‘Sacrificing his flesh may be the only way out.’
Pay Up is a 2020 American horror film about a young man that owes a debt to a drug dealer and submits to a cult’s nasty invasive procedure. Trading soft flesh for hard cash may be his only way out.
Written and directed by Mike Pickle, the StoneCanvas Pictures production stars Adam Conn, Lora McHugh, Nick Theurer, Carol Morrow, Pyar Anderson, and Tito Flores.
Plot:
Justin, an awkward young loner with a dark past, meets the beautiful and charismatic Zoey and falls in love for the first time. His best friend John warns him about falling too soon, but that’s the least of his problems. Justin is caught between witty but ruthless drug dealer Delgado and a dangerous cult led by Dan and his sinister surgeon / co-leader Veronica who urge him to repay his debt by submitting to a gory and invasive procedure…
Background:
Mike Pickle: “I was approached to write and direct Pay Up by Chet Turner. He had a seed of a story and was looking for a writer/director/producer who could expand on it and make it their own. I had just recently decided to leave my freelance writing job and concentrate on my film career full time. This project came along around the same time I was approached to take a horror variety series I developed to the American Horrors Roku channel. I wasn’t sure I could do both, but this was the opportunity I had been working so hard for and I could not pass it up.
The budget for Pay Up was only $4,000 and it was meant to be a short film. The way I expanded on the story opened up the possibility of making the film feature-length and an already difficult challenge became seemingly insurmountable. We had already assembled a small, but strong team and I knew it was a team that was strong enough to tackle this project on such a tiny budget, so I moved forward. My fellow producers and I pooled our resources and shot the film in only 5 ½ days.
The story had elements of crime, horror, and exploitation, but I saw the possibilities to surround these elements with drama, suspense, and an emotional core that made you care about the characters before the more graphic elements came into play. I wanted to make a horror film with graphic and disturbing scenes that were surrounded by a world that felt tangible and made the viewer feel something before (and after) these disturbing moments occurred.
I was inspired by the works of Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick, and David Lynch (among others). I draw my horror influences from such directors as James Wan, John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and most recently S. Craig Zahler, Ari Aster, Robert Eggers, Issa Lopez, and Joe Begos. I want to make horror films that excite, inspire, and even titillate. I want viewers to feel something before I scare the pants off them or disturb them. The directors I mentioned above have done that for me. I can only hope to bring a fraction of the joy to horror fans (and movie fans in general) that these directors and others have brought to me.
I must admit that I gave the cast and crew of Pay Up an enormous challenge and they came through better than I could have ever imagined. We were faced with up to twenty-one pages of dialogue a day, stunts, practical special FX, multiple locations, and a shortage of equipment and everyone came together in a truly collaborative effort to help make a film that I am extremely proud of.”
Cast and characters:
Adam Conn … Justin
Pyar Anderson … Dan
Lora McHugh … Zoey
Nick Theurer … John
Carol Morrow … Veronica
Tito Flores … Delgado
Katarina Law … Eileen
Erik Emerson … Dustin
Michael Pickle … Isaiah
Valencia Gamble … Anna
Laura Van Yck … Hope
Lyndsay Baker … Trinity
Mahima Chondro … Cult member (as Sonali Chandra)
Silvestre Hernandez … Cult member
Justin Frye … Thug
