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Cheap Thrills

USA 2013
produced by
Gabriel Cowan, Travis Stevens, John Suits, Curtis Raines (executive), Jonathan Schurgin (executive), Gena Wilbur (executive) for Snowfort Pictures, New Artists Alliance
directed by E.L. Katz
starring Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, Sara Paxton, David Koechner, Amanda Fuller, Laura Covelli, Elissa Dowling, Todd Farmer, Eric Neil Gutierrez, Sam Ketcherside, Will Leon, Ruben Pla, Claudia Salinas, Brighton Sharbino, Danny Minnick, Sandra Valladares, Shelby Lauren
written by David Chirchirillo, Trent Haaga, music by Mads Heldtberg

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Craig (Pat Healy) is a totally square happily married father of a 15 months old - who on the same day gets handed an eviction eviction note and is fired from his job - so no surprise he has a beer to calm his nerves in a cheap dive, a cheap dive where he by chance meets an old highschool friend of his, Vince (Ethan Embry), who invites him for a few more drinks ... and then they meet Colin (David Koechner) and his lovely wife Violet (Sara Paxton). Apparently, it's Violet's birthday, so Colin, who seems to have money to burn, invites Craig and Vince to join them and have a little party - and he promises to pay them if they do little dares - at first it's a simple drinking game, soon it comes to provoking a woman in the bar to slap one, and to slapping the butt of a stripper at a strip club ... and eventually, Craig gets knocked out be the strip club's bouncer.

Craig comes to with a broken nose in Colin's house, where the others are still in a party mood, boozing, snorting coke and the like. And Colin's still paying for dares, like crapping in the neighbour's living room and such. The stakes get higher all the time, and Craig and Vince become more and more competitive, especially since Craig suddenly sees that the whole fun and games could get him out of the financial woes he's presently in. Craig lets Vince persuade him to rob Colin blind, too, but Colin somehow catches them red-handedly - but instead of punishing them in whatever way, he just lets them play for higher stakes. This eventually even leads Colin to pay Craig to cheat on his wife and have sex with Violet. Then Colin offers Vince $25,000 for having his pinky cut off. But Craig, who thinks he deserves the money more than Colin because he has a family, offers to have his pinky cut off for $15,000. So Craig's finger's cut off ... and somehow it ends in the throat of a poodle, who chokes on it ... so Colin cooks the dog and offers a wagonload of money to whoever finishes his half of the dog first - and it ends in a tie, with the tiebreaker being whoever eats Craig's finger ... Craig wins that one, too - and now he and Vince get in a big fight.

Ultimately, Colin offers Vince a quarter of a million if he kills Craig - he'll take care of the body and everything. Vince accepts, but hesitates at the very last moment, reminiscing the good times they had. But maybe Craig has been made a similar offer, and maybe Craig won't hesitate quite as long ...

 

A very grim and unapologetic look into the dark side of man, his greed, feeling of entitlement, and his ruthlessness, hidden under the guise of normalcy - and that said, the film is pretty entertaining as well, as despite all the gruesomeness, it remains pretty light in tone throughout, treats its subject matter with the right amount of irony, and has a strong quartet of leads to move its story along but nicely.

Very enjoyable, in its own twisted way, actually.

 

Oh yeah, and of course there's a reference to the Roald Dahl-based episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Man from the South, but it is actually rather fleeting and doesn't defer from the actual story at hand.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!