There’s always something especially unnerving about horror films based on real scenarios. While there’s a level of fantasy separating reality from something like Jason Voorhees or brain-munching zombies, the idea of being the subject of a home invasion, being kidnaped against your will, or being held hostage in a remote location is particularly spine-chilling. It’s why films like Martyrs still utterly terrify people, even years after their original release.

Those with a weak stomach may want to avoid the upcoming film The Price We Pay, as it’ll combine these terrifying topics with what looks to be surgical-precision gore and copious amounts of blood. The trailer for the film was released just a few days ago, and if it’s representative of the final product, then it’s truly something to behold.

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Directed by Ryûhei Kitamura and written by Christopher Jolley, The Price We Pay looks to be a horror film that preys on a primal fear that always lives in the back of our minds, all before cranking it up to eleven in almost comedic absurdity.

The Price We Pay: The Plot

The official plot summary for The Price We Pay is as follows.

It looks like, based on the trailer and the synopsis, we’re in store for something akin to 2007’s Frontier(s), a film that starts one way and ends up as something completely different. While Frontier(s) had cannibalistic Neo-Nazis, a stockpile of guns, and the aftermath of a riotous election, it looks like The Price We Pay deliberately keeps things a little more basic. We get a heist gone wrong, turning to a Hostel-esque scenario involving illicit torture, surgery, and a giant electrified cattle prod. If it weren’t a horror movie, things escalating so quickly would almost be hysterical.

“From the director of Midnight Meat Train comes this gripping thriller starring Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild) and Stephen Dorff (Blade). After an intense holdup at a pawnshop, Grace is taken hostage by the thieves. Forced to take refuge at a remote farmhouse late at night, they discover a secret dungeon with evidence of sadistic violence—and when ‘Grandfather’ comes home, all hell breaks loose. Can Grace muster the courage to escape the gut-wrenching fates that befall her criminal companions?”

We also have a masked killer who, aside from the aforementioned cattle prod, also carries a gigantic scythe on top of giant rolls of barbed wire, oxygen tanks, and surgical instruments. Whereas other killers largely stick to their signature tools of choice, like a fire ax or large machete, it’s fun to see such an eclectic series of props from an otherwise grounded film.

The Price We Pay: The Cast

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The cast for The Price We Pay is particularly impressive, with Emile Hirsch, Gigi Zumbado, and Stephen Dorff leading the film.

Hirsch has been in his own fair share of horror films prior to The Price We Pay, taking on leading roles in The Autopsy of Jane Doe and Freaks as well as roles in various thriller films, including Pursuit, Son, and The Outsider.

Stephen Dorff, meanwhile, is most well known for his role in 1998’s Blade, playing Deacon Frost along with Wesley Snipes’ Blade. Like Hirsch, Dorff has been in plenty of straightforward horror roles, including the antagonistic sheriff from Leatherface, Mike from Feardotcom, and Jimmy Levine in Jackals. He also played the eponymous Cecil B. Demented in what would be John Waters’ first film of the new millennium, Cecil B. Demented.

Gigi Zombado has made a handful of television appearances, from an episode of Scream: The TV Series to Criminal Minds. She also had a minor role in Prime Video’s latest Blumhouse horror, Run Sweetheart Run, in addition to appearing in eleven episodes of the Epix original series Bridge and Tunnel.

The trailer for the film also gives us a look at a character called “The Doctor,” played by Vernon Wells. The Doctor can be seen several times, whether he’s putting a scalpel to a victim’s eye or rendering them unconscious with a high-powered tranquilizer rifle. It’s unclear whether Wells is also the masked torturer that inhabits the farmhouse, but given the actor’s imposing stature, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him don the mask. Wells has previously made appearances in films like Commando and Weird Science in addition to providing voice acting for a variety of video games, like Darksiders 1 and 2.

Release Date

According to Collider, The Price We Pay will be available digitally on January 10th, 2023, with a theatrical release starting on January 13th, 2023.

The Price We Pay: Everything Else

The Price We Pay is director Ryûhei Kitamura’s latest feature-length horror film since 2017’s Downrange. Kitamura has had a prolific filmography dating back to the late 1980s, with 2008’s The Midnight Meat Train being his first major Hollywood film. The Price We Pay was also produced in New Mexico, per The Hollywood Reporter, possibly giving the film a southwestern setting.