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.
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