E.L. Katz‘s directorial debut, Cheap Thrills has been causing one heck of a commotion left, right and centre since taking home the Jury Prize at Fantasia 2013 and an Audience Award at SXSW and if you attended last year’s Film4 FrightFest we’re sure you are aware exactly why.
Cheap Thrills finds Craig (Pat Healy) struggling to keep his family afloat as he loses his job and is threatened with eviction. As he heads to a local pub in an attempt to drown his sorrows and put off having to head home with the bad news he bumps into an old school friend (Ethan Embry), One drink leads to another and it’s not long before they get roped into a seemingly harmless game with an obscenely wealthy stranger (David Koechner) and his mysterious and sexy wife (Sara Paxton). Whilst the games commence with innocent dares in exchange for money, the ante is upped and upped and upped over the course of the night reaching unthinkable extremes. Given Craig’s economic worriments you can imagine just how far he is willing to go for the sake of some pretty eye opening amounts of money, particularly as his friend is just as much at his wits end and in need of some “easy” cash.
In a similar vein to Roald Dahl’s short story ”Man from the South” which was adapted several times including the famous 1960 lighter striking version starring Steve McQueen and Peter Lorre, and Tarantino’s updated version in 4 Rooms, the latest clip from Cheap Thrills show just how ‘harmless’ dares could get Craig out of his current financial predicament.
Cheap Thrills is already available in the US on cable VOD, iTunes and is set to open at select cinemas there this Friday, March 21. Over here in the UK the games will begin on May 2. In the meantime we’ll leave you with this clip which we’re sure spark your interest…
http://vimeo.com/89295260
