The Price We Pay

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.

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.

This movie is pretty pointless and lame to be honest. I found myself just wanting it end. I suppose it's just a cash grab but I just keep asking my self why this even exists.

There's nothing original about it, characters are all non-enjoyable, there's no good dialogue, and it's just exceedingly dark and gory for no reason.

It's a go thru the motions wannabe horror movie with nothing really of value. The editing is pretty bad too when it comes to continuity so you know there weren't many takes and it's just not satisfying to watch.

Overall it's a big NO. Didn't like it all and felt like it wasn't even worth watching. Don't bother. 3.8/10.

With very few redeeming qualities. I like Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch and both have acted very well in many things but I haven't a clue why they aggreed to be in this beyond a paycheck. There isn't much wrong with their performances but basically, they are in a remake of From Dusk Till Dawn. The storyline is almost identical but with the badder bad guys being of a different type of evil. Both are just impersonations of Clooney and Tarrantino's characters - the insane younger guy and slightly older wiser chap who tries, unsuccessfully to limit the damage. The special effects are laughable and the ending is just plain silly. I would have loved to have liked it, I love FDTD, but this is such a poor shadow of that film it pales in comparison. It also chucks in some other horror movie cliches and eventually, you just feel like you have seen it all before but done much better.

I've seen a lot of worse films to be honest, and with better known actors.

It's a slasher of epic proportions in the typical Japanese style with lots of blood and gore, and copious amounts of unhuman barbarism to people.

If you're used to things like Saw and the Hostel series of films you're probably going to like this. It's got the right amount of brutality and blood to keep any fan happy.

It's a ludicrous plot, with at times silly dialogue, but in fact it does bring a bit of tension by the clever way it's directed and filmed.

I used to be a fan of Stephen Dorff back in the day but he went off my radar for years until this film. Emile Hirsch was never a great actor, but he's definitely done better than this one. I think the standout was Grace played by Gigi Zumbado. Not a bad role and quite well played all things considered.

Buying the DVD is completely out of the question but if you want a bit of tension, with a few chuckles thrown in for good measure, this is definitely worth a look one night with a friend and a couple of beers.