The Price We Pay (2022) Review

It’s already a difficult day for Grace (Gigi Zumbado). Struggling with her debts, she takes the decision to part with a piece of jewellery that seems to hold sentimental value.

At the pawn shop, she finds that she is in the wrong place at the wrong time, when a group burst in to rob the premises at gunpoint. Grace fails in her attempt to escape and is instead taken hostage by the group, who drive to a nearby farmhouse to lay low until they can move on.

At the farmhouse, they meet the young Danny (Tyler Sanders), and persuade him to let them stay until morning without arousing too much suspicion. There is something odd about the boys nervous demeanour, but reasoning it’s simply due to their unexpected arrival, the group settle down for the evening.

The Price We Pay begins in similar territory and seems like it will play out as a typical ‘heist gone wrong’ film, focusing on hostage Grace as she tries to find a way free of her predicament. Caught between the peculiar, potentially psychopathic Alex (Emile Hirsch) and kind hearted criminal Cody (Stephen Dorff), things initially feel a little slow and overdone until there is a sharp veer into unexpected territory.

Director Ryûhei Kitamura does a good job of setting up the story and building expectations, just to spectacularly break them down as the film enters its second half. A lot of the fun in the feature is in the surprise twists and turns, so I won’t do it a disservice by entering spoiler territory, however the overall result just didn’t quite hit as hard as I wanted it to.

There is nothing inherently wrong with it, it just feels like there was something a little bit missing, and perhaps could have benefited from the dial being turned up to full on batshit as opposed to a little bit weird.

The stand out for me is found in the role of Alex. Hirsch delivers an unnervingly offbeat performance that really makes a lot of the movie. Whilst I understand the direction the film goes in, I think it would have benefitted from a little more focus on his character.

Having caught The Price We Pay at FrightFest, I think it may have somewhat been buried amongst some of the other stand outs of the festival and may actually play better itself upon release.

Movie Rating:

Trailer: