The genre of the Grindhouse film usually involves a short narrative, one set and some cheap prothetics thanks to a low budget. The narrative is generally put together by posing a simple question: what would happen if a bunch of rich kids went camping and a guy with a chainsaw showed up? What would happen if a man with a sharkhead came out of your swimming pool? How would you survive – and more importantly, how would you die?
These film series of the 70’s and 80’s have recently inspired a group of modern directors to produce homages to the stylistic qualities this drive-in focused genre, aided much from the efforts of Tarantino and Rodriguez, and supplemented by films like Hobo with a Shotgun. But rarely is there a director who wants to go back to the basics; not worrying about the stylistic approach, that retro feel for the sake of comedy, but rather go back to the original concept of the genre: producing a low budget suspenseful film that involves plenty of blood, ridiculous situations, and gives the audience a hell of a good time in the process.
This was the apparent intent of director E.L. Katz with the SXSW feature premiere Cheap Thrills, a film, which, like Hobo…, and many great Grindhouse films, tells you a lot about the movie before you’ve seen or heard anything about it. We will try not to spoil too much of what happens here, but in its essence, the film posits the question: how far would you go to earn enough money to look after your family, when you’ve just been handed an eviction notice and have lost your job?
This is the question that the film’s protagonist, Craig (Pat Healy), has to deal with when, on the day he loses his job, he meets a strange couple, played by Sara Potter and David Koechner (as Violet and Colin, respectively), who begin offering Craig and his friend Vince (Ethan Embry) money to do the sort of things any of us would accept in a challenge: drink a bottle of beer first, go hit on a girl at the bar… but before they know it they’re being asked to punch someone in the face and from there it starts to go down a level of more and more dangerous – often hilarious, sometimes peverse and always entertaining – series of challenges in exchange for money. The only question is, what will they have to do to win it all?
The crazy road they all head down works because the film has been well cast, and the actors do a fantastic job of holding this bizarre scenario together. The makeup is also phenomenal, especially given its budget. By the end of the film, as its makers pointed out in the Q&A following its SXSW screening, only one character’s morality remains intact, and we’re left wondering what we’d do if we were put in that situation. But this isn’t intended to be a film that makes you think – it’s just a byproduct of the situation.
Likewise, it’s not intended to be a film that wins any Academy Awards. It’s crassly shot, crassly made (with love and intent, of course) and as a result, it serves as a better homage to the Grindhouse genre than any of the recent bigger budget efforts. Instead of trying to recreate the atmosphere and quality of the 70’s and 80’s, E.L. Katz – who is making his directorial debut here – has taken the concept and given it new life in a modern context. I’m sure there are plenty of other filmmakers doing the same thing – I can’t say I see enough horror films to make a judgment on the front of originality – but all the same, for me this was a truly enjoyable eighty-or-so minutes, with PLENTY of cheap thrills – and for this sort of film that’s about all you can expect or ask for.
A must see for fans of the genre.
Review Score: 7.5 out of 10.
The film has picked up a US distributor but as of yet there are no plans for an Australian release.
