An intensively minced blend of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and an Abdominal Surgery for Beginners DVD, this is a solid genre exercise in gore and retribution. After an ominous abduction scene featuring nubile victim Carly (Sabina Mach), the film cuts to down-on-her-luck pawn-shop customer Grace (a very watchable Gigi Zumbado) trying with another trinket just as the place is being burgled by three armed robbers; these are former army medic Cody (Stephen Dorff), plus brothers Alex (Emile Hirsch) and Shane (Tanner Zagarino). A fourth man in the gang, the getaway driver, takes off in a panic and Grace is pressed into driving them away from the crime scene after Shane is shot in the leg.
Given they seem to be in the middle of the same American south-west desert where all these types of film are shot, there’s not much to choose from for sanctuary, so they pull into a remote farmhouse where only teenager Danny (Tyler Sanders) is about and who informs them his grandpa is out but will be home soon. Obviously, as anyone who has ever seen any horror film could predict, the man of the house (Vernon Wells) will not be making them biscuits and coffee and sending them on their merry way when he gets back.
But while the host’s intentions are gruesome in the extreme, director Ryûhei Kitamura and his co-screenwriter Christopher Jolley take some time to establish that the sadistic Alex at least deserves everything that’s coming to him (who you can tell is a few cartridges short of a full barrel because he has weirdly delicate but very oversized glasses that make him look like an evil librarian). Also prowling around the set is Danny’s 6’8” sibling Jodi (Erika Ervin, AKA Amazon Eve), who seems to have issues which compel her to wear a leather mask, grunt rather than talk, and try to murder strangers.
Clearly this has been fashioned for viewers who think inventive special effects involving exploding bags of blood and baling wire are fun, which they can be if you have the stomach for it. Kitamura also has a penchant for stuttery, percussive jump cuts which add a certain edge, like the cinematic version of hand claps in a disco tune.
• The Price We Pay is released on 16 October on digital platforms.
