The Price We Pay

Kitamura's films don't always work for me, but I've already realised that it's not just the fact that the director mixes things I really like with things I don't like so much...in fact, it has a lot to do with my state of mind and how I "dive" or not into the film. After the suffering of boredom that was Night Sky (previous film at Grimmfest), I had to refill myself with 500ml of Monster Energy and was prepared for the worst, so all that came was...music to my ears.

As a relatively serious thriller, this works well for almost two full acts, with some good characters and others as annoying as vuvuzelas in my ear for 90 minutes. Then, when everything starts to get more predictable and repetitive, the film pulls out its secret weapon: absurd levels of gratuitous violence, blood everywhere, and some of the most original scenes in recent times. I laughed at and that was the intention. The last act is brutal, it's over-the-top, but it's really fun and this dose of adrenaline was all I could ask for after the traumatic experience I had before. In the midst of a well-known cast, it was the young Gigi Zumbado who proved to be an excellent surprise.

Ryuhei Kitamura, a long time horror adventurer and director of such films as "Versus", "The Midnight Meat Train", "No One Lives" and "Downrage", serves us yet another B horror romp with a name which's purpose I still can't quite figure out, besides the fact that it sounds kinda cool. This time we're in for a slasher type actioneer.

The familiar enough Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch star as a criminal duo of an ex-military medic and a certified psychopath, respectively, who botch a pawnshop robbery, take poor Grace (Gigi Zumbado) as a hostage, and find a middle-of-nowhere farmhouse where to let the heat die down, but instead it'll go up, for the farm's inhabitants are far more dangerous criminals.

I was expecting a slasher flick in the vein of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", but that's not quite it. Although we are fed plenty of action and gore, the film struggles to build tension or any kind of scares, and, for its setting, doesn't have the morbidly beautiful rural atmosphere or aesthetic I came to hope for. Acting levels seemingly vary too much, Dorff is dorffy fine, but typically awesome Hirsch does an overkill in his pastiche psychopath caricature role. The villains definitely won't be christened as new horror icons, and our main hero Grace is simply just okay. One thing I found quite annoying was the editing, fine for the most part, but unnecessarily bats*it at times. Now, despite all its flaws, "The Price We Pay" is a B horror that's well aware of its mission, which is to keep you entertained for a well fitted runtime of 80 minutes, and it does so with consistently building up pacing, and ending with a finale that would've been adored by horror fans back in the 80's. Only wish the story was better and more fully developed.

If you're looking for a reasonably gory low-budget graphic horror fest with some familiar faces, and are fine with it fading from your memory within a week, give it a go. My rating: 5/10.

Movie was an intriguing idea that could've been really good but the performances were pretty cheesy and I find it ironic that Stephen Dorff feels confident in slamming Marvel movies then does crap like this. It's on par or maybe a half step above Sci-fy channel fluff. I've never seen a worst performance by Emile Hirsch and like I said...the special effects just weren't up to par. Gave slight vibes of Barbarian which was so good but this just completely lacked the depth, performances, special effects and cinematography of a decent horror movie. Sad considering the directors resume contained Midnight Meat Train and No One Lives...the latter being much better but No One Lives was still a lot more enjoyable than this.

With such a great cast you'd think they could've done more? It's worth a watch for any gorehound but be warned - the editing in particular is f'in awful. The end credits also have a comically cheesy track? I have no idea what they were thinking.

That said, it's a decent idea for a plot and the cast do a pretty good job overall. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it, but if you're stuck for something to watch and are in the mood for some decent gore (the practical sfx are genuinely impressive) I'd say give this a go.

Be warned about the editing, though. It really is quite terrible. Headache territory at some points.

Beware: this movie contains visual horror that is incredibly revolting, like cutting someones eyes out. NOT for the faint of hearted.

This movies' first part is a simple heist gone wrong. And that first part is okay.

Then the second part is NON STOP revolting HORROR, only suited for diehard horror fans.

The good: the actors are great. We've got the ever weird but funky Emile Hirsh, who plays an excellent role of a psychopathic killer. Stephen Dorff is as cool and calm and collected as he always is. It's a joy to see these 2 great actors work together, THEY carry this story.

Any bad? I saw this movie on a sunday morning, I had just had my eggs for breakfast and my stumach turned upside down when II was confronted with such revolting horror. It is because of the "comedy" element that I could finish this movie, but I did have to skip some 15 minutes of pure horror, which were just TOO MUCH for me...

(ONLY suited) for the diehard fans of the HORROR genre...