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‘Cheap Thrills’ a suitably nasty piece of work

The new film Cheap Thrills is the kind of horror film that’s so effective, you may only want to see it once. Consider that a compliment of the highest order, as this low-budget indie film, playing at Fantastic Fest this weekend, aspires to be a wholly nasty piece of work and reaches that plateau early and often. Anchored by an appropriately sweaty and desperate Pat Healy, Cheap Thrills is gruesome and visceral, while always being slightly tethered to matters of the real world.

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TADFF 2013 Days 7 and 8 Reviews: ‘Willow Creek’, ‘Cheap Thrills’, and ‘Big Bad Wolves’

Willow Creek Written and directed by Bobcat Goldthwait USA, 2013 While trying to document and find evidence of the mythical Bigfoot, believer Jim (Bryce Johnson) and his skeptical girlfriend Kelly (Alexie Gilmore) arrive at Willow Creek, near where the famous Patterson-Gimlin film was originally shot. Despite the many warnings from locals to stay away, the …

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‘Cheap Thrills’ fails to capitalize on its gruesome social commentary

How much credit does rudimentary social commentary buy a film? You may find yourself pondering that question if you can distract yourself from the barrage of indignities that not only frequent but actually make up the constituent parts of the latter half of Cheap Thrills, a social satire by-way-of cruel lark that takes the makes a case against the way capitalism ferrets out and rewards our worst impulses, and does so in the crudest, most straightforward fashion imaginable.

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Fantastic Fest 2013: My Top 5 Anticipated Films

There are just two—count ‘em, two—days until Fantastic Fest 2013 kicks off in Austin , Texas, at the Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline. In case you hadn’t been keeping track, I’ll be there for the majority of the festival covering as many movies as possible. (I will be a movie-watching/reviewing machine, just you watch.) If you’ve been …

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Fantasia 2013: Additional First Wave highlights

We recently posted three big announcements from the Fantasia Film Festival which included Edgar Wright’s The Worlds End (closing the fest), a special Live theatre event for Clive Barker’s A History of the Devil, and a lifetime achievement award for Andrzej Żuławski. Additional first wave highlights have also been announced, and so far the line-up …

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SXSW Announces Midnight Slate

As if the line-up for SXSW wasn’t already incredible; the fest just announced their Midnight slate, which includes Rob Zombie’s The Lords Of Salem, V/H/S/2, You’re Next and the latest from director Vincenzo Natalie. SXSW runs from March 8-16. Here is the main lineup. You can see a complete list, which includes short films, over …

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