Cheap Thrills won the Audience Award at SXSW Film Festival 2013 and was encouragingly described by Variety as a “nasty piece of work”. In E. L. Katz’s film a down-on-his-luck father (Pat Healy,Compliance) accepts a series of increasingly insane challenges for cash in order to amuse a rich, twisted couple played by Anchorman‘s David Koechner and The Innkeepers‘ Sara Paxton. With the film about to hit home video and on demand, here’s some background on the whole crazy enterprise from Cheap Thrills‘ director.
What was the initial idea that grew into ‘Cheap Thrills’?
The initial idea was a script by Trent Haaga originally titled “Money For Something”. He’d written it on spec to go out to market, but his reps told him that it was way too dark to sell. I was friends with Trent, and looking for material at the time, so he sent it to me. I absolutely loved it.
What is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done for money – or encouraged someone else to do?
Oh shit. Well, once I was hired by my friend’s used car dealer father to smuggle an illegal immigrant out of Mexico, and into the States so he could work at the car lot as an employee. Apparently, he’d gone down there to attend a wedding, but wasn’t able to get back into the country. Me and my friend drove his car down there, dressed him up as a hip american teenager, and then put him in the driver’s seat. We reached the border, and the agent asked us, “Where were you born?”
I responded, “Rochester, New York”, my friend answered “San Diego, California, our driver responded confidently, “Estados Unidos… wait, United States!”
“Secondary inspection”, the agent responded.
The only reason me and my friend didn’t get into loads of trouble was because we weren’t driving the car. Still, incredibly dumb.
It seems like you’re setting up a slippery slope for your characters – could anyone get stuck on this kind of escalation?
People are capable of absolutely anything. Typically, yeah, people to tend to self destruct over years, not hours, but I’m sure, somewhere out there, something like this has happened.
Once it starts, I’m guessing it is hard to work out where you draw the line..?
I think the line is an illusion in the first place.
Is there a particular point in the film that audiences usually think “ok, that’s too far” or have you found it differs from person to person, or place to place?
Nobody… which I guess is a scary thing.
Who would be the best, and worst, possible people to bring along to your film?
Don’t bring somebody who’s uptight, because the film isn’t polite at all. Bring people with an open mind and a strong stomach.
Could you share your strongest memory from filming?
Strong because it was a good memory, or strong because I was traumatized? I think one of my favorite memories was seeing Pat walk out of the makeup trailer for the first time, looking how he does in his final stage in the film. It blew my mind. Some people couldn’t even look at him, he was that messed up.
What was the last great film you saw?
The Act Of Killing. It’s a beautiful documentary that will leave you in pieces.
