As a huge fan of film and horror, director Ryuhei Kitamura has a love for gore, as evidenced by his 2008 film The Midnight Meat Train and his newest film, The Price We Pay. We recently spoke with him about filmmaking, his passion for the genre, and the film, which stars Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff.
Following a pawn shop robbery gone awry, two criminals take refuge at a remote farmhouse to try to let the heat die down but find something much more menacing. Written by Christopher Jolley, the film was released on VOD on January 10th and in select theaters on January 13th via Lionsgate.
Horror Geek Life: Is directing something you’ve always wanted to do, or did you discover it later in life?
Ryuhei Kitamura: This is something I’ve always wanted to do since I was about sixteen or seventeen years old. I didn’t go to school that much. I was always at the movie theater or watching VHS movies from the seventies and eighties, and I think it was in high school that I decided that I wanted to become a film director.
Horror Geek Life: What inspired The Price We Pay?
Ryuhei Kitamura: This all started actually in the middle of lockdown, and like everyone else, we didn’t have much to do, and all of my movie projects had stopped. However, instead of being down and depressed, I met this very talented writer Christopher Jolley, not in person, but first via email, then online, and we had this good vibe. So I told him, let’s come up with something we can do in a contained location with limited time and budget. We started trading concepts, and one day Chris sent me The Price We Pay, and I became really excited.
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I loved the character The Doctor, the crazy serial killer, but he had his reasons, and I almost felt myself agreeing with him. A lot of people out there don’t appreciate their life and their health, so why don’t you give it up to someone who will appreciate it? I really liked that concept. We got the script done in a few months, and I was thinking about just going out to an abandoned farmhouse somewhere with my friends and shooting it because nobody was getting anything done.
However, the producer, Robert [Dean], sent the script to Emile Hirsch, and it was a huge surprise that Emile was not only a fan of horror but a fan of mine as well. He loved the script and said he was in. He then made a phone call to his friend Stephen Dorff. Stephen called me and said, Emile really likes you, and I really like the script, so what are you thinking? What’s your plan, your vision? We chatted for about ten or fifteen minutes, and he said I love everything you just said, so count me in, and suddenly we had both Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch.
Horror Geek Life: What were your biggest challenges in making this film?
Ryuhei Kitamura: That was in 2021, around June and July, that we got things going, and America was opening up again, which was great, but I had another movie to do in Japan. It was starting up already, so I basically had a four-week window to get this done, and that’s it. It was chaotic, but I think I captured that chaotic, crazy energy, especially in the last thirty minutes of the movie. It was fun, actually. Tiring and crazy but a lot of fun. There was such chaos on set, too, right from day one (laughs).
Seriously, on day one, the producer came to me and said we lost the costume designer. She left and took the costumes with her. Can you believe that? We found Emile’s shirt, though, so we were able to start shooting and found another costume designer, but yeah, that was day one (laughs). However, with all that anger, frustration, exhaustion, and dealing with the madness of this schedule, I think we were able to focus all that and put it on the screen, which helped build up the tension.
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It’s funny, a lot of the actors called me the Grandmaster; they couldn’t believe I could keep so calm in the chaos. But I’m from Japanese indie guerilla-style filmmaking. I’ve had a lot of experience, but there is no doubt it was the hardest, most chaotic filming experience in my career.
Horror Geek Life: This film will appeal to horror fans in more ways than one. What is it about the genre that piques your interest as a director?
Ryuhei Kitamura: I grew up watching great seventies and eighties horror movies. I actually watch all kinds of movies. Believe it or not, the movie I just did in Japan is a heartwarming human drama (laughs). When I was nine or ten, I was really into horror movies because, for me, that was a couple of hours where you could escape from your real life, buy popcorn and a coke, sit back in the theater and forget about everything.
So yeah, I watch and make all kinds of movies, but horror is always at the core of my taste, so to speak. Watching and making films with blood, gore, arms getting chopped off, and hearts getting pulled out is fun for me. As far away from my real life as you can get. On set, I’m always yelling, bring me more blood, and it’s fun to be a part of that.
Horror Geek Life: You mentioned the film’s final act, which is pretty insane, but there’s also an excellent sense of dread and tension that hangs over the film. Is it difficult for you as a director to capture that feeling and put it on the screen, or do you work closely with the actors on this?
Ryuhei Kitamura: Yes, I can’t accomplish that without good actors, and all the actors were amazing. Emile, Stephen, Gigi [Zumbado], Vernon [Wells], and that big scary girl Erica [Ervin], everybody, they were all amazing. I told everyone even though we only had limited time on this movie, I take my job very seriously. It doesn’t matter if I didn’t have a lot of time, money, or resources; the audience pays the same price, so I want to entertain them.
I always try and push myself to the limit, my crew and cast to the limit, and they get it and respond to that passion. It really worked because this was right after the lockdown and everybody had this energy bottled up inside, and they wanted to come out and do something.
Horror Geek Life: What other projects do you have in the works? Are you going to do more horror?
Ryuhei Kitamura: I’m doing a lot of things. As I said, right after I shot The Price We Pay, I went to Japan and shot the Japanese movie Three Sisters of Tenmasou. It was a long shoot, fifty-two days, although I only had three days between those two movies. That movie just came out in Japan, and next month in Taiwan, so hopefully, it will be released in the U.S. sometime soon.
I’m already working on my next project, and we aim to start shooting this April. It is kind of like a horror movie, but it’s very different from The Price We Pay or The Midnight Meat Train. It’s like a survival horror story that takes place on the ocean, but that’s all I can say right now.
