title in the best possible way.

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Audience Member

We are all looking for cheap thrills Even to the point where we would do anything for money This takes a sort of truth or dare approach An unknown cast minus David Koechner and Sara Paxton It centers on a man named Craig He's married and has a young baby The bad news is that his home is on foreclosure and he needs money otherwise he and his family will be evicted So he runs into a old friend and they get approached by this couple; they propose a deal Both of them perform crazy tasks for a large sum of money but for how long? And where does it begin to cross the line? It starts out fun but then fizzles out near the middle Gets to the point where it becomes repulsive and the characters become less likable I've seen better versions of this kind of setup

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

03/15/24

Full Review

bill p

Wonderfully sick competition between two desperate jerks and an even worse gamemaster.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

ken k

A true litmus test for what a true dark comedy is. Cheap Thrills has to be the darkest yet the most subliminally hilarious film I have seen. A true delight for fans of the twisted.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

Much darker than anticipated and in a very surprising manner.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/07/23

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Audience Member

If you can withstand a decent amount of a gore and sit through the weirdly placed silences in this movie, there's a pretty fun and unique idea underneath. It's quite often that these "I dare you"-type movies often fail to have an engaging plot, because the director is so wrapped up in the idea of doing the most f-ed up things to the characters, that they completely forget that there is supposed to be a story behind the madness. This movie has an engaging, albeit surface-level, story - whilst still getting a bit wild with it.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/20/23

Full Review

Audience Member

"Money, then, appears as this overturning power both against the individual and against the bonds of society. It transforms fidelity into infidelity, love into hate, hate into love, virtue into vice, vice into virtue, servant into master, master into servant, idiocy into intelligence and intelligence into idiocy."

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

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E.L. Katz

Director

Pat Healy

Craig

Ethan Embry

Vince

Sara Paxton

Violet

David Koechner

Colin

Amanda Fuller

Audrey

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Kate Muir

Times (UK)

Gird your stomach for Cheap Thrills, a bloody but enjoyably ironic horror which enters that queasy zone where Michael Haneke's Funny Games meets a reality-TV bush tucker trial.

Rated: 3/5

Sep 23, 2014

Full Review

Mark Kermode

Observer (UK)

You can take the result as either smart satire or sick schlock - frankly, it works on both scores.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 8, 2014

Full Review

Geoffrey Macnab

Independent (UK)

E L Katz's film delivers exactly what the title promises. It is a very bloody, very violent fairground ride of a movie that ratchets up the tension as its two hapless anti-heroes compete desperately for money.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 6, 2014

Full Review

Patrick Cavanaugh

The Wolfman Cometh

Fully succeeds with its humor and its more horrifying elements, thanks to an immensely talented cast, though the biggest strength is the organic escalation of the concept that makes the entire concept believable.

Rated: 5/5

Sep 20, 2023

Full Review

Jason Adams

My New Plaid Pants

caustic and cruel and somehow simultaneously super funny

Jul 6, 2021

Full Review

Katie Smith-Wong

Flick Feast

Cheap Thrills is clever, disturbing and eyebrow raising, but in terms of story, it is anything but cheap.

Rated: 3.5/5

Nov 20, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

A series of escalating bets pits recently reunited friends against each other.

Director: E.L. Katz
Executive Producer: Gena Wilbur, Curtis Raines, Jonathan Schurgin
Screenwriter: David Chirchirillo, Trent Haaga
Distributor: Drafthouse Films
Production Co: Snowfort Pictures, New Artists Alliance
Genre: Comedy, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Mar 21, 2014, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 10, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $59.4K

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