Cheap Thrills

A down-on-his-luck dude (Pat Healy) and an old friend (Ethan Embry) meet up in a bar, and soon find themselves in an escalating dare game with a weird, rich couple (David Koechner and Sara Paxton). Things go from slapping a stripper’s ass dares to chopping off appendages dares. The stakes get higher, and the blood starts to spurt. Director E.L. Katz has made a twisted-funny film out of a relatively simple premise, a movie bolstered by the fine work of all the actors involved, especially Healy and Embry. Koechner (The “Whammy!” guy from Anchorman) makes for a great, wicked master of ceremonies, while Paxton, who has a pretty good horror pedigree (The Innkeepers, The Last House on the Left) provides a nice sense of mystery as the quiet but menacing wife. This is a crazy-silly movie that loses its way a bit, but has enough laughs and gross outs to satisfy fans of films like The Evil Dead 2 and Hostel.