Trapped in Hell – Final Girl – Hell to Pay Review

There’s something about reviewing these Final Girl feature films kind of out of order that really highlights some things about the various series/seasons.

I did all of Series 4 (except the one that hasn’t come out yet) prior to doing most of Series 3 (except The Killer From Tomorrow).

What that has told me is that Series 4 got a little more back to basics, adding some new mechanics (like the Volkar’s hidden movement) but not overloading the game with other, more fiddly stuff.

Now that I’m playing Series 3, there are a lot of fiddly things in these various films, at least so far.

Either that, or they add extra new things that you have to deal with, like last film’s Sand Snakes.

Hell to Pay adds that as well, though it’s not quite as complicated as the Savior or the Sand Snakes and it’s probably one of the more basic films of Series 3.

Even so, both the killer and location add some interesting little twists that add to the terror (and the difficulty).

Hell to Pay was designed by Ryan Jorjorian with artwork by Roland MacDonald.

It was published by Van Ryder Games in 2025.

In this film, you are facing off against Razorface (inspired by Pinhead from the Hellraiser movies, I think?) in the Hellscape (same thing, probably).

Both the killer and the setting are interesting, so let’s get started.

Razorface’s whole schtick is that he’s already saddled you with three afflictions even before the game starts.

(don’t forget that you can click on a picture to blow it up)

Afflictions aren’t really negative effects on you, except perhaps from a Terror card or something.

No, what they do is prevent you from actually winning the game.

You have to have purged all of your afflictions (you start with three but you could gain one or two more) before you can reveal Razorface’s final health token.

Doesn’t matter how much damage you do to him, he’s invincible at that point.

How do you purge afflictions?

Each affliction has a purge condition and then a purge effect.

Some of them you want to do as soon as possible, like the “remove one 0-cost card from the game,” because if you wait, it will get worse (in that case, having to remove a second one).

Or Experience Unbound, which will have Razorface recover 3 health, so maybe purge that one before you damage him?

One (unpictured) requires you to have an attack that does damage to Razorface actually kill a victim in his space instead.

Which can be hard since after the Panic phase, there’s often not a victim in his space!

So some are more difficult than others.

Some require victims, so if there are no victims on the board (or like the “unlock your ultimate ability,” which you can’t do if there aren’t enough victims left), you can discard that affliction and draw another one.

No getting out of things that easily.

(not to mention the fact that, if you end up going through the Affliction deck and can’t draw a new one, you lose!)

Otherwise he’s a basic killer, moving and killing victims as his killer action, which can be pretty easy to do in the Hellscape (more on that later).

His Dark Power cards can be especially dangerous.

Two of them deal with afflictions, one by giving you another one (yikes!) and one by making it dangerous to purge (though if you haven’t damaged him yet, then at least he can’t heal).

Helleport is awful just because he’s always going to be killing somebody if there are any victims left.

Doesn’t matter if they’re out of range.

Infinite Despair sounds really horrible, gaining at least one Horror each turn, and possibly two.

Good-bye, extra dice!

As for the finales, they are equally brutal.

I had Taste Our Pleasures come out on a turn where I had a Retaliate and a Guard, and 2 hit points left. I rolled a 1, which ended my game.

I Feast on Your Pain is really bad because of the double attack.

Given Razorface’s killer actions normally, along with his Terror cards, it’s very likely that bloodlust is already going to be maxed, so that effect won’t happen.

Razorface’s Minor Dark Powers aren’t too bad, especially if you can easily purge an affliction, as both are nullified once that happens.

The Pain of Judgment is the worst as long as there are victims on the board, since he kills them pretty easily.

However, The Pain of Salvation doesn’t hit you too hard unless you are trying to Focus (a double star Focus success gives you 2 time).

I didn’t mind these too much, and I was able to quickly get rid of them.

Other Terror cards are nasty, though.

The above cards make managing Horror really difficult.

Three Horror or a new affliction? That’s a tough choice.

Gaining Horror and discarding Focus or Distraction cards? Yikes!

Others don’t involve Horror but keep Razorface relentless in his quest to kill people.

Even with that, though, two of them will give you time!

And it’s not the Action phase, so that Minor Dark Power won’t hurt you.

Sadistic Manifestation can really make your day bad, though, if the farthest victim from him has a buddy.

Two attacks?

All in all, Razorface is a cool new villain, pretty basic except the afflictions, and it’s very easy for him to rack up the kills very quickly.

The afflictions make him a bit more difficult, but also a bit more fun as you have other considerations as well.

Depending on the afflictions, it can really change your game and how you try to do things.

For example, having the affliction where you need to unlock your ultimate ability before purging will make saving victims even more important, and in some locations, that can cause a lot of hassle and pain.

I spent so much time trying to do that, we were almost at the finale before I could really think about trying to kill him.

He’s an interesting puzzle.

How about the Hellscape?

This one is super weird, but in a good way!

The location board has some open spaces.

What fills those empty spaces are the double-sided Hellscape tiles, that not only are randomly placed, but also move about randomly during the game.

The Setup cards will give you four victims to place in the “always there” spaces on the board.

Then, once you’ve randomized the Hellscape tiles, you place one victim in each room on those tiles as well.

One interesting aspect of the Hellscape is the Nexus in the center of the board, which is both an exit location and a search location.

You can do both at the same time!

As you can see, the Hellscape tiles will have certain paths cut off, making getting around incredibly difficult at times.

Or incredibly awesome if the killer is trapped somewhere that has no victims.

Or incredibly tedious if you are cut off, like above.

However, that’s where the new action card comes in.

Hellshift will let you move tiles as you wish, either by swapping two of them or changing them all up completely.

So you can cut the killer off instead!

The problem with all of this, especially with a killer that moves and kills each turn at least once, is that there are always going to be victims very close to him, unless you’re lucky enough to have him totally cut off from everybody.

In my games with Razorface, bloodlust skyrocketed very quickly.

Each turn, during the Upkeep phase, you roll two dice with the symbols that are on the Hellscape tiles.

If you roll two of the same, you flip that tile over (with the figures on it maintaining which room(s) they are in).

If you roll two different ones, then those two tiles switch, which may be really good or really bad.

Nothing is more annoying than having some victims saved up to go into an exit space next turn and then the Hellscape tile you’re on switches and now you’re not connected to anything useful.

Hence the Hellshift card.

I do have to say that the item cards in the Hellscape are super cool.

Some weapons which are good, of course.

The Ancient Sword (which sadly I never got to use because I ended up having to discard it the one time I had it) will reduce Horror every time you hit.

Yes!

The Haladie is nice if you can get the killer on a Hellscape tile, doing an extra damage for that.

What really makes the Hellscape great, though, are the whips.

Not that I’m into that kind of thing, but in the game, they are great!

The three Discipline whips can really help you, at the cost of your health, but hopefully you have a way to heal up.

Right?

Discipline of Cruelty is amazing, doing one damage (at the cost of two of your health) to anybody on the board, wherever they are.

It’s a high price, but can come in very handy at times.

Even better, though, is the Discipline of Courage, which costs you a health but you reduce Horror.

How is that anything but good?

There’s also a handy vehicle that will let you navigate those pesky moving Hellscape tiles.

Though it has to stay on a Hellscape tile, so I hope you have some movement to get off of that tile.

The good thing is that victims can come with you on your journey.

Other item cards are more situational, but can still help you.

Preventing Horror gain is never a bad thing, and neither is healing! Especially if you’ve been disciplining yourself.

Two items can gain you time, though that can be bad with that particular affliction.

Let’s talk about the event cards now, especially the special victims.

The Masochistic Peon can be very helpful to you, and not just because he can heal you (though that is good, but sad for him).

He’s cool because he can take up the killer’s time if he’s not doing that much damage (i.e. it’s early on with low bloodlust).

Of course, if he comes out late, he could die very easily in one shot, but at least you’re not penalized for that.

Sadistic Seeker, on the other hand, is a pain in the ass.

You lose health if you are in the same space as him in the Upkeep phase.

So if you’re going to save him, do it all in one go.

Or you can make sure he gets in the killer’s way and reduce Horror by 4, if you’re in his space.

That could work, but it will take much planning.

The Wretch is just annoying, costing you time every time he moves.

But if you can get him close to an exit space, you can reduce horror and heal one, which is nice.

Other events have the usual “some good, some bad” effects.

Delight in Pain lets you heal in a specific search location, but Endless Suffering damages you when you search in a different location.

Barrier of Blood affects the Nexus, making it either a search location or an exit, but no longer both.

Torture Chambers just suck if the victims end up in them

How about the Terror cards?

Lots of events, actually.

Only one in the ones I took a picture of, but it seemed that a bunch of events came out in my game (though part of that is because one of Razorface’s bloodlust increase effects is an Event card)

Some add new victims on Hellscape tiles while others move them around and then have the Killer go after somebody.

The others are of similar bent.

I really enjoyed the Hellscape. I love the tiles and how even the setup can be so much different each time you play, and not just because of the Setup card.

However, victims are going to be very close to the killer, most likely, so the killing spree will start quickly.

Because of the randomness of the tiles and the dice when moving them, this is probably one of the most random locations in the game, even beyond just the normal stuff you have to deal with.

Thankfully they’ve given you a way to deal with it, with the Hellshift card.

The Hellscape is a top notch location that I’d love to try other killers in (Razorface is just brutal in it, though I did beat him the first time!).

How about the Final Girls that come with this film?

Christie is nice when you get the “unlock your ultimate ability” affliction, only requiring four victims to be saved.

The bonuses are pretty standard, though Kenzie has two where she can move a space.

That can make rescuing multiple victims in a turn a lot easier.

Their ultimate abilities are decent but not awesome.

Christie’s ability lets you delay the bad stuff, drawing two Terror cards and shuffling the one you choose not to face back into the deck.

However, by the time you unlock your ultimate, how many Terror cards will be left?

Handy at times, but incredibly situational, though saving additional victims having you move one space is actually very useful.

Kenzie’s ability is better in a way, as it lets you take an entire stack (well, both, as I’ve never seen more than two Action cards with the same name) of Action cards by only paying the initial Time cost.

Saving additional victims reducing Horror is actually very good too.

They’re not bad, but they’re nothing to write home about.

Though I think I’ve been spoiled by the Green Terror final girls and how amazing they are.

Put this all together and you have a pretty good feature film, though the final girls themselves are probably the weakness in the bunch.

The switching up of the Hellscape tiles in the Hellscape really makes the location play well, as long as you don’t mind the extra randomness.

And how much can you mind it if you’re already playing the incredibly random Final Girl in the first place?

Razorface is a fairly basic killer besides the afflictions, which are a fun addition to him.

He’s fine and I enjoyed him, but that’s about it.

Like I said above, an interesting puzzle.

I would say this is a good feature film, but it doesn’t need to be one of your early ones.

And if you are picking or choosing between them, then it’s probably not necessary unless you love the Hellraiser theme.

I’m happy I have it, though.

(This review was written after 3 plays)