All I can say is WOW! I was flipping through Amazon Prime one night trying to find something to watch, and I came across this little gem. I had no idea what it was about, but after reading the description we decided to give it a try. Boy am I happy that we did. It starts out a little slow, but when the action starts, it explodes. To watch these two old friends do wild, crazy, and sometimes unspeakable things for money is very entertaining. You have never seen this side of Rusty when he was a Griswold. I'm not to give long reviews, mainly because I never want to give away the essence of the movie, but this is one dark comedy that you have to see.

This is a movie made with a cheap budget, but still entertaining never the less. This is a amateur movie that is worth a rental, it's just one of those low budget movies that has that entertaining direction going for it. This is a twisted movie that has some twist and turns going for it as well revolving around betting. Like "I dare you to do this or that for this sum of money" where it starts out fun but goes spiraling out of control. This movie is like watching a dark version of "Jackass", sort of reminded me of "Would You Rather" and "13 Sins". After the first hour the movie does get a bit tense, but sort of comedic at the same time. This movie isn't just a simple movie about betting people to do random stuff that harm or humiliate themselves, but it also delves into the internal psychological aspects as well. To a certain extent this movie does make you think of the decisions you made and what is going through your mind. The premise is about pushing someone who appears to be a nice guy to the limit. Which has been done many time before, but it still for the most part works for this one as well.6.5/10

Cheap Thrills has the type of concept which could easily live up to its title. Two rich sickos torturing a couple of poor strangers by daring them to do progressively twisted tasks could result in an exploitative B-movie designed to shock the audience for the sake of it. Thankfully, Cheap Thrills manages to offer much more than a few cheap thrills. It's actually an intelligent, engaging and darkly humorous little film with a few hints of postmodernism not too dissimilar to Funny Games.Pat Healy and Sara Paxton made a terrifically witty duo in Ti West's limp, The Innkeepers and deserved to appear in a much better film. Cheap Thrills is that better film, and whilst Sara doesn't have particularly much to do, Pat puts on a similarly likable performance as the down on his luck protagonist, who we can all relate to. In fact, all of the characters manage to be engaging and interesting. I love how realistically the film progressed from a friendly encounter on a night out to a sick set of dares.For a film largely set in one location with just four characters, it's never boring. Quite the opposite, in fact I was left wanting more and I think it could've pushed the boundaries more, but that's probably just my twisted horror nut coming out! Where the film actually succeeds is that it doesn't make the dares the focus of the entire film. Instead it's much more concerned with the characters and how they develop, thus making for a much better quality and more involving piece of filmmaking.The comment it makes on society is quite heavy-handed but nevertheless an intelligent and relevant one. It's best to view the two rich psychos as symbols, rather than characters. They're obviously representative of the bourgeoisie and how they exploit the poor minority. However, the film also makes a subtle comment on the psychotic nature of audiences too. I thought that the ending kind of made out like the psychos were doing it all for us, the viewing public, thus adding another intelligent and postmodern layer to the film.Overall the film is a striking debut and this E.L Katz bloke looks like he has a promising future in the horror movie industry. His directing was consistently intense and he managed to build some massive amounts of tension. Cheap Thrills may falter on repeated viewings (due to the lack of a surprise factor) but for a first time viewing there's very little to complain about. Perhaps it could've been a little more twisted, but really I was surprised by how intelligent the screenplay actually was. Cheap Thrills offers a lot more than its title suggests. It's probably one of the best horror-comedies we've had in a while.

A gross-out movie based around a simple premise of what someone would do to earn money to save their family and their life (when you have little to none of course). The dares escalate as more and more money becomes involved, and it's all pretty intriguing stuff. But it's hard to shake the feeling that it could have done more with the premise and some of it is just outlandish for its own sake instead of being button pushing in a truly authentic way. The ending is also a bit of a let down. It makes sense, feels inevitable, and as a result, also a bit contrived. It's also a shame that Sara Paxton isn't given more to do.