Cheap Thrills

London Frightfest 2013 has been and gone, this forum is available to post film reviews, chat, etc. from the festival.
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jonbly
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Cheap Thrills

Post by jonbly »

8/10 - as so often, a bit slow to to start... but this built up into domething really fun.

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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by DJBenz »

Wasn't expecting much, was pretty much blown away. Great film to see with the FF audience. As director E.L. Katz said, go in blind. You'll enjoy it much more.

8/10
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by ChrisReynolds »

The best film of the festival so far for me. It takes a simple concept - what would you be willing to do if somebody paid you enough? and spins a riveting story around this, developing the characters and cleverly orchaestrating their shifting relationships to each other. It feels like it would have worked well as a theatre chamber piece. The underlying commentary on capitalism, greed and jealousy is very well done, and the tension, shocking scenes and humour are great. This is easily the funniest of any of the films so far, but none of the humour takes away from the tension and thrills. The only problem is that it's a bit predictable. It's quite obvious what the final bet has to be, and the trope of
Spoiler:
the nicer-seeming character of a duo eventually turning out to be the more ruthless
is one I've seen too many times for me not to know it was coming. 8/10
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by AdeBrown »

Excellent stuff.
Spoiler:
Indecent Proposal meet decent acting, decent script and ultraviolence.
Anyone else expecting some sort of twist like Kill List and being pleasantly surprised by the finale.

As we were saying afterward, Craig was the most ruthless because he was not doing it for himself but his family.
Thus, a morally uplifting tale of defecation and self cannibalism.

;-)
My favourite too.
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svengalidonut
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by svengalidonut »

A very interesting exploration and extension of a theme first presented by Roald Dahl more than 60 years ago in his short story Man from the South.
Except there was an extra twist to Dahl's tale.
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by Dom »

Excellent way to end the day.

Quick note to our adorable FF hosts, when the director suggests going in cold right before the film starts don't then say something that could potentially be seen as a spoiler. I know you'd need to be really out of it to not see where this flick is headed but even so.

Phones off, no spoilers. Peace and love peace and love.
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by Wolfshade »

Gonna give this my film of the festival award (narrowly pipping a few others), perfect for the late night slot, very funny, but still managed to keep it dark, twisted and gorey. Final act possibly predicatle, but it sprang it so quickly I didn't have time to guess what was going to happen lol, 9/10
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by The Aylmer »

Yeah, my favourite film of the festival too (and one of my films of the year to boot). By the time the end credits roll around it's taken the audience through a whole range of emotions and ideas, and it's definitely one of those movies you need to see with as large an audience as possible for maximum effect (a shame then it seems to be going straight to dvd over here). Loved it and can't wait to see it again. 9/10.
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by thatcambridgebird »

Film of the festival for me, too, though it sounds like I missed some other real corkers because we could only do Sat/Sun. I loved it, and told Evan Katz so when I ran into him in the lobby :green:

I hadn't realised, until I got home and googled, that the two leads were the same from The Innkeepers. Blimey Sara Paxton can pull off all sorts of roles!
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by odishon »

Loved this. Supremely well acted with a likeable lead making the audience really engage with the challenges he took on and his reasons for doing so.
Shame this was in the late slot as would have played very well in the 9pm slot.
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by Alex J »

Engrossing and ever-escalating tale of how far betting can go, as two people down on their luck take ever more desperate measures for bigger and bigger stakes. The fairly simple plot is very well executed, with humour, gore and good performances by the cast. 8.5 / 10
No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering.
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by AdeBrown »

Excellent stuff.
Kept guessing at the start, engaging performances by all four leads (very different characters).

Surprised to like the villains so much, given that "class war" subtext mentioned at the pre-Q&A.

I'd have drawn the line at the pooping.
Not sure which side of it.
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by streetrw »

I guess I didn't like it as much as everyone else. It's okay but I found myself not really caring. :s
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by TheDukeAbides »

Something I'd rewatch, but I wasn't feeling this film the way others clearly are.

Don't get me wrong, everything about this film was very well done, if predictable, there is just something that jars with me and I don't know what it is.

I'll put it down to me rather than the film, which was the best on the Main Screen that day (which is more recommendation than it sounds).
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Re: Cheap Thrills

Post by zappa fan »

Currently on FreeVee, rakuten TV and Shudder.
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