For genre fans, Katz’s film will go down as a punchy and absorbing diversion, but it’s also an offer you can refuse to believe.&nb...
To describe them would diminish their impact, but there are several occasions where it is tough to keep looking at the screen. Yet, thanks to the c...
indieWire January 21, 2014 Ahead of its satiric aims, Cheap Thrills ultimately delivers its titular promise again and again.
This is not a movie for everybody, but that assessment is not exactly intended as a thumbs down. Alarming thrills are guaranteed.
Cheap Thrills is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, which doubtless will be the strongest selling point for this worst-case scenario about stea...
Slant Magazine March 18, 2014 The film’s clearest winner is Pat Healy, whose depiction of a man willing to corrode his entire life to provide for his wife and kid fee...
E L Katz’s film delivers exactly what the title promises. It is a very bloody, very violent fairground ride of a movie that ratchet...
The Guardian June 8, 2014 You can take the result as either smart satire or sick schlock – frankly, it works on both scores.
Paste Magazine March 21, 2014 First-time filmmaker Katz effectively sets relatable problems as the catalyst to the story before the absurd takes over.
The simple, even sometimes simplistic script is helped a lot by its cast.
Let’s just say it takes a dim view of human nature that seems well supported by the evidence, and that if you have an appetite for fatal...
A fair amount of twisted fun, thanks mostly to a surprisingly, effectively low-key turn by Koechner as the game’s emcee.
Times (UK) September 23, 2014 Gird your stomach for Cheap Thrills, a bloody but enjoyably ironic horror which enters that queasy zone where Michael Haneke’s Funny Games me...
The film would be nasty if it weren’t clever (and sometimes horribly funny).
One of the most involving works of cinematic misanthropy in years.
New York Times March 27, 2014 You should watch it as a twisted comedy. Those who do will be rewarded, especially by the film’s outlandish final image.
Chicago Reader April 10, 2014 Screenwriters David Chirchirillo and Trent Haaga pose a simple question – how much will a person degrade himself to make ends meet? -- but it...
Shockya.com March 16, 2013 Exceptionally entertaining and effective thanks to quality characters and a well-calculated build that justify the gore.
Erich von Stroheim might have made the definitive film about human swinishness way back in 1924 -- sorry, Gordon Gekko – but Cheap Thrill...
RogerEbert.com March 21, 2014 "Cheap Thrills" is a movie that Rod Serling would have loved.
It’s a thought-provoking ride, particularly in a post-financial crisis world where a combination of desperation and temptation can...
filmcomment.com April 21, 2014 The "worst day of your life" premise is a well-worn one … but seldom has it plumbed the depths of desperation and sadism the way Cheap Thrills...
A bluesy drinking session evolves into messy violence for kicks in this nifty debut feature from E L Katz.
A committed cast elevates what is, ultimately, a gimmicky thriller. It dissolves into a puddle of blood-tinged hypocrisy.
If the way things wind up for Craig and Vince is perhaps inevitable, how they get there is not. As for the movie’s audacious final shot, it&r...
The Guardian June 5, 2014 The script is smarter than the premise sounds, with writers David Chirchirillo and Trent Haaga dispensing enough information to make victims both s...
The Dissolve February 25, 2014 Cheap Thrills seriousness is cloaked in a darkly hilarious game of frat-guy oneupmanship. It’s about the things bros are capable of.
If Cheap Thrills ultimately does carry us along, it’s due largely to Healy’s performance and presence.
Toronto Star February 20, 2014 Dark, deeply disturbing and occasionally comic, Cheap Thrills puts a contemporary spin on the cinematic version of dare, pitting a mysterious...
The film-makers' undisguised glee in the revolting catalogue of horrors is a delight to behold, and the sense of naked misanthropy is queasily...
