Paying Up Review

Paying Up is a 2021 short film written and directed by Dustin Wayde Mills.

Certainly, an experience, to say the least Paying Up, features a brutal surgical scene that is definitely the stand out element of an otherwise just ok short horror film.

Not going too much into the nasty details, this is certainly not a film for those with a more squeamish disposition, especially guys. However, the fact that nothing is held back in the moments shown is a really commendable feat from the filmmakers on this one.

Take that element away though and what you have a fairly hollow experience that needed to be shortened in its overall length. The acting is serviceable and the amount of nudity that we have in here will make any b movie blush with envy.

That being said, it doesn’t feel like the film and the actors are having enough fun with the material. Everything is played a little too straight, and it holds back what could be a campier experience overall.

Add to that some technical issues like equipment in a few shots and we have something that doesn’t feel like it was designed to be taken too lightly. What we get then is an inconsistent tone overall.

Overall, what we have is a solid short that relies mainly on one scene of gruesome ecstasy. Paying Up feels like if it was a feature, it would live in the same world as something like The Human Centipede, where the shocking conclusion leaves everyone talking about it. There is nothing wrong with that by any stretch, but for a short it just needed to be a little quicker to get us there.

Again, fair warning that this is not for the faint of heart.

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Cheers!

Daniel Hess

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