Film

Cheap Thrills

Name: Cheap Thrills
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Released: 2013
Cast: Pat Healy, Ethan Embry, Sara Paxton, David Koechner, Amanda Fuller

Crime

A desperate man and an old friend accept increasingly depraved dares from a wealthy couple for cash prizes. This is a taut, darkly funny descent that weaponizes the viewer's complicity—you'll feel sick laughing at things you shouldn't find funny. Uncompromising and genuinely unsettling, made for people who can handle moral discomfort as entertainment.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like dark comedy that tightens its screws with mounting unease, where a bleak joke keeps getting bleaker and you enjoy watching decent people make worse choices for money.

Skip it if you need likeable characters or a breezy tone, since nearly everyone here is compromised and the mood turns steadily meaner over its brisk running time.

What it asks of you: It asks for a steady nerve across an 88-minute run, with laughs that curdle as the stakes sharpen and little room to look away.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Platform2019

A Spanish sci-fi thriller about a vertical prison where survival means predation. Like Cheap Thrills, it uses a contained scenario to make economic desperation visceral and darkly comic, with the same escalating sense of 'how far will this actually go?'

But Subtitled, gruesome, and the social commentary gets heavy-handed by the end. Also, it's extremely bleak about human nature.

Nightcrawler2014

Jake Gyllenhaal as an amoral freelance journalist who'll do anything for a story. Same year, same DNA—watching someone's moral compass snap in real-time while the film stays perfectly calibrated and funny about it.

But Slower burn than Cheap Thrills. Gyllenhaal's character is so methodically calculating that he's harder to root for, even darkly.

Would You Rather2013

Desperate people tortured by a sadistic rich man through absurd choices. It hits the exact same nerve as Cheap Thrills—forced degradation as entertainment, with the camera refusing to look away.

But Lower budget and less stylish. The acting is shakier and the premise is more obviously exploitation.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Cheap Thrills

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Squid Game2021

Both use game-show mechanics and the viewer's entertainment as the moral problem. The audience wants blood and money; the show makes you feel complicit for watching.

Hundreds of desperate people competing in children's games for prize money, each round more brutal than the last. It's Cheap Thrills scaled up to nine episodes with a massive cast and production budget—same moral engine, same sick fascination with watching people degrade themselves for survival.

But Subtitled and sometimes clumsy with its messaging. The show occasionally stops being fun to watch the characters suffer and starts lecturing you about inequality.

Fargo1996

Small-town crime spiral triggered by desperation and one bad decision. It's a masterclass in watching ordinary people do terrible things for money, with pitch-black humor that never feels cynical.

But It's slower and more measured. The comedy is subtle rather than confrontational, and it's ultimately about consequences rather than complicity.

Uncut Gems2019

Adam Sandler desperate, sweating, and digging himself deeper every scene. Same throttle-never-lets-up energy. You're trapped in someone's terrible decision-making for eighty minutes and it's absolutely gripping.

But Relentlessly tense in a way that feels like anxiety rather than entertainment. No relief, no actual humor—just pressure.

In a World...2013

Lake Bell's indie comedy about a woman fighting her way up through a male-dominated voice-over industry. Same year, similar budget constraints, but proof that you can make something sharp and funny without resorting to degradation.

But It's warm and earnest, which means it's nowhere near as transgressive or unsettling. If you want that specific sting, this won't scratch it.

Killing Zoe1993

A stylish crime film where desperation and bad chemistry between characters create a perfect storm. It has that same sense of watching people make incrementally worse choices while staying darkly entertained.

But Dated 90s aesthetic. It's also more interested in style than substance, and some scenes feel like they're going for shock value rather than meaning.

God Bless America2012

A man and a teenager go on a killing spree targeting media and culture. Tonally chaotic—it's furious and blackly funny in ways that make you uncomfortable about what you're rooting for.

But The satire is blunt and uneven. It mistakes anger for insight and sometimes feels like it's punching down rather than up.

The Invitation2016

A dinner party where you can never quite tell what's about to happen. Mounting dread and social awkwardness as a thriller weapon. Proof you don't need much budget to trap an audience.

But Almost nothing happens for an hour. If you need plot momentum or action, the slowness will feel like a waste of time.

Come and See1985

Both refuse to let the camera flinch. Both make you stay in the room while terrible things happen. But where Cheap Thrills darkly amuses, this obliterates comfort entirely.

A Soviet film about a teenage boy's descent into a hellscape of war and atrocity. It's shot with the same documentary unflinching gaze as Cheap Thrills—no cuts away, no mercy, no comfortable distance between you and what you're watching.

But This is not entertainment the way Cheap Thrills is. It's genuinely traumatizing and operates on a completely different moral register. Watching it feels like penance.

The Killing of Two Lovers2021

Both follow a man watching his life collapse and making choices he can't take back. But this one is deadly serious where Cheap Thrills is cruel and playful—the same thematic core, inverted register.

An American indie about a man spiraling after his wife kicks him out, growing increasingly unhinged. It's economical and claustrophobic, shot in Utah with the same 'what's he going to do next?' momentum. The desperation feels lived-in rather than constructed.

But Very quiet and introspective. No dark comedy, no stylized violence—just a slow burn into someone's breaking point. If you want catharsis or plot resolution, you won't get it.