A Joke That Keeps Asking for More

Read Time:5 Minute, 32 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Cheap Thrills [Limited Edition]
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Genre: Comedy, Thriller
Year Released: 2013, Arrow Video Blu-ray 2026
Runtime: 1h 27m
Director(s): E.L. Katz
Writer(s): Trent Haaga, David Chirchirillo
Cast: Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, David Koechner, Sara Paxton
Where to Watch: available January 27, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: www.arrowvideo.com, www.mvdshop.com, or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: What would you agree to if the money sounded easy enough and the people offering it kept smiling like it was all just a joke? CHEAP THRILLS opens with that deceptively simple question and then spends the rest of its runtime stripping away every excuse you might use to answer it without flinching.

E.L. Katz’s debut feature wastes no time establishing how fragile its central character already is before the real nightmare begins. Craig isn’t introduced as a blank slate or a wide-eyed innocent; he’s exhausted, worn thin by circumstance, and already negotiating the world of humiliations just to keep his head above water. That groundwork matters because CHEAP THRILLS isn’t interested in shocking you with sudden cruelty. It’s interesting to watch how slowly and convincingly cruelty can be reframed as opportunity when the alternative feels like failure.

The film’s hook is its escalation, but what makes that escalation effective is how ordinary it feels at first. The early dares are framed as the kind of stupid challenges people laugh about the next day. Each step forward feels marginally worse than the previous, and that’s the trap. By the time the stakes become undeniable, CHEAP THRILLS has already shown you how easily people talk themselves into staying seated.

Pat Healy carries the film with a performance that never asks for sympathy but earns it anyway. Craig isn’t written as a saint or some moral anchor; he’s reactive, defensive, and increasingly compromised. Healy plays him with a weariness that never lets you forget how much pressure is already pushing down on him before the money enters the room. His expressions do a lot of the heavy lifting, especially in moments where Craig realizes he’s crossed another line but can’t afford to admit it, either to others or to himself.

Ethan Embry’s Vince is the counterweight. Where Craig internalizes, Vince externalizes; he understands the game, leans into it harder, and treats bravado like armor. Embry plays him with an edge that feels both familiar and unsettling, the kind of guy who laughs louder the more uncomfortable things get. The chemistry between Healy and Embry is essential because the film’s tension doesn’t come from strangers being pitted against each other. It comes from a shared history being slowly weaponized, from pride and resentment bubbling up under the guise of friendly competition.

Sara Paxton and David Koechner round out the quartet as Violet and Colin, the wealthy couple whose boredom fuels the entire ordeal. The smartest choice CHEAP THRILLS makes is refusing to turn them into exaggerated villains. Their cruelty isn’t theatrical; it’s casual. They speak in compliments and encouragement, offering money like confetti while maintaining just enough distance to avoid accountability. Koechner plays Colin as a man who treats everything as sport, while Paxton’s Violet is quieter, colder, and far more unsettling because of it. Her restraint becomes its own kind of menace, suggesting a level of detachment that goes beyond simple thrill-seeking.

The tone walks a tightrope between dark comedy and cruelty, and for the most part, Katz keeps his balance. The humor isn’t there to soften the blow; it’s there to make the later moments sting more. You laugh, then realize the laughter was part of the setup. CHEAP THRILLS implicates the audience in the same way its wealthy characters are involved; you’re watching because it’s entertaining, even when it stops being comfortable.

There’s also an argument to be made that CHEAP THRILLS leans a little too heavily on shock as punctuation in its back half. While the violence and degradation are purposeful, not every moment adds a new layer to the commentary. Some scenes exist primarily to test the audience’s tolerance rather than expand the film’s thematic reach. For viewers attuned to the social critique, those moments may feel redundant rather than revelatory.

What stays with you isn’t the extremity of the dares; it’s the discomfort of recognition. CHEAP THRILLS isn’t just about desperate men and cruel rich people. It’s about how entertainment culture thrives on watching others degrade themselves for reward, and how easy it is to justify participation when the suffering is framed as voluntary. The film holds up an unflattering mirror and doesn’t rush to look away.

CHEAP THRILLS is lean, nasty, and uncomfortably sharp. It understands that the most unsettling thing in this world isn’t violence itself, but the moment you realize how quickly you’d rationalize doing the same thing under the right circumstances. While it occasionally pushes too far for its own good, it remains a tightly constructed moral stress test. It’s funny until it isn’t, entertaining until it isn’t, and honest enough to leave you sitting with the question long after the night’s over.

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