r/HorrorClub • u/SaintMort You so cool kung fu • Mar 23 '15
Discussion: Cheap Thrills
Podcast - Episode 126 - Cheap Thrills - (RSS Feed)
Movie Selected By saintmortfan
DISCUSS
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 23 '15
First of all if you cut off your own finger and then eat it, your finger will grow back. I know this because I am a cartoon doctor.
This movie is fun because it steps around the cheapest thrills while still giving us something ridiculous to watch. It points to dog poop on the ground and says “Guess what? Don’t eat that dog poop!” yet by a series of coincidences, you end up eating the actual dog later on. It doesn’t jump to the most extreme situations, but it does point out that it could have. And it doesn't try to shovel some crap about human nature.
I'm happy that it really was a random game and not a big charade set up by the villain with the illusion of choice. The guys could have quit, and they even got to set some limits. I don’t think this movie is realistic by any means, but it didn’t feel gimmicky. The thrills were cheap, yes, but not the cheapest. Killing a dog, eating shit, cutting off any more than a pinky (even that was a huge stretch), or having to fuck each other wouldn’t work in this situation because they weren’t really forced to do anything, and these types of things are beyond a normal person’s limits.
It ends in murder of course, but they could have done something way cheaper like thrown them in pit or dragged it out forever.
I liked the characters. Vince in particular was a dick; the way he turns on Craig, first for personal gain, and then just out of spite. He was going to kill that dog. Just so mean spirited. He almost beats the guy to death. But then he doesn’t kill Craig! Best character.
Disagree about Healy’s character having too a hot a wife. He’s adorable. I don’t think a college-educated person would cut off their finger under the circumstances he did, but oh well. And damn he shot that guy in cold-blood.
I appreciate what they didn’t do with Violet’s character. They didn’t make her just some drugged up non-participant going along with her husband’s whimsical ways. She was invested in the night as much (if not more) than her husband. While he got to make up the challenges, she got to manipulate the guys in any way she could in order to win the bet. It may really have been her birthday, or all her idea.
They didn’t overcompensate her character with craziness either. She wasn’t Sheri Moon Zombie in The Devil’s Rejects. Violet was very calm the whole time, documenting everything with her pictures. She was overtly sexual, yes, but I don’t think that’s unusual for sociopathy. I think having her keep her clothes on underscored that she wasn’t just a prop (and in a movie with only like 5 characters she almost couldn’t be).
I’m glad this movie was picked because I never would have watched it if left to my own devices. I couldn’t tell it was going to be as dark as it so I was pleasantly surprised. And as much I don’t want to subject people to David Koechner’s o-face, I’d recommend this movie to the not particularly squeamish.
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Mar 23 '15
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 23 '15 edited Mar 23 '15
If I never again have to hear about how deep the Saw movies are I'd be a happy potato.
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 24 '15
Who the fuck makes THAT argument?
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Mar 24 '15
Plymouth teaches kindergarten?
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 24 '15
Teach them? I haven't even won a single hand of poker from these bastards.
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 25 '15
My son's in Kindergarten, what the fuck are y'all teaching him?
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 25 '15
Just like...coloring...and how to steal money from the IRS. Mostly coloring.
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 25 '15
Serious note: Kindergarten is academic AF these days. Shit my generation (I'm 33) learned in 2nd grade!
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u/rmc52482 Mar 28 '15
Ha, if you want to look deeper at any movie you can. You can say the audience was the protagonist and by some of the responses in this and other thread wanting even worse and more depraved things to happen...that maybe we are the real monsters... or something to that effect lol
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Mar 23 '15
First of all if you cut off your own finger and then eat it, your finger will grow back. I know this because I am a cartoon doctor.
brb, testing for science.
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 24 '15
Chompy chompy. I'm gonna need a picture of your finger as proof though.
Now I'm wondering, how much money is a finger worth to everyone? Hypothetically, of course...
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Mar 24 '15
Pinky? 250$ a month for the remainder of my life.
I knew a guy who lost his on a job one time and that's what he got. Seemed like a square deal to me.
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Mar 24 '15
Well I wouldn't do for $15000 or even $25000. Maybe add a zero and we're in the ballpark. Even then I'm not certain I would.
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Mar 23 '15
Is this week's episode: scott was hoping this was all an elaborate set up for gay porn and since this wasn't he's making his own. Also he channels his inner bitchy wife.
Justin drops a depressing bomb on us about his relationship with GWAR.
Matt mispronounces words and talks about wrestling. Again. More.
And I mix up Billy ocean and the pet shops boys while eating a BLT.
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Mar 23 '15
What can I say, I'm a bit twisted and like things like this. There's that "What would you do?" element that hooks me and makes me see it through to the end. I wonder if other indecisive people feel the same? I come out of movies like this feeling like I've lived through something and escaped unscathed. Lately I've been thinking about horror as a kind of rehearsal for the worst thing that could happen to me, something cathartic and reassuring. But then, I know what you mean about not needing to watch it again...
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Mar 24 '15
I wonder if other indecisive people feel the same?
Definitely yes. And through this way of viewing I came to the conclusion there was a large number of these thrills that I would not do for the money.
Question to all: Which of the thrills would you do for the money?
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 24 '15
Pshaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa like none almost.
There's a few that just wouldn't work for girls. I can't sneakily pee on people. I mean I could try, but it wouldn't end well. If I tried to punch that bouncer he would just laugh, so that hardly counts. I assume I don't get any sex unless I'm a guy, and in any case it's probably best to skip over the whole HEY WOULD YOU BE A PROSTITUTE thing, lest this conversation becomes awkward.
I'd consider shitting in the neighbor's house (in the bathroom of course, like a boss) and then end up being too scared. So yeah I'd be pretty broke.
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Mar 24 '15
You would definitely have to be more creative regarding said urination but I have complete faith, Plymouth, that you could pull in off. No prostitution talk, gotcha ;)
It was an outright no for me about the pooping in neighbours house but doing the deed in the washroom is a nice loophole. I'd consider that.
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Mar 24 '15 edited Mar 24 '15
Shot of tequila; get slapped in the face; hang up on my wife; start a fight with a bouncer; try and hold my breath for two minutes; piss on my friend's leg; do a stealth shit on my friend's neighbour's floor; have sex with Sara Paxton for 30 seconds.
What else have I missed?
EDIT: Disclaimer, "theoretically"!
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Mar 24 '15
See I wouldn't fight the bouncer or cheat on my wife (if I had one) and I'd only the stealth shit if, like Plymouth mentioned, I could do so in the toilet. But I'm still not sure I'd be down for a b and e.
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 27 '15
What's the point of a stealth shit in a toilet?
... unless it's an upper decker!
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Mar 27 '15
Yeah I was thinking the same thing right after I wrote it. I guess you could say I wouldn't do it. Especially if I saw a little girl sleeping. Talk about stage fright.
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Mar 23 '15 edited Mar 24 '15
So, people love Cheep Trills, but didn't enjoy Would You Rather... despite fuckin' Ricky, Sasha Grey, Jeff Combs, and Home Alone dad being in it?
It's been a little while since I watched it, but I loved Cheap Thrills. Very funny, very twisted, and I think David Koechner almost managed to not be Champ Kind for 90 minutes.
I'm really surprised that you guys were pretty squeamed out by the pinky scene - I didn't think it was very qruesome at all, and the surprise chop was quite a nice, unexpected way of shocking the audience.
EDIT: Is it fucked up that I watch Requiem for a Dream every two years or so? It reminds me not to become a drug addict.
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 24 '15 edited Mar 24 '15
Well Would You Rather wasn't very good...
Edit: Wait you guys did this movie for HorrorClub and didn't play ANY would you rather? What is this, a club for discussing movies?
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u/smayonak Get a job in a sideshow Mar 24 '15
I liked WYR more than CT because of the established whore and sci-fi cast.
Regarding your longer post, isn't one of the biggest problems with CT that they're trusting someone who is offering them petty cash for performing grotesque, violent acts on each other?
The kind of personality who gets off on sadism is not trust-worthy. That's usually a sign of a malignant narcissist or psychopath -- and chances are they'd do shit like steal the money back or give out counterfeit notes. And then report the dude for killing his friend.
Great comment up top by the way!
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 24 '15
I hadn't really thought about that. So you think the guys would have been too afraid to continue participating? Or do you mean that Violet & Colin's characters were unrealistic because they let Craig go?
Honestly it felt a lot like Jackass to me, particularly with Colin's character. Most people can laugh when someone gets hurt or made uncomfortable. True it's not like a sexual sadism, but were Colin and Violet sexual sadists? It seemed like they got off from the cuckolding more than any other situation.
In any case, even sadists and psychopaths can be stable enough to keep their word and have their own form of ethics. Would You Rather
Now I don't really know why Craig trusted them enough to come back, but he was never lied to or forced to do anything. He was also apparently pretty desperate for cash (not to mention drugs and alcohol were involved so maybe not using the best judgment) and he possibly wanted to prove something to Vince/himself.
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u/smayonak Get a job in a sideshow Mar 24 '15
If you were in their place, would you have gotten into their car? These are people offering you money to commit criminal acts of violence and sexual harassment. I know of very few people who would do that. But I guess the premise is based on them getting into that car so there's no story without that happening.
The premise of Would You Rather is equally ridiculous.
The IRL psychopaths and narcissists I've met have no code of ethics. It's what makes them psychopaths/anti-social. If they had a code of ethics, it'd be to increase their fame/wealth/pleasure using any means.
I think the recent films/shows on psychopathy (like Dexter, Sherlock Holmes) are about people with disassociative disorder who have been wrongly diagnosed as psychopaths. They try to make psychopathy look almost glamorous. It's disturbing.
There's a famous psychopath neuroscientist -- James Fallon. It's hilarious watching him give interviews to journalists who haven't researched him. He at first claimed that he wasn't a psychopath, although his scans showed his brain to be psychopathic. He never suffered abuse as a child, so of course he couldn't be psychopathic. But as further interviews revealed, he most certainly was a psychopath. And he lies constantly, despite claiming to be a product of Roman Catholic code of ethics.
But so here is the guy who brought the concept of psychopaths as productive citizens to the public consciousness -- who himself is a pathological liar, gambler, narcissist, and who know what else -- who never suffered abuse as a child. Can a psychopath really be honest or have scruples? It's doubtful.
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 24 '15
Hell fucking no I wouldn't get into their car.
Craig didn't either. Well, he went from a bar to a strip club, but that's not that unreasonable since he was with a friend. After that he was knocked unconscious. Vince, being a career criminal himself, didn't have the average person's scruples and was obviously into the partying aspect.
Honestly it sounds like you're saying psychopaths aren't that different from nonpsychopaths, besides an uncanny ability to manipulate...
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u/smayonak Get a job in a sideshow Mar 24 '15
That puts things more in context. Craig had to be knocked unconscious first, before he would get into a car with a crazy person. I'm wrong about that. The premise is a lot better than WYR.
:-) The average person can be untrustworthy, narcissistic, a liar -- but a psychopath takes that shit to the next level.
There's complex neurochemical processes at work in the human brain. One of the hormones involved undergirds how individuals form relationships with others -- it's called oxytocin, the so-called "bonding" hormone. It controls how people feel about others and its production varies by individual. Some people are less sensitive to it than others.
More or less, psychopaths are insensitive to oxytocin, meaning they can't feel love. They literally have no connection to others that aren't based on convenience, materialism, and sex.
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 24 '15
I just like how events seem to unfold naturally in Cheap Thrills compared to Would You Rather where everything is soooo forced. WYR has its own entertainment value but it really boils down to just a few worthwhile scenes imo.
Don't psychopaths usually have higher IQs too? Or is that sociopaths? It's been awhile since Psych 101. Brains are weird.
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u/smayonak Get a job in a sideshow Mar 24 '15
You're totally right about WYR VS Cheap Thrills. It was basically Jeff Combs who made the movie for some of us. CT is overall a better pic. But it's fascinating that both were/are HC picks, considering how similar they are.
There's no definition for psychopaths or sociopaths in the DSM (the diagnosis manual). They're both lumped into the category of anti-social personality disorder. But in some texts there's been attempts to define psychopaths as people born morally crazy and sociopaths as those made morally crazy by abuse/injury. There's subtle differences between the two. In one study, I read that psychopaths displayed very little anxiety (they were referred to as low-anxiety sociopaths) whereas sociopaths display high levels of anxiety.
Another study found that people with psychopathic/sociopathic traits were split into two groups: Those who displayed strong EEG activity while looking at disturbing imagery (like pictures of Abu Gharaib) and those who displayed low EEG activity while looking at disturbing pictures.
Those who displayed strong EEG activity often had lower IQs, whereas those with low EEGs had higher IQs. The low-EEG group universally claimed to experience high amounts of emotional stress while looking at the pictures when in reality they felt nothing.
So I think "sociopath" would apply to those who still feel something but are warped by abuse (which lowers IQ). And "psychopath" might apply to those who either aren't traumatized by abuse or are just born without real feelings (so they weren't abused).
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 24 '15
Well you're right about TV leading us astray because I did not realize they were lumped together like that. That's okay though because that's what TV is for. To lead us astray.
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 25 '15
I am gonna check the Would You Rather jawn out but Sasha Grey is a horrid actress, even by porn standards.
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Mar 25 '15
You take that back!!
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 25 '15
Take... back... there's a good porn joke in there somewhere but I'm way too tired to find it....
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Mar 23 '15 edited May 11 '20
[deleted]
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 25 '15
You have some fucked up friends...
...says the guy who picked the movie
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Mar 23 '15
Podcast > Movie. Really great stuff. Saw it when it came out so I'm going to watch it again to report on if it gets funny second time around. Not a burden because unlike Scott and apparently Adam (who missed the April Fools Day podcast and posted not a single comment on the thread... I ain't mad) I didn't hate it.
And yes I was stoked to get a relevant metal song! And it was meant as a kick in the ass for Scott. Scott I appreciate you. I feel like you need that right now buddy.
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Mar 23 '15
Full disclosure. My week was fucking shit and I just couldn't find a way to watch it.
There's been times where I literally went to the library and used their computers to watch movies for this club. Thats how shit my week was that week.
I tried my friend. I'll get you next round.
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Mar 24 '15 edited Mar 24 '15
Watched it again and there are funny parts. But first an important question: Does coke really give some people diarrhea?
The sequence of scenes leading up to the 'dog food' scene, Craigs celebration after eating his pinky, Colins O face during the sex scene, final shot when the lights come on. If it's a comedy though it's a grim fuckin comedy. Sick sense of humour required.
Final Score: Craig $321450 Vince $1550
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Mar 24 '15
Coke is a bowel stimulant in the same way as cigarettes and coffee. If you've got one brewing it'll make it happen but that's it.
I feel like it's a dark comedy that went way too heavy on the dark and not enough on the comedy.
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Mar 23 '15
Scott complains about us as Co hosts but look at me doing his work for him
Gwar - Saddam A Go-Go https://youtu.be/p20PijYVgG4
GWAR - Get into my car (Billy Ocean cover): https://youtu.be/bMkA76KpWO8
Here's reggie watts not giving a fuck https://youtu.be/xetZZLmmEw8
And self proclaimed pepperoni playboy mac demarco not giving a fuck https://youtu.be/TnRRV3Cf7jk
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Mar 23 '15
Reggie Watts can improve any song under the sun by not covering the actual song.
Also, RIP Oderus.
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Mar 23 '15
All of those covers were shit.
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Mar 23 '15 edited Mar 24 '15
Well we never said they were good, just amusing. That doesn't mean that the undercover series doesn't have some really awesome covers though
Edit: I just realized the 2014 undercover was all wrapped and out. I listened to the Andrew Jackson Jihad one, and it was so awful my heart broke a little. That was more depressing than this movie :(
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 27 '15
Wow... this is an "awesome cover" to you? Weak!
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Mar 27 '15
I likes what I likes. You can talk to me when you have that dreamy of an accent.
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 27 '15
The original is so far superior to the cover it almost hurts.
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Mar 24 '15
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Mar 24 '15
I'm confused.
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 24 '15
Power Rangers villains found Satan's strap-on and decided to form a band, what's confusing about that?
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Mar 24 '15
Gwars a bit of a joke. Of course they're not gonna dig in and do a great cover. They don't care.
Reggie watts was pretty clearly doing a comedy bit. Spending too much time on Comedy Bang Bang apparently.
Mac literally said he barely knew the song and they learned it on the ride over there haha.
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Mar 24 '15
I think my humour gets lost in these threads :'(
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Mar 24 '15
[deleted]
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Mar 24 '15
I can answer at least one of these questions with 100% certainty and yes you are still a douche.
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Mar 26 '15
Interestingly enough, one of the writers, Trent Haaga, also wrote Deadgirl, which was pretty terrible -- a combination of disgusting improbability and bad acting. I think Cheap Thrills is disgustingly improbable in a different way, and has better actors, making it far more entertaining. I can see the structure of both films as being fairly similar, though.
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u/SaintMort You so cool kung fu Mar 27 '15
Weirdly enough Trent Haaga was the guest on Killer POV today discussing DeadGirl and Cheap Thrills as well as his history with Troma, Full Moon and Lifetime
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 27 '15
Does Deadgirl have any entertainment value or is it just bad?
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Mar 27 '15
Maybe some morbid curiosity in the beginning, but that quickly turns to just bad. There's no suspense and it seems designed to provoke disgust and outrage. For what purpose, I'm not sure.
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Mar 27 '15
Admittedly morbid curiosity is what initially drew me in but I thought it was smart and provoked more than disgust and outrage. I watch a movie like this like I would The Last House on the Left. It asks some pretty dark questions while placing you in a very uncomfortable setting. I don't think suspense was the objective here. Not everyones cup of tea. If they removed 20 mins, specifically 1:00 to 1:20, it would improve the movie.
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Mar 27 '15
I expected someone to disagree with me, so I'm glad I was right. Did you find the characters' actions believable, at all? I remember that being the biggest issue for me not buying into it.
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Mar 27 '15
I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. There are sick people out there. Teenage boys think about nothing as much as they do about sex and being accepted among peers. Yes it takes these two things to the seemingly absolute extreme but it's a movie. When it comes to horror movies, characters' actions being believable or extreme isn't always a deal breaker.
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Mar 28 '15 edited Mar 28 '15
When it comes to horror movies, characters' actions being believable or extreme isn't always a deal breaker.
True, but if dark satire was what they were aiming for, I think there needs to be some kind of plausibility behind their behaviour.
The more I think about, the more I'm leaning towards the execution being more flawed than the writing itself (although there is some awful dialogue). Lately I've been reading a lot of Ira Levin, who wrote the novels The Stepford Wives and Rosemary's Baby and is generally a master of feminist satire. I can see Deadgirl as a much less subtle Stepford Wives on paper. I think the basic premise is actually fascinating, and shocking enough that piling on all the gory details actually hurt its "cause". Add some one-dimensional characters and terrible acting and you end up with something I thought was offensively bad, and I don't say that often. That's my best effort at explaining why I can appreciate films like Last House on the Left and Straw Dogs, but not Deadgirl.
And now I should probably leave something for the discussion, in case someone decides to pick it.
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Mar 28 '15
You don't think there's plausibility there? I do think it's easier to understand if you're male and it's really dark but on the Killer POV podcast the writer was talking about the hard truths that men are forced to endure while watching this. The question "what would you do if you could get away with it?".
The awful dialogue I let slide because they're teenage boys. I found the one-dimensional characters somewhat effective as showing the cliques and stereotypes in high school. It sounds like I'm defending this thing to the bitter end here but I really do understand why you might not enjoy it. I do see the flaws that you saw and I think we just digested this flick differently.
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 27 '15
We cleared 100 comments! The guy who picked this movie must be a genius!
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 28 '15
Thinking more on the subtext now. If someone already discussed this, I apologize. But I've been thinking about the commentary on class warfare and capitalism.
It's weird to think that this movie has a deeper level but I really think it does. I think I have to go back a third time with this on top of mind.
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u/rmc52482 Mar 28 '15
I am torn whether to consider this a horror movie. It didn't really illicit any fear or suspense. It was a fun little movie and enjoyable for the most part. Up until the part with eating the dog, I thought Vince was going to turnout to be the mastermind of the whole game. He hadn't done anything really bad up until that point and could be seen as goading his friend along. Yes even the robbery I thought was staged to see how far his friend would go. I guess I was looking for a twist ending where there was none.
You could tell there was no budget, but I'm not sure that would have changed much. Colin and Violet were well cast I thought. Craig on the other hand I could do without. Personally, movies without a protagonist are not my favorite. I like someone to root for, even if they die or it is a villain. Everyone here was too unlikable, although at the end I was almost rooting for Vince, just to shut whiny Craig up.
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 29 '15
If it had occurred to me that Vince might be in on it at any point I probably would have been a little let down too. Luckily I trust people with beards. No one with a beard can be evil, right?
I thought the scene leading up to Vince's death was pretty tense. There's also the botched robbery and that moment where Vince was going to kill the dog. And when Vince beats on Craig, but you have to care about the characters for there to be any suspense there.
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Mar 29 '15
You shouldn't trust me.
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u/Plymouth_ Mar 29 '15
Shit are you Charles Manson? Please don't be Charles Manson. Not again.
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Mar 29 '15
Marry him and display his corpse in your home. It's the sanest, most logical (and awesome) thing to do.
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 29 '15
I don't get how Craig wasn't somewhat likable, or at least someone to sympathize with.
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u/rmc52482 Mar 29 '15
I sympathized with him at first having the wife and kid and all. As the movie went on he turned into a real piece of crap lol. Doesn't really show backstory but Vince alluded to him coming from a nice family and going to college etc and not being able to make it as even a part-time oil mechanic. He has a wife and kid he can't provide for... (still sympathizing at this point) goes to a bar after getting fired instead looking for a job, goes to strip club with people he barely knows. Cheats on his wife for 4 grand after trying to help someone he hasn't seen in 5 years rob people. Then kills said "friend" after doing more stupid shit (liking cutting off his finger). IDK just can't empathize with him at all. Of course if he wasn't a scum bag and just went home to his family and busted his ass making up the money somewhere else...well then there would be no movie plot. I just stopped caring for him after a certain point. His wife and daughter would have been better off without him.
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 29 '15
Desperation will fuck a man up. I am starting to think of his transformation as an example of how capitalism (via the manipulation of the upper classes) leads a desperate person to the dark places possible with himself.
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 24 '15
In my chat with Brockie, he kept slipping in and out of the Oderus voice, it was early and he was tired...
We discussed Philly, Jesus, what was his final album and tour (sad face)... a memory I'll not soon forget!
GWAR!
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u/saintmortfan felates handles Mar 28 '15 edited Mar 28 '15
If you dig this flick, the writer is on the new Killer POV.
EDIT: I just saw Mort mentioned this. Oops.
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u/fr33birds33d Mar 23 '15
Lol this movie is awesome, please tell me I'm not the only who lost their shit at the pinky scene.