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| Images courtesy of Arrow Video |
In the last decade, Tim League’s Drafthouse Films briefly
became one of the counter-cultural touchstones of the 2010s, publishing and
releasing both new as well as long awaited cult films such as Miami
Connection, Wake in Fright and The Visitor. In between many of their re-releases, they
acquired a number of new releases with 2012 between 2015 being their most
prolific years of new acquisitions.
Among them was producer-director E.L. Katz’s 2013 directorial debut comedy-horror
shocker Cheap Thrills which they released on their own label Drafthouse
Films. Starring Pat Healy and David
Koechner, the minimalist quickie film shot in twelve days didn’t make much of a
profit garnering a mere $59,000 against its already meager $100,000
budget. However, it was something of an
underground favorite pointing to the principal character actors portrayed in a
light they’re rarely ever seen in (particularly Koechner in a rare villainous
turn) and critically the film was well received.
With many of the Drafthouse Films releases having gone out
of print for a pretty penny on eBay (good luck trying to find an affordable
copy of the Ukrainian film The Tribe), other boutique labels such as
Vinegar Syndrome, Severin Films or even Troma Entertainment have been scooping
up the rights to titles whose licensing agreements with the company have
lapsed. The original 2014 disc from Drafthouse
was fairly-stacked, though since that disc is out of print and the rights were
there for the cherry picking, now Arrow Video has gotten into the Cheap
Thrills cult phenomenon with their new forthcoming limited-edition collector’s
edition. Replete with archival extras ported
over from the Drafthouse release as well as newly filmed interviews with the
cast and crew and a new running audio commentary, it represents a double dip
for those who were perfectly fine with the last disc. But for those who never owned it before and
are blind buying it for the first time, the Arrow more than makes up for the
asking price of purchasing it twice with all the extra bonus content included.
Craig (Pat Healy) is down on his luck, getting fired from
his job as an auto mechanic struggling to support his wife and child on the
cusp of getting evicted from their apartment.
Feeling defeated and in over his head with no way to realistically pay
off the eviction, naturally he heads to a bar to drown his sorrows in alcohol,
bumping into his high-school dropout bully loser “friend” Vince (Ethan
Embry). While boozing they catch the eyes
of rich couple Colin (David Koechner) and his hot but half bored wife Violet
(Sara Paxton). It’s her birthday and
they’ve got money to spend. After
learning of the mutual financial woes of Craig and Vince, they offer to help
them out with money in return for performing increasingly degrading and
destructive acts for the couple’s amusement.
At one point Violet asks Craig to cheat on his wife with her, something
he refuses until she raises the amount of money she’ll pay him so high he
cannot refuse. Capitalizing on the
preexisting antagonism between Craig and Vince, the couple soon persuade the
two friends to commit all kinds of humiliations gradually leading towards
multiple violent confrontations. All of
this pressure cooker takes place over the course of one night in one setting with
the story’s real aim being about how far one is willing to debase themselves in
order to preserve the role and status of the nuclear family.
A downright mean clawing and scarring of the senses
including a third act I’m still trying to forget, Cheap Thrills is a
kind of modern-day update on The Most Dangerous Game with wealthy yet
sociopathic socialites preying on their fellow humans in a kind of class warfare
of one-up gamesmanship while also being a minimalist ensemble pressure cooker
spoken of the same breath as The Invitation. A film with the mean streak of the Russian
apartment-bound black comedy Why Don’t You Just Die! featuring a stellar
David Koechner as you’ve ever seen him and Pat Healy running the full gamut
from ineffectual nebbish to hard broken-nosed self-abuser ready to smash his
face in for another wad of cash.
Reportedly Healy and his co-star antagonist Ethan Embry didn’t get along
during the shoot but have since made amends, a palpable mutual resentment you
can feel onscreen in their performances.
Shot in tight claustrophobic widescreen by Andrew Wheeler of
God’s Country co-opted by Danish cinematographer Sebastian Winterø and
featuring a pulsating dread-soaked score by You’re Next and Excision composer
Mads Heldtberg, the world of Cheap Thrills starts out scrappy and shoddy
before moving into the rich couple’s swanky flat from up on high. While tensions rise, framing becomes tighter
and editing grows faster in a steadily more confrontational manner. Production wise there’s not a whole lot to
speak of beyond preexisting locations being used, but you don’t care while you’re
watching this sordid saga unfold.
Mostly, the whole endeavor is an arena for Pat Healy’s transformation
from weakling to committed warrior who will turn on his hanger-on leech friend
on the turn of a dime.
As said before, if you already own the Drafthouse disc from
2014, you won’t get a technical upgrade here with more or less a port of the
same transfer on the previous disc. But,
this edition comes jam packed with a lot more extras and fancier
packaging. Though it may not warrant a
double dip for some, those who don’t own this picture will definitely want to
go the way of the Arrow disc. Funny and
foul, goofy and grim, Cheap Thrills like the title is a tight and taut
little gut-cruncher of a horror comedy, a slap in the face sure to leave a red
mark on your angry cheek at first until after a while you can’t help but laugh
at the psychotic lunacy unfolding onscreen.
A minor upgrade but still a good movie especially for those like myself
going in blind not knowing how or if I’d come out intact on the other end. Brutal and bullish but strangely an amusingly
wry meditation on the human condition and the desperate drive for survival. Yeah its gross and grimy but for David Koechner
fans the film is a real feather in the usually comedy-actor’s cap.
--Andrew Kotwicki
