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.

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.

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.

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.

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.