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Cheap Thrills

Released Mar 21, 2014 1h 25m Comedy Mystery & Thriller List
88% Tomatometer 98 Reviews 69% Popcornmeter 5,000+ Ratings
A series of escalating bets pits recently reunited friends against each other.
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Cheap Thrills

Cheap Thrills

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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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Critics Reviews

View All (98) Critics Reviews
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 Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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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 Full Review Audience Member Much darker than anticipated and in a very surprising manner. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review 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 Read all reviews
Cheap Thrills

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Cast & Crew

Murder Mystery 44% 46% Murder Mystery TRAILER for Murder Mystery The Guard 94% 81% The Guard 30 Miles From Nowhere 78% 30% 30 Miles From Nowhere Cold Weather 77% 52% Cold Weather Best F(r)iends 42% 64% Best F(r)iends TRAILER for Best F(r)iends Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis A series of escalating bets pits recently reunited friends against each other.
Director
E.L. Katz
Producer
Gabriel Cowan, Travis Stevens, John Suits
Screenwriter
David Chirchirillo, Trent Haaga
Distributor
Drafthouse Films
Production Co
New Artists Alliance, Snowfort Pictures
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
Runtime
1h 25m
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